Posted on 11/27/2019 1:02:54 PM PST by robowombat
Bloomberg bets 2020 campaign on unprecedented strategy BY JULIA MANCHESTER - 11/27/19 03:32 PM EST
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s unconventional campaign strategy is panning out to be one of riskiest experiments in primary politics, testing the limits of personal wealth and name recognition.
Bloomberg, who officially threw his hat in the Democratic primary ring last week, will not accept donations nor fund his own campaign, automatically disqualifying himself from the primary debates.
The billionaire politician also says he plans to focus on the Super Tuesday states, and won’t compete in the crucial early contest states of Iowa and New Hampshire.
Operatives acknowledge Bloomberg’s game plan is risky, but are not dismissing his chances given that he is backed by his enormous personal wealth.
Bloomberg is worth roughly over $50 billion and has long championed liberal causes like combatting climate change. But he is also a former Republican, an affiliation that is expected to draw scrutiny during the primary.
The former mayor is hoping his history in politics and advocacy on issues such as gun control could be key in building a coalition of moderate and liberal voters.
That's a feat none of the existing candidates in the race have been able to pull off so far in a race that has featured four leading contenders: former Vice President Joe Biden and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg from the party's centrist wing, and Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) from the progressive camp.
Whether Bloomberg can emerge as an alternative without spending time in early states or facing off on the debate stage remains in doubt.
“I think skipping the early states and skipping the debates could definitely be a problem,” veteran Democratic operative David Brock told The Hill.
“Both of those are opportunities to speak more directly to voters.”
Other strategists, however, argue that Bloomberg’s absence from Iowa and New Hampshire may not be critical because of the states’ lack of voter diversity.
“I have to say it'll probably piss people [off] in Iowa, New Hampshire, who are used to almost two years of slavish devotion,” a Democratic strategist told The Hill. “But is it a bad thing to move beyond those small, white, rural, under-representative early states?”
Another former New York City Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, similarly skipped the early states for the most part to focus on Florida and the Super Tuesday states. The strategy ended badly, and he was forced to withdraw after finishing third in the Sunshine State and never even making it to Super Tuesday.
Despite being a billionaire and former mayor of New York, Bloomberg will similarly have to work to put his name out in a number of the Super Tuesday states where he is less known, such as those in the South.
But unlike Giuliani, Bloomberg has deployed a $31 million ad buy across 98 local media markets, as well as on some national cable outlets -- an unprecedented level of spending for a candidate who has just joined the race.
Whether that can be enough remains to be seen. Warren attacked Bloomberg for using "bags and bags of money" to buy his way into the race, while Sanders declared himself "disgusted" by the spending.
“His name ID his significantly less than Biden or Warren or Sanders in any of those states in the middle [of the country] of the South,” Michael Gordon, a Democratic strategist and principal at Group Gordon, said. “His money can help there but he doesn’t have the longstanding credibility."
In order to be competitive in the South, Bloomberg will need to perform well among African-Americans, a potential hurdle given the scrutiny on his record as New York City mayor.
The billionaire this month apologized for his “stop and frisk” policing strategy during his tenure as mayor, saying he did not understand “the full impact that stops were having on the black and Latino communities.”
There are also few signs that Bloomberg has built-in support from other critical Democratic constituencies such as Latinos. Sanders, for example, has avidly courted Latino voters since his 2016 campaign.
“The political reality is, I don't think he will do exceptionally well with Latino voters because I don't think they know who the heck he is," Moe Vela, a Democratic strategist and former adviser in the Clinton and Obama White Houses, told The Hill.
“I’ve never seen Michael Bloomberg do anything to connect with the Latino community,” he continued. “So all of the sudden you’re going to come into Texas and California and Super Tuesday states and you’re going to pump in a bunch of money.”
Bloomberg’s absence on the debate stage could also prove to be a hurdle in his efforts to familiarize voters with his name.
A number of candidates like Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and businessman Andrew Yang are scrambling to ensure they get a spot on next month’s debate stage under toughened criteria.
But other strategists believe Bloomberg can afford not to take part in debates given that he is better known than some of the lower-polling candidates in the race.
