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U.S. NEWSTuesday 8 March 2016
Bloomberg not to mount third-party bid for White House
JONATHAN LEMIRE Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg talks with diplo- campaign I can remem- complete the petition pro-
Associated Press mats at U.N. headquarters. Bloomberg said Monday that he will ber, preying on people’s cess needed to get on the
NEW YORK (AP) — For- not run for president as an independent. prejudices and fears.” ballots in all 50 states.
mer New York City Mayor He was similarly critical of Those close to the pro-
Michael Bloomberg said (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews) Cruz, saying the Texas sen- cess said Bloomberg had
Monday that he will not ator’s “pandering on immi- believed the dominance
run for president as an in- conscience.” the real estate mogul has gration may lack Trump’s of Donald Trump among
dependent, in a move rhetorical excess, but it is no Republicans and the rise
that would have roiled this Bloomberg was blistering in run “the most divisive and less extreme.” of Bernie Sanders amid
year’s already extraordi- Bloomberg made only an Democrats had opened a
narily unpredictable presi- his critique of Trump, saying demagogic presidential oblique reference Demo- centrist lane for a non-ide-
dential campaign. The crats Hillary Clinton or Ber- ological, pragmatic cam-
billionaire, who has spent nie Sanders and did not en- paign. But Hillary Clinton’s
months mulling an inde- dorse a candidate. string of recent victories has
pendent campaign, made The former three-term may- given her a firm grip on the
his decision official through or — who had indicated lead for the Democratic
an editorial posted by the he’d have spent $1 billion nomination and is blocking
Bloomberg View. “There of his own money on the Bloomberg’s possible path,
is a good chance that my run — had set a mid-March aides to the mayor said.
candidacy could lead deadline for his team of The decision concludes
to the election of Donald advisers to assess the feasi- Bloomberg’s third and likely
Trump or Sen. Ted Cruz,” bility of mounting a run, be- final flirtation with a White
Bloomberg wrote. “That is lieving that waiting longer House run, a possibility that
not a risk I can take in good would imperil his ability to had grown popular among
New York’s business class
and, the mayor’s aides had
believed, could have reso-
nated with moderates and
independents across the
nation dissatisfied with the
polarization in Washington
and the rise of the political
parties’ fringes.
Aides to Bloomberg, the
74-year-old Democrat-
turned-Republican-turned-
Democrat-turned inde-
pendent, have said their
own polling suggested that
Bloomberg had a viable
path to the needed 270
electoral votes if Trump,
whom had disgusted the
ex-mayor with his inflam-
matory rhetoric, and Sand-
ers were the nominees. But
an Associated Press-GfK
poll conducted last month
suggested that six in 10 Re-
publicans and Democrats
alike said that would not
consider backing Bloom-
berg. The path grew murk-
ier after Clinton bounced
back from her New Hamp-
shire defeat to win in Ne-
vada, South Carolina and
a number of states on Su-
per Tuesday. q
