A weird Harvard-Harris poll released Nov. 1 showed Bloomberg ahead of Harris and Buttigieg

[highplainsdem]

in their hypothetical race in which they had Bloomberg, John Kerry, and Hillary Clinton all entering the race.


I didn't post about it because it was so weird, but now I'm wondering if it was a factor in Bloomberg's decision to run.

The PDF is almost impossible to read

https://harvardharrispoll.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/HHP_October19_Topline_RegisteredVoters.pdf

so I'm reading the results from 538's page, the polls for Nov. 1:

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-primary-d/


Biden 19%
Clinton 18%
Warren 13%
Sanders 12%
Kerry 8%
Bloomberg 6%
Harris & Booker 3%
Buttigieg & O'Rourke & Yang 2%
all others 1% or less, including Steyer at 1%


So Bloomberg could have looked at that poll and wondered if he'd enter the race with only Biden, Warren and Sanders ahead of him.

As I said, the poll looks strange to me. I don't believe for a second that Bloomberg would outpoll Buttigieg and Harris.

But he has this poll to encourage him.

And he's seen Steyer polling better than Harris in some early primary states, thanks to all his spending on ads there. Spending that Bloomberg can easily match.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. How could it possibly be a valid poll if it includes former candidates who aren't running?

[highplainsdem]

2. Just a speculative poll like those including Michelle Obama. But it still could have encouraged

a billionaire looking for an excuse to run.

[defacto7]

3. Utterly useless information.

Talk about manipulating data...