Billionaire Ex-mayor Bloomberg Mulling Presidential Bid

Bloomberg is revisiting an independent bid for the presidency, telling advisers to draft plans for a potential campaign in this year’s race, the New York Times reported on Saturday. During an April 2014 appearance on NBC’s Today, he said the answer was no, “plain and simple”.

Bloomberg’s aides are reported to have sketched out one version of a campaign plan that would have the former mayor, a low-key and cerebral personality, deliver a series of detailed policy speeches, backed by an intense television advertising campaign that would introduce him to voters around the country as a technocratic problem-solver and self-made businessman who understands the economy and who built a bipartisan administration in NY.

The newspaper reports that Bloomberg has mobilized aides and consultants to see what it’d take to get a campaign up by early March.

A well-financed presidential run by Bloomberg would likely disrupt the dynamics of the election, but the billionaire would face significant hurdles in a race that has been in full swing for almost a year.

Though no third-party candidate has ever claimed the White House, several previous bids have affected the overall makeup of the race. Hillary Clinton’s tight race with Sanders has Bloomberg wondering if there is an opening for him, the Times said.

White House whispers surrounding Bloomberg, a longtime Democrat who switched to the Republican Party to seek the NYC mayoralty in 2001, but who ran for his third term as an independent, are not new, and he remains a nationally recognized political figure.

Sanders, Clinton’s chief rival, has recently surged in polling in key early voting states Iowa and New Hampshire.

A Bloomberg adviser, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Times the former mayor sincerely believes voters want “a non-ideological, bipartisan, results-oriented vision”, which he is convinced is an option that has not been offered by any of the candidates from either party.

“If he splits the Democrat vote – those for gun control – that might be good for Republicans”, Paul told reporters.

Michael Bloomberg has lamented what he considers Mrs. Clinton’s lurch to the left in her contest against Mr. Sanders, especially her criticism of charter schools and other education reforms that he pushed as mayor and has continued to support since leaving office.