Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg ended up shelling out more than $1 billion of his own money on his brief and unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Just last month, the billionaire businessman and media mogul spent $176 million on his White House bid, according to a campaign finance report he filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Monday.
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That brought the centrist candidate’s overall bill to more than $1 billion for a campaign that lasted less than four months.
Bloomberg declared his candidacy on Nov. 24. Since he jumped into the race well after his other rivals for the Democratic nomination, he decided to forgo campaigning in the four early voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, and instead concentrated all his time and firepower in the delegate-rich states that held primaries and caucuses on Super Tuesday.
But after disappointing finishes in the coast-to-coast March 3 contests, Bloomberg dropped out of the race the next day and endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden, who emerged as the front-runner after sweeping most of the states that voted on Super Tuesday.
Bloomberg ended up winning just 55 Democratic convention delegates. Do the math and he ended up spending roughly $18 million per delegate.
EX-CAMPAIGN STAFFERS SLAM BLOOMBERG OVER LAYOFFS
Even though Bloomberg dropped out early in March, he ended up paying $23.3 million in salary, benefits and payroll taxes and fees to campaign staffers, according to his finance report.
Numerous ex-staffers blasted Bloomberg, saying he offered them false promises of job security through the November election no matter what happened to his candidacy.
CALLS FOR ENDING CAMPAIGN LOOPHOLE AFTER BLOOMBERG TRANSFERS $18 MILLION TO DNC
Bloomberg decided against forming his own super PAC to support the party’s eventual nominee and instead ended up transferring $18 million in campaign funds to the Democratic National Committee. That massive transfer of money sparked a complaint by Republicans to the FEC.
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