Bloomberg looks at potential independent White House run

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is considering a 2016 independent presidential campaign, vowing to spend a $1 billion of his own cash, according to The New York Times.

The billionaire media executive, who served three terms as mayor of NY, is said to be concerned by Trump’s lasting hold on the Republican field and is anxious about the impact of Sanders’ campaign on Hillary Clinton’s bid for the Democratic nomination.

Bloomberg intends to make a final decision by early March, after the first nominating contests in Iowa, New Hampshire and SC – and the latest time his advisers believe he could feasibly appear on the general election ballots of all 50 states as an independent.

“As a lifelong Democrat, as a former party chairman, it would be very hard for me to do that”, Rendell told the Times. In December Bloomberg commissioned a poll in order to ascertain how he might fare against Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. While Bloomberg has bounced around from party to party over his time in politics, many of his positions are significantly more attractive to Democrats than they are to Republicans.

“I don’t know anything about him”, said Leslie McCreery, a 70-year-old Hillary Clinton supporter.

He took office less than four months after NY was traumatized by the attacks of September 11, 2001, pledging that the city would remain “safe, strong, open for business and ready to lead the world in the 21st century”. But he has also poured energy and money into advocating policies that conservative Republicans detest, most notably gun control and immigration reform. While the prospect of Bloomberg launching a third-party presidential campaign has been speculated about for years, he’s largely unknown to many Americans and would be entering the race well after his rivals started introducing themselves to voters. While nothing is definite yet, the moves that Bloomberg and his people are making indicate that he is seriously considering that third-party bid.

“Trump is feeding into the fear and hate of people”, Ferrin said. “Michael Bloomberg is seeing what the rest of America is seeing”. It would require either Trump or Cruz getting the Rep nomination (~50% chance) and Sanders winning the Dem nomination (~30% chance according to the betting sites, but I think this is too high), so that math works out to, at best, a 15% chance. “The voters will decide who their nominee is going to be”.