As Michael Bloomberg inches his way toward a late entrance into the 2020 Democratic primaries, his past as a Republican will no doubt come into focus. But it’s important to recall that Bloomberg was always really a Democrat, and only spent time as a Republican out of short-term convenience.
It all came back to his first political campaign, his run for mayor of New York City in 2001. Though leading up to that point, Bloomberg had been a Democrat, at that point, the Democratic field was already large and crowded.
The Republican Party, however, was desperate to find a plausible candidate to succeed Rudy Giuliani. When Giuliani was elected in 1993, he was the first Republican to do so in the overwhelmingly Democratic city since 1965. With Giuliani out of the picture, the assumption was that things would reset to normal, and a Democrat would be elected. So then Bloomberg steps into the race with an effectively unlimited bank account, and Republicans were all too eager to hand him the nomination.
When it came to the general election, Bloomberg basically promised to continue Giuliani’s tough on crime policies with less drama and to work to rebuild downtown New York City after 9/11.
Bloomberg ended up winning, of course, helped by the fact that Democrats emerged from a bitter runoff deeply divided.
He eventually switched to an independent before coming back home to the Democratic Party.
In any event, Bloomberg may be moderate by the standards of today’s Democratic Party, but effectively he was always a Democrat. He simply took advantage of the fact that the Republican Party in 2001 was the clearer path to becoming mayor.
