Mike Bloomberg isn’t the first very rich man to use his vast wealth to try to chart an express route to the Oval Office.
But he sure seems to be the first to do it with the audacity of a corporate titan building a competition-crushing Fortune 100 company.
In less than three months, the Bloomberg campaign machine has hired more than 2,100 and opened more than 125 offices across almost every state in the country, some in places where no other Democratic candidate has a presence. The billionaire is overwhelming the airwaves with slick ads, driving the buzz on social media with a quirky meme strategy, and outspending President Trump on Facebook. He’s snagging top political talent with salaries far above the ramen-and-beer budget pay of a typical campaign — plus benefits and perks such as catered meals and top-of-the-line iPhones.
“We have never in American history seen a campaign where the campaign budget was ‘no budget,'” said Fernand Amandi, a Democratic political consultant in Miami. “It’s impossible to appreciate the reach and scale he is able to do.”
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