The Bloomberg campaign has reserved more than
$30m in television ad time to air the spot. Photograph: Yana Paskova/Getty
Images
Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg
announced a presidential run on Sunday, unveiling a minute-long campaign video
that called the billionaire, one of the richest men in the world, a “middle
class kid who made good”.
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“I’m running for president to defeat Donald
Trump and rebuild America,” Bloomberg said in a statement. “We cannot afford
four more years of President Trump’s reckless and unethical actions. He represents an
existential threat to our country and our values. If he wins another term in
office, we may never recover from the damage.”
The Bloomberg campaign aimed to make up for an unusually late entry
in the Democratic primary with historic spending on national advertising and an
unorthodox strategy for navigating the primary calendar. Bloomberg has
expressed concern that none of the top candidates can defeat Trump.
Bloomberg’s campaign has reserved more than
$30m in television ad time, called the largest ad buy in primary election
history. His first ad touts his performance as mayor after the September 11
attacks and his work on gun control, climate change and other issues.
We’re
about to see how much money can buy, cause prior to getting in Bloomberg’s
polling is not good to put it mildly
Harry Enten, CNN
Under the theme “rebuilding America”, the ad
skips over the Democratic primary field to focus on Trump, flashing a picture
of the president with the line: “And now he’s taking on him.” The ad closes
with the lines “Mike Bloomberg for President” and “Paid for by Bloomberg 2020”.
“I’m Mike Bloomberg and I approve this
message,” he says.
Bloomberg, who spent a record $102m – or $172
per vote – in his third and final election as New York mayor in 2009, was a
Democrat before being elected mayor in 2001 as a Republican. He switched to
register as an independent before returning to the Democratic party in 2018.
“We’re about to see how much money can buy,”
tweeted CNN polling analyst Harry Enten, “cause prior to him getting in
Bloomberg’s polling is not good to put it mildly.”
This month the billionaire mogul established a
campaign committee with the Federal Election Commission and he has qualified
for the ballot in at least three states.
Jumping into the race almost a year after Senator Elizabeth Warren
announced she was exploring a candidacy, Bloomberg is pursuing an unorthodox
strategy in which he will skip the first four states in the primary season
calendar – Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina – to make a play for
the so-called Super Tuesday states in early March.
He has announced that his campaign will be entirely self-funded,
meaning he cannot qualify for the Democratic presidential debates under current
rules, which require candidates to receive at least 10,000 individual
donations. Those rules could be revisited in January, the Washington Post
reported.
“He has never taken a political contribution in his life,” chief
adviser Howard Wolfson told the Associated Press. “He is not about to start. He
cannot be bought.”
The billionaire’s media company, Bloomberg News, said on Sunday
members of its editorial board had taken leaves of absence to work on the
campaign and the outlet would cease producing unsigned editorials.
“We will continue our tradition of not investigating Mike (and his
family and foundation) and we will extend the same policy to his rivals in the
Democratic primaries,” the company said.
Bloomberg, 77, has a net worth estimated at more than $50bn. His
entry to the race was not welcomed by the current field.
“I’m disgusted by the idea that Michael Bloomberg or any
billionaire thinks they can circumvent the political process and spend tens of
millions of dollars to buy elections,” Vermont senator Bernie Sanders tweeted
Saturday.
“If you can’t build grassroots support for your candidacy, you have
no business running for president.”
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