In the interview, Peters added that electability — a central pillar of Bloomberg’s late-starting campaign — also contributed to his decision to endorse a candidate a week before the rest of the Democrats compete in the Iowa caucuses.

Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.). | House Television via AP

“All the polling shows that he’s one of the two or three most-likely candidates to beat Donald Trump” and the most likely to beat Trump in swing states, Peters said.

Bloomberg is banking on muddled results from the first four contests — where he is either not competing or not on the ballot at all. Boosted by more than $260 million in TV and digital ad spending, he has shot up to double digits in national surveys, leapfrogging Pete Buttigieg and hiring scores of aides as he prepares for his Super Tuesday debut. At the same time, several of his earliest endorsers praised the billionaire for committing to keep hundreds of aides in the field working against Trump even if Bloomberg himself isn’t the Democratic nominee.

An environmental lawyer who came up through San Diego politics before flipping a seat for Democrats in 2012, Peters is a vice chair of the pro-business group New Democrats, whose members huddled with Bloomberg on his recent visit to Capitol Hill. Peters, whose longtime chief of staff, MaryAnne Pintar, is a regional political director for Bloomberg in California, has warned Democrats against nominating a progressive like Sens. Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren, saying their policies would make them more vulnerable to Trump in November.

“I do believe we need an alternative to Sen. Sanders and Sen. Warren,” Peters told POLITICO last week, after the Bloomberg meeting with colleagues in Washington but before he formally decided on an endorsement.

“I don’t think that those are candidates who will win a general election. And I also disagree with them more on policy.”