A top Iowa aide toTom Steyer resigned Friday, a day after it was revealed he had privately offered campaign contributions to local politicians in exchange for endorsing Steyer’s White House bid, the AP reports.

Washington Post: “Bloomberg’s decision, fueled by his dissatisfaction with the race’s leading moderate, former vice president Joe Biden, and worries about the rise of liberal leader Elizabeth Warren, injected renewed volatility into the primary race just three months before voting begins with the Iowa caucuses.”

“Names being floated as potential candidates include former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick and former U.S. attorney general Eric H. Holder Jr. Former secretary of state John F. Kerry, the party’s 2004 nominee, also has been mentioned, although people close to him insist that he will not enter the race.”

“The party’s 2016 nominee, Hillary Clinton, was fielding calls in recent days about whether to get into the race, some close to her said. While it is still unlikely that she will run, some allies have gone so far as to talk about a potential pathway that would bypass Iowa and New Hampshire and focus on making a stand in South Carolina.”

New York Times: “Many of their campaigns have griped privately about the attention and cash directed toward Mr. Buttigieg. They say he is too inexperienced to be electable and that his accomplishments don’t merit the outsize appeal he has with elite donors and voters. His public punditry about the race has prompted eye rolls from older rivals who view him as a know-it-all.”

“And in a field where most candidates find themselves strapped for cash, they snipe at his ability to raise more than anyone else in the primary field except for Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.”

“More than a dozen participants in the Democratic campaign — including rival candidates and campaign aides — spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss their views about Mr. Buttigieg candidly. They conveyed an annoyance at the McKinsey consultant certitude with which Mr. Buttigieg analyzes and makes pronouncements about the primary.”

“Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Friday made the first trip of her life to Iowa, and helped draw what U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign is calling the largest crowd in the state so far in the 2020 cycle,” the Iowa City Press-Citizen reports.

“More than 2,400 people filled an Iowa Western Community College arena to hear Ocasio-Cortez, a political celebrity who recently endorsed Sanders’ presidential campaign, and Sanders himself.”

“Michael Bloomberg is drawing up a strategy to build campaign staff in states that hold March 2020 primary contests, as he leans toward entering the Democratic presidential race despite a difficult path to the nomination,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Other Democratic presidential campaigns have been more invested in the first few states to vote, including Iowa and New Hampshire, which cast ballots in early February.”

“Presidential candidates rarely begin their campaigns in Alabama, but in Michael Bloomberg’s case, the calendar forced him to do so.,” the Montgomery Advertiser reports.

“The former New York City mayor Friday filed to run in the Democratic presidential primary in March, marking a late entry into an already crowded field. Friday was the deadline for Democratic candidates to qualify.”

“Navy Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson is considering a run for Congress in Texas,” Roll Call reports.

“Jackson was the chief White House physician in 2018, when President Trump nominated him to be Veterans Affairs secretary. But Jackson withdrew his nomination from consideration amid allegations that he abused alcohol and mishandled prescription drugs, although he said at the time the charges were ‘completely false and fabricated.'”

ABC News: “Mixed in among the hundreds, sometimes thousands, of Iowans who attend a single Pete Buttigieg rally is an important voting bloc in the state that could help the South Bend, Indiana, mayor keep his momentum and produce a solid finish next year: older voters.”