No one. No one in my recollection called Mike Bloomberg “Mayor Mike.” If he decides to run for president, an important competitor is “Mayor Pete.” Mayor Pete is 40 years younger, has a loyal following of energized centerists, and fellow members of the gay community. He has been mayor of a city of 100,000 people. Compare that to New York City’s 8.4 million people.
Buttigieg is not Bloomberg’s target. Joe Biden is. Mike Bloomberg thinks he’s got a shot because Joe Biden has run a weak campaign. He is probably wrong. Pundits write about the center lane and the left lane. Bloomberg and the pundits believe he would compete with Biden and a few others for the center lane.
Not exactly. Biden’s high numbers are due to his African American support. Many appreciate Biden’s connection with Barack Obama, with his willingness to take the second spot, a subservient role to Barack Obama without ever appearing that this was anything but normal. Biden has demonstrated to the African American community that he is not a racist.
Mike Bloomberg is unlikely to get Joe Biden’s African American support. He’s competing with Biden and with Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Booker, and Harris for moderate, white, Democratic voters. Each of these candidates have supporters whose reasons are specific to the candidate. Mike Bloomberg, coming late, unwilling to step into the early primaries, seems just a touch arrogant. He is unlikely to draw a lot of voters away from the already active candidate in the middle lane.
Bloomberg a could compete in the early caucuses and primaries if he wanted to. The caucuses (Iowa and Nevada) don’t require candidates to file. New Hampshire’s primary filing deadline on November 15 is earlier than South Carolina’s. Competing in the early caucuses and primaries is a matter of will for Bloomberg, of humbling himself to attempt retail politics.
He’d get a pass for being late to the race if he didn’t do well. Does he get a pass for not trying?