In November last year, Michael Bloomberg, the 12th richest person in the world, bet more than $ 500 million that the Democrats would not get out of the first two tests of their primary process with a clear leader. And won.
Now, when his name has not yet appeared on a ballot, he decided to skip the first four tests, the magnate of economic information and former mayor of New York emerges as a more than serious contender to face Donald Trump in the November presidential elections. Chaos has helped him with the counting of caucus of Iowa and, above all, the sinking of former Vice President Joe Biden, which clears the center lane. But not everything is luck in someone willing to throw 500 million in a campaign without disheveled.
It is difficult to understand how rich Bloomberg is and how much can be done in a political campaign if a lot of money is invested. He is not the first millionaire in American politics. One, in fact, lives in the White House. But Donald Trump has an estimated wealth of $ 3.1 billion, according to Forbes, and that of Michael Bloomberg is estimated at 61.8 billion. The same difference exists between someone who earns $ 50,000 a year and someone who earns a million. A superric and a rich are not separated by an abyss in terms of lifestyle, but the possibilities of both in politics are quite different.
There are no precedents in the history of the type of campaign Michael Bloomberg is doing. He has decided to go directly to the Super Tuesday, on March 3, in which 14 states vote. He has not yet participated in any primary or caucus, and his campaign already has twice as many personnel as Hillary Clinton’s had on the eve of the 2016 presidential election. He has invested millions in research, has set up 125 offices across the country and his campaign workers start charging $ 72,000. annual, twice that of those of the other candidates. In the first survey of Quinnipiac University in which Bloomberg appeared, he had 3% support. On February 10, in the same survey, it rose to 15%. Between one and the other, he has invested 347 million dollars in advertising. How much is a percentage point worth? Dividing, 29 million dollars.
Bloomberg currently ranks third in the average nationwide poll, after leftist Bernie Sanders and centrist Joe Biden. But Biden’s lousy results in Iowa and New Hampshire put Bloomberg in the lead of the center. Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar, fifth and sixth at the national level and with better results in the first appointments, also run along that central lane. But they are predicted difficulties in the next appointments, in Nevada and South Carolina, with the Latin and African American electorate. Knowing that he could benefit again from an inconclusive result, Bloomberg announced that he will double his advertising budget.
The result is that the ads of his candidacy have become ubiquitous on the country’s screens. His messages, after he hired the greatest creators of memes of industry, flood social networks. Between chaotic accounts, fratricidal struggles and some recent frustration before a Trump who seems unstoppable, Bloomberg is managing to exploit the feeling that the Democratic Party needs someone outside to put order.
Certifying its boom, the tycoon has become the favorite target of criticism of The other candidates. And Donald Trump: the two staged a tweet fight this week, in which the president called Bloomberg “mass of dead energy” and he replied that his common acquaintances referred to him, behind his back, as a “clown carnival barker ”. Bloomberg knows that Trump’s anger gives him wings. After all, he is living proof that a New York millionaire who is running into a hyperpopulated presidential race can reach the White House. And Bloomberg has many more millions than Trump.
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