Bloomberg, who has spent upward of $380 million in advertising before ever seeing a debate stage, will likely spend the evening answering tough questions on race, claims he made inappropriate comments to women who worked for him and the millions he has spent on his bid to unseat fellow New York billionaire Donald Trump.
A change in the rules governing who could participate in the Democratic debates allowed Bloomberg to make his way onto the stage in Las Vegas on Wednesday. Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez announced last month that the rules had been changed allowing candidates to qualify for the debate by scoring 10 percent or more in four qualifying polls.
The new rule dropped the requirement that candidates meet a fundraising goal to be considered for the debate stage. Bloomberg is self-funding his run for the nomination and is not accepting donations.
Bloomberg is estimated to have a net worth of around $62.8 billion. As of last November, he was the 12th-richest person in the world.
Candidates have until 11:59 p.m. Tuesday to qualify for the debate.
The other leading Democratic candidates have been vocal in their opposition to Bloomberg entering the race as a Democrat. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, slammed Bloomberg on Sunday, accusing him of trying to buy the election.
Sanders told a crowd in Nevada he “didn’t see Mike in Iowa,” referring to the Iowa caucuses, “But he thinks he can buy this election.
“Well, I got news for Mr. Bloomberg, and that is the American people are sick and tired of billionaires buying elections.”
Former Vice President Joe Biden attacked Bloomberg on his one-time support of “stop and frisk,” a policy where police officers stopped and questioned people they believed to be engaged in criminal activity then searched them for weapons.
The vast majority of those who were stopped on the street were young black or brown males.
Bloomberg has apologized for supporting stop and frisk.“I’m going to get a chance to debate him on everything from redlining (racially discriminatory lending practices) to stop-and-frisk to a whole range of other things,” Biden said on ABC’s “The View” last week.
A National Public Radio/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll showed Bloomberg with the support of 19 percent of Democratic primary voters nationwide. He comes in second to Sanders, who had 31 percent support in the poll, and is ahead of Biden, who was at 15 percent.
During the past week, videos have emerged of Bloomberg seeming to disparage farmers and explaining why, at the time, he thought stop and frisk was a good policy. Over the weekend, allegations of him saying profane and sexist comments to women who worked for him have resurfaced.
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