November 7, 2019

Rich Guy Michael Bloomberg Is Flirting With Running for President

OK, Bloomberg.

Potential Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg eats a slice of pizza in New Hampshire.Elise Amendola/AP

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Billionaire Michael Bloomberg is privately weighing a presidential run and could test the waters in the Alabama Democratic primary.

Why? As an official matter, it’s about the president. Bloomberg adviser Howard Wolfson, with visions of consulting fees dancing in his eyes, told the New York Times that the former mayor sees fellow New Yorker President Donald Trump as an “unprecedented threat to our nation,” which is what every other Democratic candidate says. 

But between the lines, it’s clearly about the Democratic candidates—specifically about the cash-strapped frontrunner Joe Biden and the populist progressives he can’t seem to put away, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. 

The Times reports:

Should Mr. Bloomberg proceed with a campaign, it could represent a seismic disruption in the Democratic race. With his immense personal wealth, centrist views and close ties to the political establishment, he would present a grave and instantaneous threat to former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who has been struggling to raise money and assemble [an] ideologically moderate coalition.

But Mr. Bloomberg could also reshape the race in other ways, intensifying the Democrats’ existing debates about economic inequality and corporate power, and offering fodder to the party’s rising populist wing, led by Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, who contend that the extremely rich already wield far too much influence in politics. Mr. Bloomberg has repeatedly expressed discomfort with certain policies favored by both Ms. Warren and Mr. Sanders.

It’s hard to think of any sizable constituency within the Democratic coalition to which Bloomberg might appeal. He also was a raging sexist out in the open, and his controversial defense and expansion of “stop-and-frisk”—something Trump has praised—will make it hard for him to peel off the Black voters in Biden’s camp. The best thing you can say about him is that in recent years he has decided to spend his money well, throwing mountains of cash behind gun control initiatives and giving Democrats a boost during the 2018 midterm elections. 

Warren, on Twitter, seemed gleeful at the prospect of having another billionaire in the primary for a foil:

And here’s Bernie: 

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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