In less than two months since he announced his candidacy for the Democrat Party’s nomination in November, Michael “Mike” Bloomberg has spent $200 million in advertising, almost as much as his rivals spent during the same period combined. In addition, he has spent millions hiring hundreds of staffers in key states, planning on building enough success that he’ll be able to control the voting in the second ballot in Milwaukee in July.
That’s been his plan all along. He’s not running for president of the United States. He’s running to garner enough votes to keep Joe Biden from winning on the first ballot.
A Bloomberg campaign staffer told the New York Post last November that “Mike” would spend “whatever it takes to ensure that Donald Trump is not re-elected.” His campaign manager, Kevin Sheekey, confirmed the strategy, telling NBC that “He is dedicated to getting Trump out of the White House.”
Just how does he plan to do that? He recognizes that a 77-year-old man, even with bags of money, isn’t going to win in November. But with bags of money, he can determine who will have the best chance to do so in November.
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First, he must challenge Joe Biden over the “middle ground” that he currently occupies. Second, he must perform well in enough of the 14 states holding primaries on March 3 to be considered, if not a viable candidate, at least one with influence.
Third, he must siphon off enough votes from Biden to keep him from winning the nomination on the first ballot in July in Milwaukee. If he is able to do that, then he has, for all intents and purposes, won. Behind the scenes, Bloomberg has been creating chits that he plans on cashing in on that second ballot. He has already spent $10 million in donations to House Democrats, many of whom will show up in Milwaukee as “super delegates” who will be allowed to vote in the second round. He spent $65 million helping Democrats during the 2016 election, and another $100 million in 2018 helping the Democrats flip the House. Since 2011 he has thrown $6 million into Virginia through his favorite charity, Everytown for Gun Safety, providing the cash needed to flip 15 of the 22 seats in the state house and senate to turn Virginia dark blue.
These are chits he plans to cash in during the July convention. As Liz Peek, a conservative writer and commentator who appears often on Fox News, noted, “All [Bloomberg] needs to do is gather enough delegates on Super Tuesday to be a credible contestant and … force the party to a brokered convention … and then to call in some favors. Lots of favors.”
As political guru Karl Rove noted, “Unless someone gets huge momentum with big early wins, the race could remain fractured through March, making it mathematically impossible for any candidate to waltz into Milwaukee with a first-ballot majority.”
Peek explains how the process works:
Since Democratic primaries are not winner-take-all, but rather award delegates proportionately, numerous participants will walk away from the many contests with delegates in hand. That makes it tough for any one candidate to secure more than 50 percent of the total on the first ballot.
Bloomberg, through his bags and bags of money, is planning to “help” the party make the right choice in the second ballot. He will call in those favors he has been granting, putting the nomination into the hands of whomever he thinks has the best chance to beat Trump in November.
Who that would be remains an open question. Certainly none of the present contenders. As Andrea Widburg noted in American Thinker, in Milwaukee the Democrats will be “stuck with an old socialist [Sanders], a shrill socialist [Warren], a senile socialist [Biden], a socialist child [Buttigieg], and a free-spending socialist/capitalist fusion with a tin ear [Yang].”
If Bloomberg is able to pull this off, then he’ll be in the position to turn the convention in his direction, suggesting Michelle Obama or Hillary Clinton as feasible alternatives to the fumbling Democrats presently vying for the role. After all, Hillary has name recognition and claims she has beaten Trump once (in the popular vote) and is itching for another go. Michelle Obama might just be a more formidable candidate, being an attractive liberal black woman with a huge following, able to sell millions of copies of her book Becoming and fill stadiums with thousands of adoring fans, neither of which Hillary is able to do.
Bloomberg’s millions are already moving the polling needle. From zero in early November, the latest TheHill/Harris poll, taken just after Christmas, showed Bloomberg at 11 percent, ahead of Buttigieg and tied with Warren.
Photo: AP Images
An Ivy League graduate and former investment advisor, Bob is a regular contributor to The New American primarily on economics and politics. He can be reached at [email protected].
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