Bloomberg makes massive $18M transfer from campaign to DNC
Mike Bloomberg is sending $18 million from his defunct presidential campaign to the Democratic National Committee, a dramatic investment in the national party that appears to push the boundaries of campaign finance law.
The money will support the DNC’s “Battleground Build-Up 2020” program, the DNC’s initiative in 12 swing states across the country. The money could fund potentially hundreds of organizers in those swing states.
“This will help us invest in more organizers across the country to elect the next president and help Democrats win up and down the ballot,” DNC chairman Tom Perez said in a statement. The DNC has made early, historic investments in our battleground and general election programs, and the additional organizers we're putting on the ground will significantly bolster those efforts and help make sure Donald Trump is a one-term president.”
The massive transfer signals a change of plans for Bloomberg, who is nixing an earlier idea to form his own super PAC to take on President Donald Trump in 2020.
"While we considered creating our own independent entity to support the nominee and hold the President accountable, this race is too important to have many competing groups with good intentions but that are not coordinated and united in strategy and execution,' an unsigned memo circulated by the Bloomberg campaign read. "The dynamics of the race have also fundamentally changed, and it is critically important that we all do everything we can to support our eventual nominee and scale the Democratic Party’s general election efforts."
A press release accompanying the memo said that staff in six battleground states will be "employed and paid" through the first week in April and have "full benefits" through the end of that month.
Bloomberg would not be able to give the DNC such a massive sum of money as a regular donor. But presidential candidates are allowed to transfer unlimited amounts to their national party committee — though usually those candidates have raised the money from donors operating under campaign finance limits. Bloomberg self-funded his whole presidential campaign from his personal fortune.
The memo from Bloomberg’s operation said that it would be transferring the money, and a Democratic official noted that federal candidates’ campaign committees can transfer an unlimited amount of money to a party committee. This, however, has rarely if ever been done with a candidate who exclusively self-funded their own campaign.
“They put money into their campaign with the full intent of winning the nomination, and put it in before Super Tuesday," Graham Wilson, a lawyer for the DNC, said. He argued the transfer was not “not breaking new ground on the law.”
A Bloomberg spokesperson said that the transfer would appear on the campaign’s next FEC filing in April, meaning the money was transferred sometime this month.
The Bloomberg campaign also announced that it would transfer “several” of its former field offices to state parties.
