Bloomberg has already spent $120 million on ads in presidential race

The Hill ^ | 12/25/19 02:51 PM EST | Rachel Frazin

[Zhang Fei]

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has reportedly spent about $120 million in digital and television ads since joining the presidential race last month.

The billionaire candidate is targeting large Super Tuesday states such as California and Texas, spending more than $13 million in each of those states, Politico reported Wednesday. Bloomberg has also spent that much in Florida, which votes a week after Super Tuesday, according to the news outlet.

Before he entered the race in late November, an aide to Bloomberg said the philanthropist would be willing to spend "whatever it takes" to beat President Trump.

Politico reported that Bloomberg has already outspent all of his competitors. Billionaire Tom Steyer has reportedly spent $83 million in ad buys, the second most, followed by South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who has reportedly spent $19 million.

Steyer, unlike Bloomberg, has focused on the early voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, according to Politico.

[Zhang Fei]

It's becoming clear why Bloomberg waited so long to declare. He wanted to be sure that he was up to running. Because the price tag he estimated was in the billions. The $120m in 3 weeks doesn't even include the cost of buying endorsements (presumably via contributions to charities or PACs controlled by key politicians), which may be in the tens of millions. Bottom line is that at $50m a week, that's well over $2b if he gets the nomination and keeps it up until election day. Hillary's and Trump's combined spending for the entire election, including PAC's, was about $1.2b. Bloomberg is ignoring the early states because they are primarily important for fund-raising purposes since historically, donors keyed off results from those states to decide whose campaigns were viable. Bloomberg doesn't need donors. He is building armies of paid political organizers from scratch and blitzing the delegate-rich states with ads.

It's in essence a replay of his NYC mayoral runs with one difference - he owned the GOP primary vote in NYC because he was viewed as a more viable candidate than Herman Badillo. Whereas as the most right-wing Democratic candidate, by far, he's in no way, shape or form, the default Democratic candidate.

[Trump Girl Kit Cat]

I haven’t seen ONE Bloomberg ad in Ca. he must not be running them in liberal states!! I NEVER watch CBS, NBC, ABC so maybe that is why I haven’t seen them!!

[PeteB570]

I’ve seen a bunch here in NC for Steyer - just a few for Bloomberg.

[JLAGRAYFOX]

Read my lips...Folks....Bloomberg is going nowhere politically, no matter how much cash he squanders away on his lost cause.

And...to boot.....No present Democrat Party 2020 POTUS candidate is going anywhere politically...period!!! This 2020 POTUS game is over...Trumpie wins in a massive landslide victory.

[freedom1st]

He runs them all the time in Texas. In my opinion, but I am biased, they are not very effective. He claims his biggest achievement is fighting the NRA. This is not a winning message in swing States.

[Elsie]

How much has
TOM
20
20 spent??

[Beagle8U]

Bloomie has been running ads in MI, another big 2nd Amendment state that has no chance of being fooled by that idiot.

[Leaning Right]

Bloomberg would have the Democrat nomination locked up...if the nomination was based on how boring your campaign ads were. Bloomberg’s ads look like his running for president of the local Chamber of Commerce. Dull and uninspiring.

Contrast that with this rousing (unofficial) Trump fight song: “We’re not going to take it”.

https://youtu.be/SoZQfoXhbc0

[Zhang Fei]

[I’ve seen a bunch here in NC for Steyer - just a few for Bloomberg.]

---

On ads overall, Steyer has spent $80m to Bloomberg’s $120m. Steyer’s at 1.5% nationally, whereas Bloomberg’s at 5%. Bloomberg’s advantage is that he has won 3 mayoral campaigns in the most expensive media market in the country against entrenched Democratic opposition. He knows how to run against Democrats. His problem is that in the past, he could take about 1/3 of the NYC electorate that were Republican-leaning for granted. Now, in the primary, he’s running for the support of a huge slice of the Democratic electorate that would have voted against him in NYC. So he has to go well to the left of his NYC mayoral runs, even though that would still leave him well to the right of his Democratic presidential rivals.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

I’ve seen a ton of them in Pennsylvania for Bloomberg. They are amusing. Especially the parts where he says he’ll take on the “rich” (LOL) and then Trump - Trump comes on the screen and you’d think it was Hitler the way the image is portrayed and the audio sounds. He’s definitely targeting the “hate Trump” liberals, which doesn’t really make sense because they’re voting Dem/Communist anyway. They would never vote for some billionaire

[Louis Foxwell]

Not one of the ads Bloomberg is running make any sense. They are obtuse. Perhaps that is intentional.After all, the voters he hopes to win over are themselves obtuse and irrational.

[rlmorel]

It warms my heart to see Leftists like Bloomberg and Steyer throwing away tens of millions (if not hundreds of millions) of dollars on their campaigns, but we can’t be complacent and overconfident.

[ops33]

He’s been running them here in Oklahoma, no idea why.

[redshawk]

They are all over Texas TV. Especially daytime.
Seen 1 or 2 Steyer ads. Can’t recall any other candidate except a few Trump ads. Bloomberg trying to buy the nomination.

[Zhang Fei]

He claims his biggest achievement is fighting the NRA. This is not a winning message in swing States.

It's a play for the black vote, which is probably 1/3 of the Democratic primary vote in TX, once you take out all the illegals and non-citizen legal residents. Blacks really hate the NRA, with 80% being against it. The thinking is undoubtedly that, thanks to the NRA, their criminal relatives and friends risk being shot by wypipo while trying to earn an honest living via armed robbery or merely punishing slights to their honor (i.e. dirty looks or snide remarks for cutting in line) by people of pallor. Quinnipiac poll that includes NRA approval numbers:

44. Do you think that the NRA, or National Rifle Association, supports policies that are good for the U.S. or supports policies that are bad for the U.S.?

                                                               WHITE......
                                                               COLLEGE DEG
                     Tot    Rep    Dem    Ind    Men    Wom    Yes    No
 
Good                 38%    80%     9%    38%    47%    31%    36%    49%
Bad                  51      8     83     52     44     57     54     42
DK/NA                11     12      9     10      9     13     10      9
 
                     AGE IN YRS..............    WHITE.....
                     18-34  35-49  50-64  65+    Men    Wom    Wht    Blk    Hsp
 
Good                 26%    43%    42%    39%    53%    34%    43%    10%    39%
Bad                  57     53     46     51     40     55     48     80     40
DK/NA                17      5     13     10      7     12     10     10     20

[nwrep]

It is a winning message in primary states.

[odawg]

Bloomberg and Steyer’s main goal is to try to knock off Trump with the saturation attack ads. Getting the nomination is just icing on the cake.

The ad money will be returned to them by the globalists through money laundering.

[minnesota_bound]

Bloomberg looks like a dweeb.

[MIchaelTArchangel]

It sounds as if Mr. Bloomberg is blooming buggering himself.

[DOC44]

The best country money can buy if you got enough of it and the majority of the buyers are stupid enough to want to sell it as well as their souls.