A second billionaire was added on Sunday, November 24, to the race for the Democratic nomination for the presidential election of 2020. The former mayor of New York Republic, passed by independent and then democratic box, Michael Bloomberg, 77, founder of the powerful news agency that bears his name, announced an application he had rejected earlier this year. " I'm a presidential candidate to beat Donald Trump and rebuild America He assured on his campaign site.
He joins the philanthropist Tom Steyer, whose fortune seems of no help, for the moment, to convince the democratic voters. The two men have engaged in recent years in causes that progressives are sensitive: the environment, registration on electoral lists that purposefully complicate the Republican states, as well as the regulation of the firearms market.
The announcement of Michael Bloomberg, who put forward his experience, crowned an approach walk that went through an act of contrition and a huge check. The first, carried out in an African-American church in Brooklyn, a week earlier, targeted the policy of arbitrary arrests and searches (stop and frisk) that he has long defended while he fed facies checks targeting ethnic minorities. " I was wrong He acknowledged. The second is a massive investment of $ 31 million in advertising that will sweep in the first states to organize the primaries. This campaign could be followed by another, even more massive ($ 100 million), specifically aimed at Donald Trump in the handful of states that will decide the election of 2020.
This late entry into the race is not without risks. On the one hand because the democratic race is already well launched and that it advances now with a dynamic which was punctuated by five debates. The former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick, who also started very late, experienced it a few days ago being forced to cancel a public meeting on November 20 that had attracted only two curious in an African-American university, the Morehouse College, a week after his start to the campaign.
"The last example of a rigged political system"
In choosing to be self-financing, Michael Bloomberg condemns himself to never appear on stage alongside the other contenders since participation involves the ability to attract the dollars of small donors, while the influence of large fortunes on elections is fueling an already heated debate. Despite his commitment to causes that are important to the Democratic electorate, the billionaire gives the impression of being free from the rules.
