The billionaire and former presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg is plotting a massive spending spree to support Joe Biden’s campaign to win his place in the White House.
A former New York mayor and his closest political advisors are negotiating whether Bloomberg’s spending plans will include substantial contributions to Biden’s super PACs and Biden’s fundraising efforts in conjunction with Democratic National Committee, or an independent group According to people who are who are familiar with the conversations. The people who spoke to them were not able to identify themselves because these discussions were private.
There are at most three super PACs that support Biden who Bloomberg could donate three super PACs to support: Unite the Country, Priorities USA and American Bridge. Donors are able to give unlimited money to super PACs but are restricted in the amount they can contribute to joint fundraising campaigns and committees of campaigns.
“As Mike has said, Mike Bloomberg supports vice president Biden in his efforts to defeat Donald Trump. We’re currently analyzing how to best assist Vice President Biden and Democratic victories across the electoral map in November, exactly as Mike Bloomberg has done in previous elections,” a Bloomberg spokesperson said to CNBC.
While it’s not known the amount Bloomberg will spend in the end however, several people who are familiar with the issue have said that they expect Bloomberg to eventually spend over $250 million to aid Biden who is the likely Democratic candidate. A significant financial contribution from Bloomberg in support of Biden doesn’t include the amount Bloomberg can do to assist the congressional Democrats. After being unable to participate in the Democratic presidential primary at the end of March Bloomberg supported Biden and later announced that Biden’s campaign would contribute an amount of $1.8 millions towards the DNC.
With just six months to the general election Bloomberg is investing a portion of his net worth of $58 billion will be a major increase for former Vice President Joe Biden. Biden along with other top leaders in the Democratic Party have been trying to create an election-related powerhouse that has an opportunity of taking on Trump’s war fund.
The coronavirus epidemic has made all campaigns online and, even though Biden was able to keep pace with Trump in the fundraising battle in April, bringing in $60.5 million, he’s still lagging in terms of cash. The Trump campaign as well as both the Republican National Committee have a total of $255 million available in reserve. The Biden campaign informed the media on Friday it was holding $103 million in reserve by the end of April, when it was paired together with DNC.
The Real Clear Politics polling average indicates Biden in front of Trump in the nation by nearly five points.
Bloomberg has been a significant donor to Democratic campaigning and to causes that are favored of the political party like gun security. Bloomberg’s contributions contributed to Democrats to gain the majority of the U.S. House of Representatives during the midterm congressional elections.
“Historically Bloomberg, the mayor of the past has been a big spender, he’s also was late, and then was successful. Take a look at the past because Democrats often win big thanks to Bloomberg’s support,” said a person close to Bloomberg who is also acquainted with the negotiations. Bloomberg’s team previously stated that Bloomberg invested $110 million in Democrats during the congressional election.
Biden was joined by Bloomberg as well as over 350 local leaders including city mayors in a live forum on Thursday to discuss initiatives being taken to fight coronavirus. Even though Bloomberg did not offer any details on how he intends to assist Biden but he did praise Biden’s former vice president. He even took time to think about how they were at odds during their primary. Democratic Primary.
“You might recall that we didn’t work as closely in the past winter, but we’ve always been united in our passion for public service and country, and that’s what this campaign is the whole point,” Bloomberg said. Biden had praise for Bloomberg, too. “Mayor Bloomberg is one of the most outstanding mayors in the United States and is also among the greatest leaders of this nation,” said the former vice president.
Bloomberg was planning to establish an ultra PAC which would focus on Trump. However, he decided against it, and eventually laid off his field staff in crucial states in the battleground. He spent $1 billion for a self-funded campaign that managed only 55 delegate, which included winning the American Samoa caucuses on Super Tuesday.
A former New York mayor has previously declared that he would not be able to rule out spending as much as $1 billion to fight Trump regardless of whether he is in the race for President or not. Donald Trump’s campaign director, Brad Parscale, has stated that they will invest at least $1 billion in defense of the president, and to get his reelection.
The 2020 election could be the most costly in relation to the amount of money spent by campaigns on ads. A new study from Advertising Analytics shows campaigns could spend $6.7 billion in advertising. The study cites coronavirus as one the main reasons why there is this much attention paid to ads this year. “The lack of face-to face campaigning leading to higher proportions of budgets to paid advertising,” the report said.
After his brief presidential campaign, Bloomberg has focused on investing in a large-scale tracking and testing program which could aid in fighting the coronavirus. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office has previously stated that Bloomberg has contributed as much as $10 million to the effort.
Hawkfish, the tech arm of Bloomberg, Hawkfish, has been working in conjunction with Bloomberg Philanthropies on creating social media content that promotes the program as well as discuss the impact of coronavirus according to one of the members of the philanthropic organisation. A large portion of the content the company has created are available on Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Twitter as well as Facebook accounts associated with Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Although the company has been unable to attract clients since political organizations have switched gears in response to the coronavirus epidemic, Biden’s team hasn’t thought of bringing in the Bloomberg-backed company.
A spokesperson of the Biden campaign didn’t respond to the request for information.
