Bloomberg’s former campaign manager gives his picks for 2020
No one knows the political world quite like Bradley Tusk.
He has worked behind the scenes with some of the most prominent – and controversial – politicians over the last 25 years.
In 2009, he helped Michael Bloomberg re-claim his seat as New York City’s mayor. Before that he worked alongside the now-infamous former governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, and served as communications director for Democratic New York Sen. Chuck Schumer.
“With the exception of Mike Bloomberg, every single politician that I either worked for or against – or just interacted with – made every decision solely by electoral concerns,” Tusk told FOX Business. “Will this decision help [me] win the next election or hurt me.”
Tusk, who has since left the political scene to run his own venture capital firm, Tusk Holdings, to help big startups like Uber and Tesla fight through old school government regulations, said while he doesn’t know for sure if Bloomberg plans to run for president in 2020, he does know that he’s interested.
“I think Mike would like to be president. I don’t think I’m revealing any state secrets here,” Tusk said.
“I also think he would be an amazing president because he is probably the only politician that I’ve interacted with who doesn’t make decisions solely based on politics. He just can’t stand politics. And, that is why he does things right and that’s why he was a successful mayor.”
He said the biggest question right now for Bloomberg is, can he win?
Bloomberg has decided that if he were to seek the nomination, he’d be better off doing so as a Democrat instead of an independent.
“In 2016, we looked at it. We even put together a campaign for him to run as an independent but he has concluded there's not really a viable path for an independent, so he switched his registration.”
Tusk said one of the biggest problems in politics is that with the exception of Bloomberg, most people who run for office do it because they are insecure and they need to be validated, so they essentially put themselves through the “miserable, insane process to get it.”
“Like if you took Chuck Schumer's attention away, he would shrivel up and die,” he said, adding that the notion is true of most politicians.
While Tusk is most likely done with running campaigns and is solely focused on saving startups from “death by politics,” which he chronicles in his new book, “The Fixer,” he does have his list of favorites heading into 2020.
“The thing that I would love to see is a mayor run. You got Eric Garcetti out of Los Angeles and [Mitch] Landrieu out of New Orleans. Mayors know how to get things done right,” he said. “[Also] maybe someone from the private sector. Howard Schultz has thought about it. He certainty has great experience. Oprah has talked about it. She could be a viable candidate.”
Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti speaks during a two-day summit of the C40 Cities initiative, a network of cities making plans to cut planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions along levels agreed upon in Paris two years ago.. REUTERS/Charles Platiau
BOSTON, MA - MAY 20: Mitch Landrieu speaks at the John F. Kennedy Library at the annual JFK Profile in Courage Award on May 20, 2018 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Paul Marotta/Getty Images)
Tusk said in the political climate today, voters have made it abundantly clear that if a party sends out a career politician, people are not going to vote for them.
You can listen to the full interview with Bradley Tusk here on FOX NEWS Podcasts