Former NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg (image via campaign)Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg has announced he will donate assets from his now-defunct presidential campaign – including $18 million in cash – to the Democratic Party.
The assets will be used to organize voters in general election swing states.
From the Washington Post:
The decision, which exploits a provision in campaign finance law available only to federal candidates, amounts to a shift in strategy for the billionaire political activist, who had previously promised to personally fund ground staff and offices in six states through an independent expenditure effort.
He now hopes that much of the same operation will be run through the state and national Democratic Party, which would allow for it to directly coordinate with the Democratic nominee, who he expects to be former vice president Joe Biden. An independent expenditure campaign is barred from such coordination.
Under normal circumstances, federal rules allow individuals to give a maximum of $355,000 per year to the Democratic National Committee. The party has set up a Democratic Grassroots Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee with state parties, that allows wealthy individuals to give $865,000 in one year. Bloomberg has already donated the maximum allowed to this account.
But the new shift of resources means he is able to give more than 20 times the maximum a donor can give to the national party in one year, because of provisions that allow federal candidates to donate unlimited amounts of leftover money to national and state parties as they wind down their campaigns.