“So many of them are fighting for oxygen that they are looking for a clip that can go viral, they're looking for a mention or maybe even a seat around the [morning news shows] table,” another Democratic strategist said. “He doesn’t have to do that. Michael Bloomberg doesn’t fight for oxygen.”
Others say Bloomberg could even benefit from being absent from the primary debates, and avoiding the likely on-stage attacks from candidates such as Warren and Sanders.
“Why would you want to stay in a place where your opponents could beat the devil out of you?” veteran New York strategist Hank Sheinkopf, who has worked with Bloomberg, told The Hill.
Despite the doubts about Bloomberg's strategy, few are willing to dismiss his chances in an unusually fluid race that has seen candidates such as Buttigieg vault from obscurity to top contender in the matter of months.
“Six months ago, there was a guy with a name no one could pronounce from a state with a low population, from a city that very few people go to to visit,” Sheinkopf said, referring to Buttigieg. “He is now one of the top four competitors in public polling.”
“This is 2019,” he said. “Anything can happen.”
Unprecedented strategy? Spewing money 360 degrees?
If he promises to spend every penny he owns I promise to vote for him.
Mighty Mouse, without the might and the proper species...
He started strong with that $31.5M buy this week, but he has over-saturated the market. Too many ads make people turn off (Think Flo on Progressive - she is slowly being phased out and the ads switch up much more often now).
Bloomturd isn’t going anywhere. Immensely unlikable close and at far.
I agree.
In a way I like that he is running. The Left wants people to think any billionaire can win. It just wasn’t fair that Trump won.
That isn’t true. And Trump actually spent less than Hillary to win anyway.
It was his platform, his ideas that garnered the win.
I have fun trolling the Left when I talk about how Bloomberg didn’t give a crap if you were white, black, hispanic, or LGBT - if you committed a crime in HIS CITY, you were thrown in jail.
The Social Justice mob simply CANNOT deal with that concept.
Mike Bloomberg running is a disgrace to blacks and women.
Yes.
He will energize the hard left and strengthen Sanders and Warren.
This election will see another 3rd Party Run and it will not cost Trump a vote. More likely the Democrat party will split between the hard left and the insane, lunatic, left.
Big Gulp, Little Mike.
He isn’t a serious candidate. He is becoming a self funded candidate so he can avoid all FEC rules and essentially donate a ton of cash to the DNC. He will run a ton of Trump hating ads that in effect will benefit whoever the dem candidate is...while pretending it’s his campaign. No matter how low he drops in polls, he will remain in the race. And that is why.
Its an end run on campaign contributions.
Spending wads of cash and limiting exposure? Sounds like Hillary to me...
I figure he’s won’t have too much time left being in his 70s and this is a good way to spend billions that you can’t take with you. There is an irony to this in that he saved and invested his whole life and now it comes down to one shake of the dice.
FTA:
“Whether Bloomberg can emerge as an alternative without spending time in early states or facing off on the debate stage remains in doubt.”
Bloomturd’s big problem is he’s acting exactly like the arrogant, entitled multi-billionaire he is, thereby playing into the stereotype his opponents are using against him.
Indeed, he’s using the politician’s equivalent of trying to buy oneself into the Navy Seals without going through the training. The early states’ primaries and caucuses have come to be there to allow less well financed candidates a shot at the nomination and to give everybody, within reasonable limits, a chance at the debates. By blowing the whole process off Bloomie is disrespecting all the voters, Democrat and Republican. By refusing to take any donations, he’s escaping the need to go to a large number of voters and ask for their material support, something that’s vital to get people to buy into a campaign and become ardent supporters, just as PDJT has done.
He will remove the Dim also-rans from the pack.
The weak will be annihilated on Super Tuesday. And it’s even MORE super now that CA holds primaries that date. Fully 20% of Dim delegates have been added to the stakes.
IA and NH no longer matter AT ALL in the nomination process.
The food Nazi ticket.
Bloomers is only in the race to help Trump. Spread the word.
The Left thinks that they can click off a checkbox and they can win too.
What they never, ever even consider is that what inhabits the cavity in their skulls is what really counts, and in all of their candidates, there is either a real problem, or sometimes...just a vacuum.
They don't think that (what is formulated between the candidate's ears) counts.
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