Bloomberg campaign opens offices in Mass. as other candidates focus on Nevada, South Carolina

BROOKLINE, Mass. — A day after the New Hampshire primaries, most democratic presidential campaigns are shifting their focus to South Carolina and Nevada. But one candidate in particular is focusing on Massachusetts.

The Mike Bloomberg campaign is opening four of six campaign offices throughout the state on Wednesday, including its Massachusetts headquarters in Brookline.

The move is a unique investment into a state that typically doesn’t see much attention from candidates this early on. However, that’s part of Mike Bloomberg’s strategy of focusing on the states that the other candidates haven’t gotten to yet.

Bloomberg’s Massachusetts headquarters is a massive space that will soon be filled with hundreds of people as the campaign announces its state political chair later Wednesday evening.

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But the Bloomberg campaign isn’t waiting until Super Tuesday to sway Massachusetts voters.

“We’re taking this state very seriously,” said Jordan Overstreet, a Massachusetts State Director for the Bloomberg Campaign. “It’s very delegate-rich and we think there’s a lot of opportunity here.”

When asked why the campaign’s headquarters were stationed in Brookline, Overstreet pointed to the town’s location within the state.

“It’s very centrally located to multiple districts,” he said. “We divided it by congressional district and this place is very centrally located to be able to hit population centers in three of the congressional districts.”

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“I mean what Mike Bloomberg is doing is testing unknown waters,” said Erin O’Brien, a politics professor from UMass Boston.

O’Brien added that the big investment in Massachusetts shows a lot of confidence on Bloomberg’s part and that it’s a move that could pay off.

“In all likelihood Massachusetts is going to go for Elizabeth Warren, even though she’s struggling right now,” she said. “He sort of made the decision not to play well in the first four states, and so what that means is he can play in those other states that other people haven’t entered in at all.”

On Tuesday, the Bloomberg campaign opened an office in Springfield.

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