Bloomberg’s $18 million gift could help Democrats in NC, but leave staffers jobless
Former presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg’s announcement Friday that he’s transferring $18 million to the Democratic Party came with a downside for his campaign workers, who suddenly found themselves out of a job during a national crisis.
The campaign announced it’s transferring the money to the Democratic National Committee to use in North Carolina and other battleground states.
“It is critically important that we all do everything we can to support our eventual nominee and scale the Democratic Party’s general election efforts,” it said in a release. “We therefore believe the best thing we can all do . . . is to help the group that matters most in this fight: the Democratic National Committee.”
But in a conference call with Bloomberg’s campaign staff Friday, workers were told that salaries and benefits they had been told would last until November were ending.
“It’s a punch to the gut with the epidemic going on and the economy flat-lining,” said one former staffer, who asked not to be named because they’d signed non-disclosure agreements. “We were all promised that we’d work through November.”
Bloomberg, who quit the race earlier this month, had a paid staff of 125 in North Carolina, far more than any other presidential candidate. Some workers made six-figure salaries. They had generous health care insurance coverage. And most were told they’d have jobs until November regardless of how Bloomberg did.
“They called us today . . . (and) just said, ‘We decided to go in a different direction’,” another campaign staffer said.
In its release, the campaign said staff in North Carolina and five other battleground states will be paid through the first week in April and have full benefits through April. They can apply to the Democratic Party for jobs in what the Bloomberg officials called a “competitive hiring process.” Those jobs are not expected to pay what Bloomberg’s paid.
After Bloomberg dropped out after Super Tuesday, there were reports that he’d form a new independent expenditure group that would absorb most of his staff. But he decided against that.
“From the perspective of beating Donald Trump, having substantial resources in a coordinated campaign this early is by far the best thing we could do,” Dan Kanninen, Bloomberg’s States Director, told campaign workers in the call. “An independent effort would simply not be as effective or efficient in our goal of defeating Donald Trump in November. So we have made the choice . . . to transfer these resources to the Party to supercharge their coordinated campaign.”
National Party Chair Tom Perez, meanwhile, welcomed Bloomberg’s decision.
“Mayor Bloomberg and his team are making good on their commitment to beating Donald Trump,” Perez said in a statement. “This will help us invest in more organizers across the country to elect the next president and help Democrats win up and down the ballot.”
This story was originally published March 20, 2020 at 4:12 PM.
