The following column is the opinion and analysis of the writer.
The stagnation of the Democratic Primary claimed another victim last week. The sidelined, consisting of western governors, big-state senators and the current mayor of America’s largest city, welcomed Sen. Kamala Harris of California to their ranks as she dropped out of the contest. Many capable and well-established individuals have bowed out at this stage. And yet, the mayor of Indiana’s fourth largest city is not just surviving; Pete Buttigieg is surging.
Mayor Pete, as he is known, has risen because of an open-door media strategy that has guaranteed his campaign press attention. His moderate disposition allowed him to be positioned as an alternative to former Vice President Joe Biden, but unlike others, the Buttigieg campaign realized the key to wooing would-be Biden voters was not to trash him, but to attack the more leftish candidates, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders, in a more effective manner than Biden would or could do himself. He has significant deficiencies in multiple key demographics, but that the mayor of South Bend, a city of just over 100,000 people, is within striking distance of first place is beyond remarkable.
At the same time, that cannot be right. 100,000 people? The city of Tucson had over 520,000 at the 2010 census count. Would anybody suggest former Mayor Jonathan Rothschild run for president?
In 2015, Buttigieg’s most recent general election contest, he won with just 8,515 votes. By comparison, more than five times as many people turned out in the 2019 Democratic primary. Tucson’s political structure is more complex and important to the national electorate than South Bend, but the idea of either Rothschild or current Mayor Regina Romero running for president seems far-fetched at best. Though, they would have at least created and executed a city budget that eclipses a $1.5 billion. Buttigieg’s budget reached just $358 million, according to the city’s website.
While South Bend’s budget is small compared to Tucson’s, it is infinitesimally smaller than the budget he would like to have veto authority over. The federal government’s spending for fiscal year 2020 will reach $4.746 trillion.
Nobody is doubting whether a President Pete would add and subtract correctly, but would he be prepared to grab a hold of an executive branch and guide a Congress toward action as well as a potential president who has significant governing experience from anywhere beside a small college town? Given this precarious political time, voters should assess not just whether Buttigieg understands the moment, but whether he would know how to utilize the executive branch to accomplish what needs to be done to stem climate change and reverse income inequality over the next decade.
The truth is, he is not a bad choice. There is a reason Buttigieg has leapfrogged other candidates who seem to have more plausible nomination paths, and a mayoral perspective in the White House would not be a bad idea. But if Buttigieg is viable, then the net of potential candidates will only get larger with each cycle. As of now, Rothschild and Romero have both won tougher, more complex races, both fit the red-state mayor dynamic and, like Buttigieg, would themselves break “glass ceilings” as the first Jewish or Latina president.
But, do we think that stark of an elevation in responsibility is what we deserve right now? Lincoln needed to succeed Buchanan and FDR had to follow Hoover. Is a small-town mayor the answer to Trump? I would not bet on it.
