Hello Everyone,
Here’s our next edition of the Caucus Power Rankings. Sam and I disagreed on rankings for Bloomberg, resulting in a tie for 10th. As a reminder, here’s where we are right now:
- T-10: Mike Bloomberg
- 12: John Delaney
Arguments For:
Sam — #10 — Most everyone who follows politics, or frankly news, knows of Michael Bloomberg. The $60 billion dollar man and former mayor of New York City was a Republican then an Independent while mayor of America’s largest city, before finally settling on being a moderate/business Democrat. Bloomberg’s best argument is pragmatism and making government work, helping to cut down crime in NYC. Oh and money, he has lots of money. Specifically, he has spent roughly $250 million, $200 million of which have been TV ads, across the country since joining the race. For comparison, no other democratic campaign in this primary has topped $30 million in advertising. Additionally, Clinton spent $260 million in all of 2016. His strategy is bold: make the primary a national campaign and completely skip the early states. If you think the Democrats need to move back to the ways of the Third Way, the Democrat’s moderate caucus, and that the best way to beat Trump is with an exponentially more successful billionaire, Bloomberg looks to be a great choice!
Josh — #11 — After years of flirting with entering presidential politics as a third party, Bloomberg finally thinks he has a viable path to the White House. From what I’ve read and heard, it sounds like his advisors see a path to the nomination that completely ignores the early states and bets big on advertising (like, big bets) in Super Tuesday states. At this point, most people know his background, and I guess some people find it appealing. Currently the 14th richest man in the world, at approximately $60 billion in net worth, he earned his fortune through investment banking, finance, and technology, leading to the Bloomberg Media name that still lives today. He then served as Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, challenging the term limits rule to serve for a third term in the aftermath of the financial crisis. If you like businessmen politicians, then it looks like Bloomberg is your guy.
Arguments Against:
Sam — Bloomberg is a more successful Trump, but he is still considered to be a gruff billionaire. To say Bloomberg may not connect with the average American is one thing. But to consider that he is currently on pace to spend somewhere around $2-4 billionaire of his own money just in political ads, if he makes it to the general, is the ultimate nightmare of those against the 2010 Citizens United court case. If Democrats allow themselves to be bought by one of the wealthiest men in the world, it will completely change the complexion of the party and progressive movement. And that’s just the beginning. Bloomberg has a record of making crude, sexist remarks towards women that are unbefitting of a Democratic candidate. Bloomberg’s troubling policy of “stop and frisk” to “clean up crime” in NYC create problems for his electability. Bloomberg seems to have join the race thinking that the field is too progressive. While his business success has some electability appeal, his complete lack of grassroots, small-donor support or a ground game of campaign staff, and his fighting for the ideology to the right of Biden make him one of the least best options available. But, I mean, at least his ads are helping fight the conservatives attempts to remove health insurance safeguards and tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy. At least there’s that. Hopefully he drops out after Super Tuesday and decides to start funding campaigns up and down the ticket. Moderates and progressives will need all the monetary support they can get.
Josh — Ok, Bloomberg. With $60 billion to his name, he could ingratiate himself to the Democratic party and to the country by investing in issues that need upfront cash to fix major societal issues, like replacing lead pipe service lines in American cities that directly hurt societal outcomes. But instead of using his fortune for good, he decided in November 2019 that running for president was the only way to fix America. Since then, his campaign has used prison labor and he has placed hundreds of millions of dollars in ads to support his campaign, dwarfing the money spent by other non-billionaire candidates by 10-15 times. Progressives suspect that Bloomberg saw the popularity of the leftist candidates in the race and felt compelled to join the race to offer a(nother) moderate alternative. At least he’s running within the Democratic primary and not as a third party.
Purple State Progressive 