Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Tina JOE BIDEN’s campaign pollsters are working against each other on an issue the White House would just as well completely avoid. Two of the president’s top 2020 advisers— JOHN ANZALONE and CELINDA LAKE — are working on opposite sides for a ballot amendment to try to replace Minneapolis’ police department with a “department of public safety” — an effort that opponents have labeled the “defund amendment.” Biden and his team have been clear: While they back police reforms, they do not support the “defund the police” movement and think it’s a politically toxic message. And, in this case, Anzalone appears to be in their ideological camp. “We don’t usually discuss clients but I can confirm we work for a group who supports the mayor’s re-election and opposes the defund referendum and supports many of the Biden Administration recommendations on how local governments can use federal support to improve public safety,” Anzalone told us in a text message. Another person at Anzalone’s firm, ALG Research, was more blunt. “We support a whole host of reforms to policing but we think there should be police departments,” this person said, arguing that the amendment passing would be a disaster for Democrats nationally because “you’d start seeing ‘Minneapolis just abolished police and it's coming to Democratic city near you.'” On the opposite side of the amendment debate is Lake, who also polled for the Biden campaign and who is currently listed on her website as a senior adviser to the president. She confirmed to West Wing Playbook that she is working for Yes 4 Minneapolis but declined to comment further. The Yes 4 Minneapolis group has paid Lake’s company, Lake Research Partners, $33,599.95 thus far to conduct consulting and research, according to a financial disclosure report filed this week. MATT BARRETO , another Biden pollster and a senior adviser for the White House approved nonprofit, Building Back Together, told West Wing Playbook in an email that Lake has “long been an important researcher in criminal justice reform.” “Pollsters regularly have a wide variety and range of clients,” Barreto said. “I have no doubt that Celinda is delivering the highest quality data and message strategy, no matter who her client is.” The face-off between the two Biden hands comes in the city where a police officer murdered GEORGE FLOYD last year, setting off a nationwide movement for criminal justice and police reform. It is the latest sign that the questions sparked by that movement remain unsettled and that the fight amongst Democrats over the future of policing is not over. If voters pass the amendment this November, it would eliminate rules that require certain percentages of the city budget go to policing and require a minimum number of police officers. It would then create a new public safety department that includes police “if necessary.” The goal is to shift the city’s response to crime away from police and towards social services. The language in the amendment says the new agency would employ a “comprehensive public health approach.” The campaign to pass the amendment is careful to avoid the “defund the police” slogan that divided Democrats last year — a slogan that Republicans used as a battering ram during the election, to varying degrees of success. But STEVE CRAMER, president and CEO of the Minneapolis Downtown Council and a former city council member who is working against the ballot amendment, said it was plainly that. “There’s no question about it,” said Cramer, who is working with All of Mpls, a political action committee seeking to kill the amendment that hired Anzalone's firm. “I’m sure that this pollster you’re referring to is telling them not to talk about it in those terms because that’s not all that popular, but without a question, that is the underlying philosophy of organizations that are promoting this idea.” Asked what their simple message would be, Yes 4 Minneapolis spokesperson JANAÉ BATES said “the slogan is that it's removing a barrier so that the people of Minneapolis can have a safe city.” Asked about Biden’s pollsters squaring off against each other, White House spokesperson MIKE GWIN did not say if Biden supports or opposes the Minneapolis amendment but wrote that “President Biden opposes defunding the police – he’s giving them more money through the Rescue Plan to ensure they have the resources they need to effectively protect and serve their communities.” Do you work in the Biden administration? Are you in touch with the White House? Are you IRAN CAMPANA? We want to hear from you — and we’ll keep you anonymous: westwingtips@politico.com. Or if you want to stay really anonymous send us a tip through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram, or Whatsapp here. | 
