THE LEDE

Mike Bloomberg continues to spend ungodly amounts of money in his bid for the presidency, and in the meantime is sucking up a whole lot of oxygen around him. He is running, as Rosie Gray put it, “the Death Star of presidential campaigns.” Even if you wanted to stop talking about Mike Bloomberg, you can’t, because Mike Bloomberg is everywhere. His ads are always on, he’s hired everyone, and he will even be on the debate stage for the first time tonight. To quote Rosie again: “Welcome to the Bloomborg. Resistance is futile.”

Expect this to come up: Bloomberg referred to transgender people as “it” and “some guy wearing a dress” as recently as last year, Dominic Holden scooped yesterday.

“Phase 5”: So where does all this leave Mayor Pete? Henry Gomez, Ruby Cramer, and Molly Hensley-Clancy took a deep dive into what happens now to Pete Buttigieg’s campaign. Bernie Sanders is still the frontrunner, but Buttigieg had a stunning few weeks between Iowa and New Hampshire. Now comes the real test — and the real issues for his campaign. They need a lot of money to keep going, and as the Nevada caucus and South Carolina primary approach, Buttigieg needs to prove that he can win over voters of color.

For the record: No, Lis Smith was not running a sock puppet account supporting Pete Buttigieg.

Hi, hello, how are you: You may have noticed that I am not Ben Smith. He is leaving, forget about him. I’m Kate Nocera, the DC bureau chief for BuzzFeed News, filling in on the newsletter this week, it’s nice to meet you. Send all praise and constructive criticism to kate.nocera@buzzfeed.com.

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Jon Ralston

Jon Ralston is the editor and founder of the Nevada Independent (an excellent publication) and the go-to guy if you want to figure out what’s happening in the oft-misunderstood state. He’ll also be one of the moderators at tonight's debate. We texted on a packed Sunday as he edited stories for his site and prepped for the debate.

KATE NOCERA: Hey Jon- it's Kate from BuzzFeed News! Thanks so much for doing this. To start, can you send me a selfie and tell me what you're working on today? IMAGE: Selfie of Jon Ralston.

JON RALSTON: Besides how to say the name? Here's what really annoys me -- and many national journalists are my friends and most are so good -- but it irritates me when people ask about what issues Nevadans care about, as if we are aliens. Or all live in the hotels or brothels. This is a diverse, urban/rural state, quirky as hell, but a better reflection of America than most places. KATE NOCERA: You mentioned some of the things that make it unique- would that also be part of the pitch of why it should vote first in 2024? Do you think it should? JON RALSTON: I'm biased, obviously. But a swing state with a diverse population -- and great weather and hotels and food -- why the hell not?

KATE NOCERA: Fair point. How worried should we be that the caucus is going to be like Iowa? Seeing a few articles like this. IMAGE: Article screenshot with title reading, ''A complete disaster: Fears grow over potential Nevada caucus malfunction.

JON RALSTON: I saw that piece. It seemed sensationalized and reported from a distance to me. However, the party folks here are worried because what happened in Iowa did not stay in Iowa. They had to change their whole approach, scrap technology and try to reduce the margin for error. I have watched the state Dems here for 30 years. For the last 15 or so, they have had the most talented operatives I have worked with -- they are experts in field and data. So if anyone can pull this off, they can. But my guess, as I have said, is there are rabbits feet strewn all over party HQ. It's a volunteer-run caucus, with its own invitation for confusion. They have never done early voting before, so no one knows how that will affect turnout.

I thought the Iowa Effect would cause a lot of people to vote early and the first day indicates that is so. (There are four days of early voting.) They were unprepared for the long lines, which does not look good. But the backup plans worked and most people stayed and voted -- and then whined. But miles to go before they can sleep -- Caucus Day next weekend could be a nightmare or it could be low turnout and go smoothly. Remember, though: Some campaigns and the Republicans have it in their interest to make it look bad. Bottom line: The folks running this are the best in the business. But there are so many wild cards that it is as if a poker deck had seven jokers in it. (Damn, I used a gambling metaphor -- big no-no.)

KATE NOCERA: I would be remiss to not ask you about Harry Reid. How's he doing? Any insight into what he thinks of the current slate of candidates? JON RALSTON: He caucuses uncommitted, said he has friends in the race. His mind seems quite sharp despite his illness. I bet he is very glad he said he would not endorse before the caucus. If I had to guess -- and that's all it would be -- I'd say he might have gone with Biden.

KATE NOCERA: Which makes it interesting Bernie's campaign manager used to be a Reid guy (Faiz Shakir). Finally- you don't have to give anything away but as far as the debate goes, what new things do you want to hear from the candidates? How do you get them to make news at this point? JON RALSTON: Yep. And Reid has former staffers all over the race. His former Spork is Warren's main comms person, for instance. But Faiz another's being there is why I think Bernie remains the favorite: He almost won Nevada in 2016 with a ragtag group of buffoons running the show. Now he has political pros and his people are the most fervent supporters of any of any candidate.

On the debate: I am always frustrated by debate formats -- too structured, too little time for candidates to really speak, including to each other. Having said that, I think none of them have really addressed issues that are unique to Western states, so I will keep that in mind. I really think debates can be useful to show what happens when a candidate gets knocked off talking points, when he or she has to think on his or her feet. It can reveal a lot. KATE NOCERA: Jon- I know you're super busy thanks so much for doing this! Good luck this week. JON RALSTON: My pleasure, Kate.

ON THE TRAIL WITH BUZZFEED NEWS

Molly Hensley-Clancy spoke with the pollster who dropped Elizabeth Warren from a question about general election match-ups.

Al Gore has a new campaign to register voters focused on climate change, Zahra Hirji reports. The pitch is simple: to avoid climate disaster, you have to beat Donald Trump.

From Nidhi Prakash: Nevada’s powerful culinary union decided to endorse no one, but is decidedly against Medicare-for-all.

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