To further complicate the strategies of the rest of the 2020 Democrat primary field, billionaire candidate Michael Bloomberg announced on Monday in an email to staff, as first reported by Politico, that his campaign will be occupying the eighth floor of the former New York Times building in New York City.
His staff has grown to 300 full-time employees and his effort has spent over $100 million recently in cable and online political ads in locales across the nation — all focused on states involved in March’s Super Tuesday primary contests in early 2020.
This will disrupt the operations of the current top tier of frontrunners, as they not only will need to contend with each other but with the political longevity and buying power that Bloomberg’s fortune brings him.
In a tactic reminiscent of a national political novice, though, Bloomberg plans to use an open floor plan — something he’s been known to embrace in the past.
He opined, “Some people like to build walls. I like to tear them down.”
What the former mayor thinks is that by doing this he will encourage the free flow of information in a collaborative environment.
Not quite.
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As a veteran of hundreds of political campaigns, this analyst can tell you they are often staffed by those more concerned with status building and turf protection than they are with winning for any specific candidate.
What the open floor plan will allow staffers is easy access to each other — and possibly to the candidate — to hatch internal plots and power grabs designed to feather their own nests. Disciplined candidacies with solid chains of command usually fare much better at the polls.
Bloomberg, a perceived moderate, has a long road to travel to gain the nomination of a political party held hostage by the far-Left.
He is hoping a cross-party appeal as a successful businessman will aid him in that quest. It may and it may not.
But what does — and it’s perhaps the only thing — is his pile of riches.
It will be interesting to see if America’s virtual socialist party is impressed by it.
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