Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has started preparations to enter into the presidential race. From Fox News:
Bloomberg, who besides his stint in the New York City’s mayor’s office is also a billionaire businessman, has been reportedly mulling over a potential White House run for weeks, but has not made his final decision. His move to send staffers to Alabama to gather the signatures needed to qualify for the primary is the first sign that he is seriously considering entering the Democratic fray.Alabama is not an early voting state, but it has a deadline of Friday for candidates to officially enter the presidential race.
People close to Bloomberg said he called many “Democrats on Thursday to tell them he was seriously considering the race, including former Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the retired majority leader who remains a dominant power broker in the early caucus state.”
Reid said Bloomberg did not flat out say he planned to run, “but that the implication of the call had been clear.”
Bloomberg’s entrance could cause headaches for the Democratic Party. The large presidential field has started to chip away as people realize former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) will not budge from the top three spots.
His centrist views do not mix well with the far-left positions of Warren and Sanders. But those views could cause problems for Biden, who has tried to keep a centrist position. Biden has struggled to raise money, but Bloomberg has enough personal wealth to not worry about funds.
From The New York Times:
Howard Wolfson, a close adviser to Mr. Bloomberg, said on Thursday that the former mayor viewed President Trump as an “unprecedented threat to our nation,” and noted Mr. Bloomberg’s heavy spending in the 2018 midterm elections and this week’s off-year races in Virginia. Mr. Bloomberg, he said, has grown uneasy about the existing trajectory of the Democratic primary.“We now need to finish the job and ensure that Trump is defeated — but Mike is increasingly concerned that the current field of candidates is not well positioned to do that,” Mr. Wolfson said. “If Mike runs he would offer a new choice to Democrats built on a unique record running America’s biggest city, building a business from scratch and taking on some of America’s toughest challenges as a high-impact philanthropist.”
Only 8% of the respondents in a Fox News poll said they would vote for Bloomberg. 32% said they would never vote for him.
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