No endorsements, but introductions for Bloomberg from big-city mayors in NC
At least eight mayors from across the country have backed the 2020 presidential campaign of former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who opened a field office in downtown Raleigh on Friday afternoon.
In North Carolina, the mayors of the two biggest cities have not endorsed him but they are appearing with the billionaire Democrat, who has funded initiatives for cities and hosted mayor training sessions. New Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin welcomed him to the city by introducing him to his supporters Friday.
Baldwin said his perspective from being the three-term mayor of New York City would be great for the future of the United States.
“Here, in places like Raleigh, this is where new ideas and new ways of thinking are incubated, bubbling into conversations and public policy,” Baldwin said. “No one knows the importance of innovation like Mayor Bloomberg.”
Bloomberg is the first presidential candidate in Raleigh since Baldwin took office in December. Baldwin said she had been asked to attend several events with other candidates, but was unable to do so.
Turning NC blue
Bloomberg stressed to supporters that they needed to defeat President Donald Trump.
“This is a crusade for change and to return our country to sanity, honesty, inclusion, compassion and human decency,” Bloomberg told a crowd of more than 250 supporters who responded with loud applause.
Bloomberg visited his campaign’s downtown office at 207 W. Davie St. before opening another office in Fayetteville, where he met with veterans and military families.
Bloomberg said he met with Gov. Roy Cooper Friday morning when he landed in North Carolina, and planned to visit Charlotte on Friday night for “nostalgia reasons.”
“I know you haven’t seen a lot of Democratic presidential candidates in North Carolina,” Bloomberg told the crowd. “The only other candidate I know that has been campaigning here like mad and around the country is Donald Trump and that’s a big problem and is a serious, big problem for Nov. 3.”
Bloomberg is worth more than $50 billion and is funding his presidential campaign with his own money. Bloomberg is polling at about 4.8%, according to Real Clear Politics’ average. That is fifth among the Democratic candidates, but well behind the top four.
Bloomberg is not spending his time in Iowa and New Hampshire — the first two states to produce results — and he failed to file for the ballot in Nevada, another early state. Instead, he is focusing on states like North Carolina that vote on March 3’s Super Tuesday and outpacing competitors with more than $100 million in television advertising.
North Carolina will award 110 delegates, the third-most available on Super Tuesday trailing California and Texas.
Bloomberg has also announced plans to register 500,000 voters from traditionally underrepresented populations in several states, including North Carolina.
Bloomberg on Trump
Most of Bloomberg’s speech in Raleigh focused on his own record as New York City’s mayor and what he found wrong in the president’s career.
He also called for an end to tweets from the White House.
Trump was a resident of New York City while Bloomberg was mayor, and Bloomberg said he worked closely with the businessman and saw how he operated. Bloomberg recalled saying during the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia that Trump was not fit to be president.
Trump campaign spokeswoman Samantha Cotten responded to Bloomberg’s campaign events in an email, saying: “Michael Bloomberg believes he can buy his way into North Carolina and push the same radical policy ideas that plagued New York City during his tenure as mayor.”
Airstrike, deployed troops
Bloomberg briefly acknowledged an overnight airstrike in Iraq ordered by Trump that killed top Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani. He said he hopes the president carefully thought out the national security implications.
The U.S. announced Friday it is deploying around 3,500 additional soldiers from Fort Bragg to the Middle East to protect American personnel, bases and interests after Iran promised to retaliate for the drone strike.
Bloomberg called for de-escalating “the crisis” to prevent a wider conflict or loss of American lives.
Bloomberg also touched on the state’s settlement Thursday with Duke Energy to remove coal ash from its sites and congratulated those who pushed to make that settlement happen.
“This was something that was really environmentally terrible and stored in places where it leaks into the ground and the dams break and things like that,” Bloomberg said. “We’ve got to make sure they are held responsible and this decision will make that happen.”
But the overarching theme in Bloomberg’s speech Friday was winning the election and reuniting a broken country.
“I’m going to unite people,” Bloomberg said. “I’m just going to do it.
“I’m convinced we can win.”
Mayors of Raleigh, Charlotte
When Bloomberg opened his state headquarters in Charlotte on Dec. 15, Mayor Vi Lyles was among those who introduced him. Charlotte was a winner of Bloomberg’s American Cities Climate Challenge in 2017, a designation that brought Charlotte more than $2 million.
“I am a better mayor because of Mike Bloomberg,” Lyles told a crowd of about 200, according to the Charlotte Observer. “We’re a better city because of Mike Bloomberg. And I think this country can be a better country because of Mike Bloomberg.”
The message of support was not an official endorsement. But other leaders in cities across the nation have backed Bloomberg, including the including the mayors of Columbia, South Carolina, and Tacoma, Washington. He also picked up endorsements from the mayors of San Jose; Louisville, Kentucky; Gary, Indiana; Stockton, California; Augusta, Georgia; and Huntington, West Virginia.
All of them attended a mayoral training conference that Bloomberg sponsors at Harvard, according to The New York Times. Like Charlotte, many of the cities have received grants and other funding from Bloomberg for various initiatives.
Baldwin said she has not attended any training and was not aware of any funding the city had received from Bloomberg, though she said Raleigh did apply for at least one grant. She said she is not going to endorse a candidate in the Democratic primary, but she hopes to see a lot more of them.
“I am interested in what Mayor Bloomberg has to say. He was the mayor of New York City. He understands the challenges we face in terms of housing, in terms of transportation and the role that the feds play in that,” Baldwin said in a phone interview.
“We try to operate local government in a non-partisan way. That is the appropriate course of action,” she said. “We want to see the candidates come through. That’s how you learn more about them. That’s how you get a feel for them.”
Former Mayor Nancy McFarlane met with Bloomberg in New York City in 2011, shortly after she became mayor. She wrote that they chatted for more than an hour and she “learned a great deal about expanding the arts, meeting the needs of changing demographics and strategies for enhancing city staff synergy.”
Elizabeth Warren is the only other Democratic candidate to campaign in Raleigh thus far. She visited on Nov. 7. Several candidates, including front-runner Joe Biden, have visited Durham, while many other candidates have made stops in the state.
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Domecast politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it on Megaphone, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.
This story was originally published January 3, 2020 at 12:29 PM.
