Michael Bloomberg considers a presidential run

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is seriously considering launching an independent presidential campaign and could make a decision sometime in March, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

The 73-year-old businessman is drawing up plans for a potential run on a third-party ticket for which he is prepared to spend $1 billion of his personal fortune, the Times said, citing anonymous sources briefed on the matter. While Bloomberg would ideally steal votes from both sides, him running as an independent would be “a catastrophe for Democrats” of Nader-ian proportions, according to the Huffington Post.

A decision will have to be made by the first week of March, likely before it’s clear who the Democratic and Republican nominees are, because of the process to get on ballots for the November election.

Even a victory by Clinton in the Democratic primaries might not preclude a bid by Bloomberg, his associates said, if he believed she had been gravely weakened by the contest.

Bloomberg faces significant hurdles in a potential run for the presidency.

While Bloomberg supports numerous Democratic Party’s social policies, he has been a fierce defender of the financial services industry, which is unpopular with many liberals, and put into practice aggressive policing policies in New York City that are anathema to left-leaning voters. Bloomberg spent tens of millions in an unsuccessful bid to toughen the nation’s gun control laws in the wake of the Newtown, Connecticut, school shootings and many gun rights activists claim his name alone created a backlash that helped sink his cause. “Trump, especially, would split the party”. He has closed the gap with her in polls out of Iowa, and who enjoys a comfortable lead in New Hampshire.

Bloomberg had said previously that he had no plans to enter the 2016 presidential fray.

One is the possibility that either his fellow NY billionaire Donald Trump or Texas Sen. 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.