Los Angeles Times - 09.11.2019

A6 WST LATIMES.COM

THE NATION

Michael R. Bloomberg is
flirting once again with a run
for president, but all signs
point to a steep challenge for
the billionaire and former
New York mayor if he makes
a late entry into the race for
the Democratic nomination.
Some Democrats are
yearning for a new genera-
tion of leaders, and Bloom-
berg, 77, would be among the
oldest contenders, wedged
between Vermont Sen. Ber-
nie Sanders, 78, and former
Vice President Joe Biden, 76.
Bloomberg is a former
Wall Street investment
banker who would be joining
the race when a top concern
for many Democrats is grow-
ing wealth and income in-
equality.
His 12-year mayoral
record could also make him
unpopular among some of
the party’s core constitu-
encies, especially African
Americans turned off by his
support of police “stop and
frisk” tactics. A federal judge
struck down the policy in
2013, ruling that the city was
violating the constitutional
rights of minorities.
“He’s got a mountain to
climb here,” said Stuart
Rothenberg, a nonpartisan
campaign analyst. “It’s not
to say he can’t climb it. But
it’s not as though Elijah is
coming to run for the Demo-
cratic nomination. He ought
to be treated as a kind of
long-shot candidate who
has some assets, but is a long
way from jumping into this
race and suddenly becoming
the front-runner.”
In the latest USC-Dorn-
sife/Los Angeles Times poll,
only 4% of Democratic vot-
ers were dissatisfied with
their choices in the primary
contest.
Bloomberg’s move to get
on the Alabama primary
ballot by the Friday deadline

keeps his options open. He

plans to submit papers next

week for Arkansas’ primary.

The former mayor

“would be able to take the

fight to Trump and win,”

Howard Wolfson, a senior

advisor to Bloomberg, said

Thursday on Twitter. He

noted Bloomberg had spent

over $100 million to help elect

Democrats to Congress last

year, when they gained con-

trol of the House.

“We now need to finish

the job and ensure that

Trump is defeated — but

Mike is increasingly con-

cerned that the current field

of candidates is not well po-

sitioned to do that,” Wolfson

tweeted.

Trump mocked Bloom-

berg in remarks to reporters

outside the White House on

Friday, saying that a run by

the former mayor would

hurt Biden.

“There’s nobody I’d

rather run against than little

Michael,” Trump said.

Bloomberg announced in

March, after spending time

in early-voting states, that

he was ruling out a run. He

said he was “clear-eyed

about the difficulty of win-

ning” in the crowded field.

Since then, the contest

has narrowed, with Sanders

and Massachusetts Sen.

Elizabeth Warren vying for

support among the party’s

most progressive voters.

Biden has struggled to

maintain his lead with mod-

erates, with South Bend,

Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg

emerging as an alternative.

Bloomberg has resur-

faced less than three months

before the first nominating

contest in Iowa on Feb. 3.

Jeff Link, a longtime Iowa

Democratic strategist, jok-

ingly referred to last week-

end’s big party bash in Des

Moines, which drew 13 White

House contestants.

“I don’t remember any-

one chanting, ‘We need more

candidates! We need more

candidates!’” said Link, who

is neutral in the Democratic

race. “People are in the proc-

ess of striking candidates off

their list. Nobody wants

more options.”

Wolfson conceded Friday

that other Democrats “al-

ready have a big head start”

in Iowa and other early-vot-

ing states. He suggested

Bloomberg would skip those

and start “on an even foot-

ing” in the “Super Tuesday”

contests, including in Cali-

fornia, on March 3.

Bloomberg’s biggest as-

set is money; Forbes esti-

mates his net worth at $52.

billion. But even with an un-

limited budget for advertis-

ing, he could be excluded

from Democratic debates if

he fails to meet polling and

donor thresholds.

The prospect of a

Bloomberg candidacy was

not warmly received by his

Democratic rivals. Warren,

who has often spoken out

against billionaires using

their wealth to finance presi-

dential campaigns, wel-

comed Bloomberg to the

race with a tweet linking to

her “calculator for the bil-

lionaires” to figure out how

much they would owe under

her tax on the wealth of

Americans with fortunes

above $50 million.

Bloomberg opposes War-

ren’s plan: “I think the Con-

stitution lets you impose in-

come taxes only, so it prob-

ably is unconstitutional,” he

said in February in New

Hampshire.

Tom Steyer, a San Fran-

cisco hedge-fund billionaire

in the race, taunted Bloom-

berg on Friday. “If Michael

Bloomberg decides to sup-

port a wealth tax, I welcome

him to this race,” Steyer

said. “If not, it’s very clear

that he should not be the

Democratic nominee.”

Sen. Amy Klobuchar of

Minnesota took offense at

Bloomberg’s suggestion

that nobody in the field was

fit to defeat Trump. “I don’t

buy that and I don’t think

you do either,” she said to a

crowd in Iowa.

One of Bloomberg’s big-

gest challenges would be his

demographic profile.

“Older white male billion-

aire and former Republican

— I think that pretty much

covers the gamut of chal-

lenges that he will face to get

the nod for the nomination,”

said Christine Sierra, coau-

thor of “Contested Transfor-

mation: Race, Gender, and

Political Leadership in 21st

Century America.”

In 2001, Bloomberg left

the Democratic Party to run

as a Republican for mayor of

New York. He won the elec-

tion in the aftermath of the

Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and

served three terms. In the

middle of his tenure, in 2007,

he registered as an inde-

pendent, then in October

2018 he rejoined the Demo-

cratic Party.

The ideology that

Bloomberg most closely rep-

resents — socially liberal but

economically relatively con-

servative — is popular in

elite circles in the U.S., but

distinctly unpopular among

other Americans. An analy-

sis of polling data by the non-

partisan Voter Study Group

in 2017 indicated that such

voters make up about 4% of

the U.S. electorate.

Bloomberg is well known

as an opponent of the to-

bacco and soft drink indus-

tries. He approved New

York’s ban on smoking in

bars and restaurants, but

his attempt to outlaw large

soft drinks was overturned

in court. His foundation has

spent hundreds of millions

of dollars to curb tobacco

use in the developing world.

He also has poured money

into campaigns to promote

gun control and fight global

warming.

In 2016, Bloomberg made

elaborate preparations to

run for president as an inde-

pendent, but abandoned the

idea after deciding he had no

path to victory in a three-

way race against Donald

Trump and Hillary Clinton.

He denounced Trump in a

well-received speech at the

Democratic National Con-

vention and has since de-

scribed him as a dangerous

and incompetent president.

Bloomberg, who grew up

in the Boston area and

earned a master’s degree in

business administration at

Harvard Business School,

worked in investment bank-

ing at Salomon Brothers on

Wall Street before he

founded Bloomberg LP,

the information technology

and media company that

produced his personal for-

tune.

Times staff writers Mark Z.

Barabak, David Lauter and

Melissa Gomez contributed

to this report.

Bloomberg faces a steep climb if he enters race

By Michael Finnegan

MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG,the billionaire former mayor of New York, would

appear to have little edge in the Democratic contest aside from money.

Eric RisbergAssociated Press

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