Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has asked his advisers to create a campaign plan for an independent presidential bid since the billionaire sees a potential opening in the race, the New York Times reported on Saturday.
Bloomberg has told friends that he is considering spending at least $1 billion on the race and that he will decide on a run by early March, according to the New York Times.
He has said he’s likely to launch a bid if Republicans nominate either Donald Trump or Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Democrats nominate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), according to the Times.
The Times reported that Bloomberg commissioned a poll in December to test his chances in the general election and plans on conducting another poll after the New Hampshire primary in February.
According to an online Morning Consult poll conducted in January, Bloomberg would receive 13 percent support in a three-way race with Trump and Hillary Clinton. Trump received 37 percent support and Clinton received 36 percent support.
According to the poll, Bloomberg’s entrance into the race would hurt Clinton more than Trump. Compared to a two-way race between Trump and Clinton, Trump’s support dropped by 5 points with Bloomberg in the running and Clinton’s support dropped by 8 points.
Morning Consult surveyed 4,060 registered voters online Jan. 14-17 with a margin of error plus or minus 2 percentage points.
Rich egomaniacs have way too much money, er speech…
Just run as a Dem (assuming it isn’t too late). If you can’t win the primary, then what’s the point of independent bid other than an ego trip?
It’s almost certainly too late to run as a Democrat (or republican) at this point. Aside from the ego trip, I suppose that he could act as a spoiler perhaps, but that’s about all.
oh good… another ego driven rich guy entering as an independent… even Teddy Roosevelt couldn’t win…
what makes you think you can win?
This is the biggest problem with people who have oodles of money - they are accustomed to having whatever they want and to running over others to get it. Bloomberg just hates being out of office and frankly I see this as being as ego driven as Trump. Or else it’s an attempt to make Hillary the nominee. I’ve been pretty neutral on the Dem candidates until now, seeing positives in both candidacies, but the last couple weeks seem like a replay of 2008, when I went from neutral to Obama based on how nasty the Clinton campaign got.