Bloomberg's Insane Bid To Shape Florida's Elections

We all know that Michael Bloomberg may have held office as a Republican, but his claimed party affiliation had absolutely no bearing on how he governed New York. Further, since leaving office, he’s routinely been knee-deep in trying to cram New York-style gun control down the rest of the country’s throat.

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That desire is behind his latest move, where he’s hoping to shift Florida’s political landscape completely.

When billionaire Mike Bloomberg ended his presidential campaign in March, he pledged to spend “whatever it takes” to help Democrats defeat President Donald Trump. Less than two months before the election, he’s finally coming through.

Facing questions about whether he would fulfill his promise, Bloomberg over the weekend moved to direct $100 million to Florida alone in support of Joe Biden. It’s a massive sum on par with the resources he poured into helping Democrats retake the House in 2018 and could put Trump on defense in a state that is critical to his reelection.

Billionaire donors have long played a central role in supporting both parties. Yet no one has proposed pumping in so much cash to support a presidential campaign in a single state. Bloomberg’s allies say the investment is in line with his longtime strategy in business and politics: to make the most impactful investment, based on the best data, at the right time.

“Mike Bloomberg is an impact player,” said former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, who served as a co-chair of Bloomberg’s presidential campaign. “He’s looking across the field. He takes in the data. He looks at the evidence, does the analysis and then determines where to best have his impact to change the course of an election. That’s why he decided to invest so heavily in Florida.”

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I’m unconvinced.

Of course, I would be.

See, the problem as I see it is that his push in 2018 was targeted to particular House races. Those deal with more local politics, so even a very red state can have a few districts that flip blue with enough money pumped into the area.

But to try and influence an entire state or nation that way? It’s not particularly likely.

After all, vast resources were dropped in Florida in 2018, particularly from anti-gun folks like Bloomberg. After all, Parkland shook the state deeply. Many believed it was the time to turn the state blue.

It didn’t.

Nikki Fried was the only Democrat to win state-wide office and she only won because her opponent was somewhat scandal-ridden. There just wasn’t any kind of support for Democrats despite the recent horrors of a high-profile school shooting.

If that didn’t do it, I’m not sure even a $100 million effort is going to do all that much. Especially not in light of the Democrats failure to deal with rioting in numerous cities and Biden’s refusal to condemn it until polling told him the riots weren’t playing well with people.

Of course, that doesn’t mean anyone should be cocky about it. That’s how Virginia fell to the anti-gunners, after all. Everyone just assumed all would be well and we see how that worked out. Instead, it’s time to rally the troops, so to speak and make it clear that Florida isn’t interested in New York meddling.

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Then again, I’d really like to know at what point it counts as buying Joe Biden. If the NRA is buying lawmakers for a few thousand in donations, this has got to be an attempt to buy a presidential candidate.

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