Bloomberg’s money won’t be enough: Key Democratic strategist
Bloomberg needs a 'very strong showing in states on Super Tuesday that are delegate rich'
The only Democratic pollster to be part of three winning presidential campaigns doesn’t think Michael Bloomberg can get the party’s nomination simply by spending millions.
Joel Benenson talked to Gerry Baker on "WSJ at Large" on FOX Business about Bloomberg’s multimillion-dollar ad campaign and his unorthodox strategy of avoiding several early caucuses and primaries and entering the race at the March 3 Super Tuesday when voters in 14 states go to the polls.
“Mike Bloomberg is testing the system here," he said. "It remains to be seen whether it will work. He’s not the first person of means who’s tried to pour a lot of money in.”
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But Benenson explains that eventually the billionaire businessman and former New York City mayor has to convert those dollars into actual votes.
“He’s going to have to have a very strong showing in states on Super Tuesday that are delegate-rich,” he pointed out. “Take California. He’s already spent over 100 million dollars in that state, and he’s still polling, except for one poll where he broke double digits, in single digits in almost every poll.”
Michael Bloomberg speaks to supporters at a campaign office, Monday, Jan. 27, 2020, in Scarborough, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
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Benenson has quite a resume within the Democratic Party. He worked on Bill Clinton’s 1996 campaign, was a key adviser to Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 and was Hillary Clinton’s chief strategist in 2016. And he thinks Bloomberg has a lot to prove.
“He’s got to demonstrate that he can win with a different kind of campaign,” Benenson says. “Barack Obama ran a different campaign, kind of in reverse, where we built up a big ground campaign in 2007 and [2008] and then augmented it with a very significant paid media campaign.”
Benenson believes it remains to be seen whether the tens of millions Bloomberg is spending on campaign commercials are enough to get him on the top of the ballot in November.
“Bloomberg’s going to have to get people on the ground to support him," he argued. “He’s testing the theory of whether you can just win this with an air war.”