Bloomberg could bring $1bn to US president race

American plutocracy could soon be getting a leg up. As if the field for the 2016 US presidential election is not crowded enough and the race not expensive enough, another billionaire may be joining the electoral bash.

 

Michael Bloomberg, the 73-year-old former New York mayor and publishing tycoon, is said to have instructed his aides to do some polling and examine previous third-party bids to see if he has a realistic chance of making it to the White House. According to some media reports, the continued popularity of a fellow Newyorker billionaire Donald Trump, the troubled campaign of Hillary Clinton, and the rise of the socialist Bernie Sanders, has given Bloomberg the sense of an opening in the presidential race, which is typically a two-party affair in the US.

 

No third-party candidate has ever won a US presidential election. The strongest showing for a third-party candidate came in 1912 when former President Teddy Roosevelt left the Republican Party and ran as a Bull Moose Party candidate, coming in second with 27.4% of the popular vote and 88 electoral votes. Billionaire tech honcho Ross Perot polled 19% in 1992 but did not win any electoral votes.

Bloomberg has already taken come concrete steps towards a possible campaign, indicating to some friends and allies that he would be willing to spend as much as $ 1 billion of his fortune, the New York Times, among several outlets that was electrified by the development, reported.

 

He has to make a decision by early-March, the latest point at which he can still qualify to be on the ballot in all 50 states.

If Bloomberg decides to run, the 2016 race could turn out to be the most expensive election in human history given that two billionaires with enormous personal fortunes could end up duking it out.

Political pundits differ on what the impact of an independent candidate could be. If Trump wins the Republican nomination and draws Bloomberg into the race, Sanders could get a boost from the so-called plebs and the proletariat displeased about two billionaire plutocrats in the fray. On the other hand, Trump and Sanders at opposite ends of the ideological spectrum could make Bloomberg an attractive proposition.