Sanders’s Campaign Says It Won’t Take Bloomberg’s Money
Sanders’s Campaign Says It Won’t Take Bloomberg’s Money
(Bloomberg) -- Bernie Sanders’s campaign says it doesn’t want rival Michael Bloomberg’s money if Sanders wins the nomination, and the Bloomberg campaign says it’s willing to comply.
“It’s a hard no,” Jeff Weaver, Sanders’s campaign manager, told reporters after the Democratic presidential debate Tuesday night, according to NBC News. “Bernie has said he’s going to fund his presidential campaign with small-dollar contributions, and I think we can do that. I think we can raise over a billion dollars in small-dollar contributions.”
Bloomberg, who is self-funding his campaign, has repeatedly said that even if he doesn’t win the nomination, he’ll continue paying staff and keep offices open in key battleground states to help defeat President Donald Trump.
The former New York mayor said on a televised CNN town hall on Wednesday night that the pledge still stands because of the need to prevent Trump from being re-elected.
“I made a commitment that we have these campaign offices all over the country, and we will keep the main ones open through November 3rd, so whoever is the nominee can use those,’’ he said.
(Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)
But on Tuesday night, Howard Wolfson, senior adviser to the Bloomberg campaign, said Sanders’s position is fine with the campaign.
“I don’t think it would be prudent to spend on behalf of somebody who didn’t want it,” Wolfson told NBC. “I think everyone else has said they want the help, including Elizabeth Warren. If Elizabeth Warren is the nominee, we will do everything we can to help her.”
Tensions between the billionaire and the democratic socialist have been escalating recently and the two argued at Tuesday’s debate over their electability, their policies and their feelings about authoritarian regimes.
Bloomberg campaign spokesman Julie Wood declined to answer questions about future spending and said “we’re focused on making Mike the nominee.”
“At the end of the day, the law is such that anyone can do whatever they want,” Weaver said on Wednesday. “We intend to fund our campaign with grassroots dollars. Of course there are down-ballot candidates and party activities that require funding beyond the presidential race alone.”
Bloomberg said in January that he would keep “a chunk” of his ground game operating working to defeat Trump.
The anti-Trump effort would be independent of the nominee’s campaign, meaning Sanders may have little say in that matter.
Bloomberg has spent more than a half-billion dollars so far on advertising since joining the race last Nov. 24, and he’s built a ground operation with 2,400 staffers in more than 200 offices across 43 states, his campaign has said.
--With assistance from Tyler Pager.
To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Niquette in Washington at mniquette@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Max Berley, Jon Herskovitz
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