Bloomberg focusing on delegate-rich California instead of early states

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- With early voting underway almost two weeks from the California primary, presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on his campaign to win big on Super Tuesday, focusing on delegate-rich states like California.

Eyewitness News is taking a look inside the Bloomberg campaign's downtown Los Angeles operations as he plans to open 20 offices across California.

The former New York City mayor visited Compton recently, choosing to campaign in California on the day of the Iowa caucus.

"There's something going on in Iowa I heard," Bloomberg said to supporters, tongue-in-cheek, in Compton. "In fact, that's where all the other Democratic candidates are. In fact, they've spent the past few months in Iowa and other early primary states and almost no time in California. But one in every nine delegates that will decide the Democratic nomination are here."

The former New York City mayor is worth $60 billion and has already spent over $300 million on campaign ads. It's a strategy that appears to be paying off as Bloomberg is showing gains in polls for California and nationwide.

"In NYC, we created 175,000 units of affordable housing so I've put forward an ambitious housing plan for this city and for the whole country and we're gonna help working families afford to pay the rent," Bloomberg said. "We'll help more people avoid eviction and homelessness."

Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has endorsed Bloomberg.

"He's got the resources to really take on Donald Trump," Villaraigosa said. "He's going to make investments in hard-to-reach communities like where we just came from, Fresno in the Central Valley. Communities like the Latino community."