Billion-Dollar Blowout: The Numbers Are in for Bloomberg's Campaign Flush, I Mean Spending

(AP Photo/ Cheryl Senter)

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg takes questions after speaking at a Moms Demand Action gun safety rally at City Hall in Nashua, N.H. Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018. (AP Photo/ Cheryl Senter)

Advertisement

 

 

It seems a high price to pay, but maybe when you’re worth $54.8 billion, there’s no such thing.

According to a report by Politico, former presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg dropped a cool 1 billion on his campaign, only to call it quits after 104 days.

On November 24th, 2019, Michael dropped the bomb: He’s running for the highest office in the land.

It turned out to be a bomb in more ways than one, so he put away the notion on March 4th.

As noted by The Daily Wire, Bloomberg’s final campaign finance disclosure forms were filed Monday, giving us a view into how much a campaign can cost — and a losing one, at that.

Not that he was tight with this spending — the guy seems like a “do it right or not at all” type.

But money, as it turns out, wasn’t enough to do it right.

As per documents submitted to the Federal Election Commission, in March alone — again, a month in which he dropped out on the fourth day — Michael blew through $176 million.

As pointed out by Politico, comparatively, Biden might as well be Shoeless Joe:

Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has not yet filed his campaign finance report covering March, but through the end of April the former vice president spent just under $76 million on his campaign.

Advertisement

But let’s not forget: That’s still millions and millions by a guy who — with complete respect — has no chance of winning due to an obvious medical issue. As correctly conveyed by fantastic podcaster Joe Rogan, “Trump is going to eat him alive. He’s going to eat that guy alive.”

Chomp.

Back to Bloomberg, here’s a bit more of a breakdown:

For his 55-delegate, 104-day run, the businessman forked over $1,221,777,405.26.

TDW observes that’s $11,747,859.66 per day and $22,214,134.64 per delegate.

And despite the carloads of cash, he purportedly left employees shortchanged.

More from Politico:

Bloomberg’s campaign paid out $23.3 million in salary, fringe benefits and payroll taxes and fees in March alone, according to the campaign finance filing. However, the billionaire also left many former staffers furious by cutting them loose last month. Bloomberg’s campaign enticed Democratic operatives across the country with promises of a paying job through the November election, regardless of whether he ultimately won the nomination or not.

But Bloomberg reneged on that promise, scrapping plans to form his own super PAC and eventually transferring $18 million to the Democratic National Committee instead to bolster the party committee’s field program. Staffers who wanted to work at the DNC had to reapply for jobs, with some staffers getting paid through the first week in April and getting full benefits through the end of the month, according to a release at the time.

Advertisement

In March, thanks to the alleged shady move, a group of laid-off staffers filed suit against the former NYC mayor for fraud, claiming they’d been promised employment ’til just near the year’s end.

I suppose when you’re that rich, no lawsuit’s gonna rattle you. But if you can flush over a billion down your (solid gold?) toilet, why not just pay the people through November?

Michael’s billion-dollar blowout reminds us of a few things: Pursuing the political Gold Ring is a phenomenally expensive endeavor, but money can’t buy you everything. Donald Trump surely spent like Midas on his 2016 victory, but it was his persona that snagged him the White House. The guy got people fired up, and they showed it at the polls.

If Bloomberg had wanted to excite people, he might’ve done better to have just mailed all that cash straight to the citizenry.

138 million voted in 2016. 1,221,777,405.26 divided by 138,000,000 = a little over $8. Actually, nevermind — by November, that may only buy a single sheet of toilet paper. Maybe he could’ve sent the eight bucks in singles — at least then, it’s 8 DIY sheets.

Sounds like that’s how he uses ’em, too.

Advertisement

-ALEX

 

See 3 more pieces from me:

The NFL Drops New Guidelines for Thursday’s Draft, and They Aren’t Colin Kaepernick-Friendly

Do You Know Homeschooling Supports Racism, Sexism, and Child Abuse? Co-Sponsor of Harvard’s Homeschooling Summit Does

A Hoarder Tried to Return 4,800 Rolls of Toilet Paper, the Supermarket Director Gave Him the Finger

Find all my RedState work here.

And please follow Alex Parker on Twitter and Facebook.

Thank you for reading! Please sound off in the Comments section below. 

Recommended

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Trending on RedState Videos