Pete Buttigieg bounces into New Hampshire primary
Pete Buttigieg surges into contention in next week’s New Hampshire primary after his surprise strong performance in Iowa.
Former mayor Pete Buttigieg is surging into contention in next week’s New Hampshire Democratic primary after his surprise strong performance in Iowa.
A new poll shows 38-year-old Mr Buttigieg has jumped eight points to 19 per cent support in New Hampshire since this week’s Iowa caucus, leapfrogging his rivals to be second only to the frontrunner in that state, Bernie Sanders with 25 per cent.
The news came as Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez called for an immediate recanvass of the Iowa result to ensure public confidence in the outcome after the vote tally was crippled by technology problems. Days after the Iowa caucus, the first Democratic presidential contest in the nation, a formal winner has still not been announced, with 97 per cent of the vote counted.
Even so, Senator Sanders claimed victory in Iowa on Friday (AEDT) despite Mr Buttigieg still clinging to a lead of 26.2 per cent to 26.1 per cent for Senator Sanders in state delegate equivalents, the traditional measure of who wins the state. But Senator Sanders claimed victory because he had 6000 more votes across the state.
“And when 6000 more people come out for you in an election than your nearest opponent, we here in northern New England call that a victory,” he said.
Mr Buttigieg’s strong performance in Iowa has given his campaign a major bounce ahead of the New Hampshire primary next Wednesday (AEDT).
“This creates an amazing wind at our sails and what this shows is we have what it takes to win,” said Mr Buttigieg, who is campaigning in New Hampshire. “We are the momentum candidate … this is about turning the page, leaving the politics of the past.”
The latest Boston Globe/Suffolk University tracking poll for New Hampshire found Senator Sanders leading on 25 per cent from Mr Buttigieg on 19 per cent followed by Joe Biden on 12 per cent and Elizabeth Warren on 11 per cent. Mr Biden has fallen six percentage points and Senator Warren two points after their disappointing performance in Iowa.
A new Monmouth poll showed Senator Sanders leading with 24 per cent from Mr Buttigieg on 20 per cent, Mr Biden on 17 per cent, Senator Warren on 13 per cent and Amy Klobuchar on 9 per cent. The fallout continued from the Democrats’ embarrassing technology meltdown that prevented any results being released on caucus night, as Mr Perez called for a recanvass of the vote.
“In light of the problems that have emerged in the implementation of the delegate selection plan and in order to assure public confidence in the results, I am calling on the Iowa Democratic Party to immediately begin a recanvass,” he tweeted.
Such a move would require an audit of worksheets from the nearly 1700 caucus precincts across Iowa and could lead to amended results.
The 78-year-old Senator Sanders, who easily won the 2016 New Hampshire primary and who comes from the neighbouring state of Vermont, urged his supporters to come out in force to help him gather momentum in the 11- person race for the Democratic nomination.
“If we win here in New Hampshire, and I think we have a good shot at it, it will have a profound impact on future primaries and caucuses,” Senator Sanders said.
Mr Biden has assumed a more aggressive posture in New Hampshire after his disappointing fourth place in Iowa, a result the former vice-president has described as a “gut punch”.
In recent days his campaign speeches have attacked the two frontrunners, Mr Buttigieg and Senator Sanders. He has warned that Senator Sanders’s description of himself as a democratic socialist would make it harder for all Democrat candidates because they would all be branded with that label by the President.
“Donald Trump is desperate to pin the label of socialist, socialist, socialist on our party,” he said. “We can’t let him do that.”
Mr Biden also criticised Mr Buttigieg for his lack of experience, contrasting it with his record as vice-president and as a longtime senator. Mr Buttigieg was mayor of South Bend, a town of about 100,000 people in Indiana.
He is a gay, married military veteran and Rhodes scholar and if elected, he would become the nation’s youngest-ever president.
Cameron Stewart is also US contributor for Sky News Australia
Syria says seven civilians killed in Damascus strike
The Isareli airstrike targeted a building used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Bad Bali tourists face life ban
Law-breaking tourists in Bali could be banned from Indonesia for 20 years – or even life – under strict new provisions to appease rising local anger over unruly visitors.