possible strong third party White House bid
Jan Kok
for president as an independent or third party candidate, and might
have a good chance of winning
Now, if he should run and win, fine, he probably would deserve to win.
But if he runs and doesn't win, then he might act as a spoiler and
cause the less-popular major party candidate to win. Do we want that
to happen? (Again?!)
So there we have another reason to work for a better voting method for
the Nov 2008 elections.
Cheers,
- Jan
Bloomberg's secret White House bid
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/11/nbloomberg111.xml
By Toby Harnden, US Editor, in Washington
Last Updated: 9:25pm BST 11/05/2007
Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire businessman and mayor of New York,
is secretly building the financial and organisational foundations of
an audacious third-party presidential candidacy that would transform
the 2008 race for the White House.
A recent poll gave Mr Bloomberg a 73 per cent approval rating among New Yorkers.
"He wants to do this, he thinks he could win it and he thinks he could
be a great president," said a source closely connected to the mayor's
inner circle.
"Mike Bloomberg has got $500 million to spend and he is supremely confident."
The Daily Telegraph has established that a senior aide to Mr Bloomberg
has held three lunch meetings, two of them last month, with officials
from the Independence Party during which there were detailed
discussions of how a third-party bid could be launched.
Kevin Sheekey, Mr Bloomberg's special adviser and chief political
strategist, first met Frank MacKay, New York chair of the Independence
Party, for exploratory talks in November at Manhattan's Four Seasons
hotel.
Two further lunch meetings, over steak and seafood at Bobby Van's
restaurant on Broad Street in Manhattan, took place in quick
succession early last month.
The two men were joined by Tom Connolly, state vice chair of the
Independence Party. At the most recent lunch, another Bloomberg
political consultant dropped by for part of the meeting which, like
the others, took place at the Bloomberg camp's request.
A centrist Bloomberg candidacy could seriously damage Hillary Clinton
if she emerged as the Democratic nominee. But a conservative
Republican nominee such as John McCain, Mitt Romney or Fred Thompson,
who has yet to enter the race, could also stand to lose millions of
votes to him.
Ross Perot, who secured 19 per cent of the vote in 1992, is widely
credited with enabling Bill Clinton to defeat President George Bush
Snr.
Mr Bloomberg would be likely to run as a social liberal and fiscal
conservative with signature issues such as environmentalism and gun
control.
Mr MacKay declined to confirm or deny whether the meetings had
happened but said that he thought Mr Bloomberg would make an
"excellent candidate" in 2008.
"It's a wide-open field. This is a unique time.
"The Democrats winning the House and the Senate sets up a polarising
situation. There's going to be a lot of conflict between Nancy Pelosi
[Speaker of the House of Representatives and a Democrat] and George
Bush and people are going to have their fill of it."
Running as an independent candidate is a formidable organisational
undertaking because of the different rules across the country about
being allowed on the ballot.
"I'm absolutely in touch with leaders in all 50 states who want a
third party established," said Mr MacKay.
"We are just waiting for the right candidate."
Mr Bloomberg, 65, has publicly denied he is seeking the presidency
while clearly enjoying the speculation. He was re-elected mayor in
2005 and a recent poll gave him a 73 per cent approval rating among
New Yorkers.
His financial information company Bloomberg is believed to be worth
about $20 billion, making his personal stake some $13 billion - a
fortune that would give him the launching pad to compete easily even
in what is certain to be the most expensive election in US history.
Only this week Mr Bloomberg relaunched the website
www.mikebloomberg.com that he used to run for mayor in 2001 and 2005.
Almost identical in style to sites being used by declared presidential
candidates, it includes links to articles that examine his credentials
as a third-party candidate.
Earlier this year in an interview with Fortune magazine, Mr Bloomberg
talked about his future saying "assuming I'm not living at 1600
Pennsylvania Avenue" - the address of the White House.
Mr Bloomberg is understood to waiting until next February to see who
will emerge as the Republican and Democratic nominees before making a
final decision.
Mr MacKay said: "The fly in the ointment for Bloomberg would be
Giuliani because he is moderate to Left when you look at Republicans.
Bloomberg would be squeezed.
"He needs a Fred Thompson or a Mitt Romney or even a John McCain.
Anyone coming from the Right could leave someone like Mike Bloomberg a
tremendous amount of room to get that middle ground."
A Bloomberg company source said that Mr Bloomberg had made
preparations to borrow enough money against his stake in the company
to fund a presidential campaign.
"When the mayoral race was being considered, people said he would be
crazy to do it and he had no chance. Then he won. He's got a financial
plan for 2008 and he's ready to pull the trigger."
Stu Loeser, Mr Bloomberg's spokesman, confirmed that meetings with the
Independence Party took place but said that they were about the
general issue of how a third-party presidential candidate could
compete in 2008.
"The meetings are recent but it's not the first time we've spoken
about supporting independent candidacies," he said.
"The mayor thinks the speculation is very flattering but he's not
running for president. His next career will be as a full-time
philanthropist."
He added: "People read presidential motives into a lot of what he's
doing...but the speculation is good for him and it's very good for the
city. It's an advantage that he's more than happy to exploit."
A political operative who has spoken to senior Bloomberg aides, said:
"This is as dead serious as a heart attack. If they are not serious,
then these people are the greatest actors, the best showmen I've ever
seen. They are talking minutiae. They've done tons of research and
looked into this very deeply."