By: Hadassa Kalatizadeh
Former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg is spending a record amount of his own money in his bid for presidency.
As reported by Reuters, the Democratic candidate said he is ready to spend much of his vast wealth to oust Republican President Donald Trump from the White House in 2020. “Number one priority is to get rid of Donald Trump. I’m spending all my money to get rid of Trump,” said Bloomberg on Saturday while on his campaign bus across Texas, which one of the 14 states that will vote on Super Tuesday on March 3rd. “Do you want me to spend more or less? End of story.”
The NY Post even reported that ad rates for television spots across the country are up because of Bloomberg’s spending spree. “The typical [TV] market increased their rates by 22 percent as the political spending poured in,” an Advertising Analytics analysis reported. “Houston was among the markets that responded most actively to the new advertiser,” it added. “This is partially attributable to Bloomberg’s $1 [million] buy increasing the political spending in the market tenfold. This shock spending increase was matched by a 45% increase in rates, which is among the highest of any market.”
Bloomberg was the last to enter the race, missing the first six Democratic debates, but he jumped in with a $37-million TV advertising blitz. Since he launched his campaign in the last week of November, Bloomberg has already spent more on campaign ads than any of the other Democratic candidates have over the whole last year. Bloomberg is facing criticism from other Democratic candidates, who claim the billionaire is trying to buy the presidential election. U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, one of the leading Democratic rivals whose motto has been get money out of politics, is one of his main critics. Bloomberg has brushed off this critic saying, “These are just political things they say, hoping they catch on and they don’t like me doing it, because it competes with them, not because it’s bad policy.”
Forbes has named Bloomberg as the eighth-richest person in the U.S., and the 14th- richest in the world, with an estimated net worth of $58 billion. The CEO of his namesake media empire, he is a philanthropist who has signed The Giving Pledge, in which he has vowed to donate at least half of his wealth. Bloomberg has already given away $8.2 billion.
As per Reuters, Bloomberg is generally ranked fifth in national public opinion polls, with Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Warren and Pete Buttigieg all ahead of him. But the 77-year-old is not intimidated. He says all four of those Democratic candidates are too liberal to beat Trump. “One of the reasons I’m reasonably confident I could beat Trump is I would be acceptable to the moderate Republicans you have to have,” said Bloomberg.
