Recently Democrats have begun to ask themselves: Is Bloomberg going to put some of his massive fortune behind them in 2020? After spending a ton on his presidential race, he promised to help Biden and down ballot but nothing has materialized yet even though he’s pledged over $100 million. In 2018, he also gave this amount and while it was mostly through donations to Democratic organizations he also had direct control over spending through 2 major SuperPACS: Everytown and Independence USA. Spending here, collected from the FEC, could give some insights into how he may spend again this time. The chart below shows all Independent Expenditure House spending by week for the 2018 cycle with Bloomberg’s group in green.
Bloomberg waited until the very end of the election cycle to drop cash and between the week of October 21st and 28th accounted for over 20% of all cash spent. Partly because it could wait until the end but also by swinging races late, Independence USA and Everytown had some of the most successful targeting last cycle with the least amount of waste, as the table below displays.
If we see Bloomberg’s direct spending it won’t be until everything comes down to the wire but watch where the money goes and how much eventually goes in.
Noah Rudnick (@rudnicknoah) is a contributor to Decision Desk HQ.