Michael Bloomberg moved a bit closer to actually joining the race for the Democratic presidential nomination on Thursday. But he’s still being coy about following through.
The billionaire former New York City mayor filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission, which allows him to create a campaign committee and to begin raising and spending money for a 2020 presidential bid.
Bloomberg has already filed to put his name on the primary ballots in three states: Alabama, Arkansas and — as of Wednesday — Texas. This indicates that he’d skip the earliest states, like Iowa and New Hampshire, and begin a serious campaign only for Super Tuesday, Mar. 3, when voters in 15 states and other zones will go to the primary polls.
Either way — whether he adds his name to what’s still an unusually long roster of other Democratic candidates, or not — Bloomberg’s billions, and his willingness to use them, will make him a force in next year’s campaign.
“The 77-year-old Bloomberg is one of the richest people in the world. His estimated net worth exceeds $50 billion, and he’s already committed to spending more than $100 million to help defeat President Donald Trump,” reports the Associated Press.
A substantial portion of that spending will go to voter registration.
“Bloomberg is rolling out plans to spend an estimated $15 million to $20 million on a voter registration drive designed to weaken President Donald Trump’s reelection chances in five battleground states,” the AP reported Wednesday.
Those states include Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and North Carolina, all of which Trump won by narrow margins in 2016. The fifth is Texas, long a solidly red state, but one where Democrats are placing their hopes on demographic changes.
“The new effort will target 500,000 voters from traditionally underrepresented groups that typically lean Democratic, including African Americans, Latinos, Asians, young voters and those living in some rural communities,” the AP says.
Registering half a million voters is “a big, hairy, audacious goal,” Bloomberg ally and Madison WI Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway told the AP, adding: “I think it’s great.”
But mounting a presidential bid so late in the run-up to 2020 would be a formidable challenge.
“Should he announce a run publicly, Bloomberg will face a herculean task,” says the Daily Beast, noting that he is far from a lifelong Democrat, having been both a Republican and an independent in the past. He only re-joined the Democratic Party last year.
“Bloomberg has already taken steps to attempt to repair his image among segments of the Democratic electorate likely to suspiciously eye an ultra-wealthy business executive,” the Daily Beast says.
One problem in particular: Bloomberg’s anti-crime “stop-and-frisk” policy when he was New York’s mayor, which led to police abuse of blacks and Latinos. He apologized last weekend at an appearance in Brooklyn.
“I didn’t understand back then the full impact that stops were having on the black and Latino communities,” Bloomberg said. “I was totally focused on saving lives — but as we know: good intentions aren’t good enough.”
