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Mike Bloomberg's failed presidential campaign cost him over $500 million. Here are some of the things the billionaire spent money on, from free booze and NYC apartments for staff to catered events for supporters.
Mike Bloomberg's failed presidential campaign cost him over $500 million. Here are some of the things the billionaire spent money on, from free booze and NYC apartments for staff to catered events for supporters.
Taylor Nicole RogersMar 5, 2020, 22:21 IST
Mike Bloomberg spent millions flooding the country with ads during his presidential campaign before it ended Wednesday - and he spent money on a lot of other things too.
Bloomberg treated staffers to perks that rival those at Google, including salaries nearly double those at other campaigns, free meals, booze, iPhone 11s, and furnished apartments on Manhattan's Upper East Side.
The former New York City mayor also gave his supporters free food, T-shirts, and buttons at rallies.
Bloomberg's bid for the Democratic nomination cost over $500 million - or $5.6 million per day. Bloomberg's campaign spent 70% of its total budget on advertising, according to The New York Times, but that still left tens of millions for more frivolous purchases.
The former New York City mayor's investments in advertising didn't pay off either. Bloomberg spent a quarter of a billion dollars running ads in Super Tuesday states, only to get trounced by frontrunners Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. Bloomberg's only outright win was the American Samoa, whose total GDP is only slightly greater than Bloomberg's ad spending.
Bloomberg is the richest person in American history to run for president, and his campaign costs didn't even make a dent in his massive fortune.
Keep reading to see how Bloomberg's campaign spent its money.
Bloomberg hired top of the line consultants and overpaid them.
The starting salary for entry-level Bloomberg field organizers was $72,000, according to The New York Times. The salary was almost twice the $42,000 other campaigns were paying for similar roles, The Times noted.
"Everyone knows that campaigning is hard work, long hours, and lousy pay," Bloomberg campaign spokesperson Stu Loeser told The Times. "We can't change the first two, but we can do something about the third."
The campaign issued brand new MacBooks and iPhone 11s to staffers.
The electronics were purchased to improve the campaign's cybersecurity, representatives told The Times.
He also offered staffers full healthcare benefits and free housing.
Staffers were offered full benefits packages and stays in fully furnished apartments on Manhattan's Upper East Side, The Times reported.
Staffers at the campaign headquarters got three free meals a day plus snacks.
Bloomberg's national campaign headquarters has an on-site cafe that feeds everyone, according to The Times. It served both pizza and tuna steak on one night in February, according to New York Magazine.
The campaign also dropped thousands on private events.
The campaign's Federal Election Commission filings revealed that it spent $16,000 at a Manhattan sushi restaurant and another $200,000 on catering from FLIK Hospitality, The Times reported.
He also catered his rallies.
Bloomberg served wine, beer, and goat cheese puffs at a New York City rally in January, in addition to renting out a hotel ballroom and hiring a DJ for the occasion, The Times reported.
The former mayor served cheese steaks, hoagies, and cheese boards with honey-coated brie, fig jam, and flatbreads at a different rally in Philadelphia in February, according to The Times.
Bloomberg's campaign also gave away free T-shirts and buttons to supporters.
The shirts, which were laid out for anyone to grab, had a variety for pro-Bloomberg slogans including "I Like Mike"; "Women for Mike"; and"Ganamos con Mike," The Times reported.
He also reportedly paid canvassers to do work that his rivals' campaigns typically reserved for volunteers.
Some of Bloomberg's canvassers were being paid $6,000 a month while other campaigns didn't pay canvassers at all, one campaign worker told New York Magazine. They also got to take advantage of some of the higher-ranking employees' perks.
Bloomberg even funded an unconventional meme campaign on Instagram.
The billionaire's campaign recruited smaller influencers to create original content for the team, the Daily Beast's Scott Bixby reported. Bloomberg's campaign offered a fixed $150 fee to produce social media posts that "Show+Tell why Mike is the candidate who can change our country for the better [and] state why YOU think he's a great candidate," according to a post on influencer marketplace Tribe, Business Insider reported.
Meme accounts dropped sponsored posts promoting Bloomberg en masse, as first reported by the New York Times' Taylor Lorenz. Each account posted a screenshot of what appears to be an Instagram direct message conversation with Bloomberg, in which he requests a sponsored post, or shares a dad humor-type joke, or flaunts his net worth, Business Insider reported.
