D.N.C. Rules Change for Nevada Debate Could Open Door for Bloomberg
In a major shift, the Democratic National Committee will eliminate the requirement that candidates to show evidence of grass-roots support.
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — The Democratic National Committee has opened the door to allowing former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York to participate in the presidential debate it will sponsor in Nevada next month, a change from its practice that demanded candidates demonstrate grass-roots fund-raising support.
The D.N.C. announced Friday that in order to participate in the debate, set for Feb. 19 in Las Vegas, a candidate must win at least a single delegate in either the Iowa caucuses or the New Hampshire primary or meet polling requirements.
It has eliminated the requirement that candidates must have received donations from hundreds of thousands of individuals. Mr. Bloomberg, a multibillionaire, is running a self-funded campaign and is not soliciting donations.
The changes, which represent the most significant tightening of debate requirements this cycle, set off a fresh and pointed round of criticism at a critical moment in the race, as several campaigns braced for the reality check that the Iowa caucuses will provide. And the edict from party officials, which some saw as a concession to Mr. Bloomberg, quickly reignited concerns among those who believe the D.N.C.’s shifting rules for the debates privilege some candidates and campaigns over others.
To meet the latest polling threshold, candidates must earn 10 percent in four qualifying national polls or 12 percent in two polls taken in Nevada or South Carolina by a qualifying pollster.
Mr. Bloomberg, who is not competing in the first four nominating contests, held in those two states, Iowa and New Hampshire, has notched 10 percent in one national poll, which was released by Fox News on Jan. 26. He has until Feb. 18 to perform similarly well in three other national polls.
“We are thrilled that voters could soon have the chance to see Mike Bloomberg on the debate stage, hear his vision for the country, and see why he is the strongest candidate to defeat Donald Trump and bring our country together,” Kevin Sheekey, Mr. Bloomberg’s campaign manager, said in a statement.
He added, “Mike has run for office three times and never taken a dime from special interests, allowing him to act independently, on the merits, without having to do what donors expect. He is proud to be doing the same with this campaign.”
Only former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. , Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts have so far met the polling threshold for the Nevada debate.
“To now change the rules in the middle of the game to accommodate Mike Bloomberg, who is trying to buy his way into the Democratic nomination, is wrong,” said Jeff Weaver, a senior adviser to Mr. Sanders. “That’s the definition of a rigged system.”
Ms. Warren sounded a similar note on Twitter . “The DNC didn’t change the rules to ensure good, diverse candidates could remain on the debate stage. They shouldn’t change the rules to let a billionaire on,” she wrote. “Billionaires shouldn’t be allowed to play by different rules — on the debate stage, in our democracy, or in our government.”
Former Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, the entrepreneur Andrew Yang and the hedge fund billionaire Tom Steyer , each of whom qualified for next week’s debate in New Hampshire, could still make the one that follows in Nevada by reaching the polling threshold or winning a delegate in the Iowa caucuses or the New Hampshire primary.
If they don’t, it would suggest their campaigns faced significant obstacles to continuing.
Mr. Buttigieg, speaking in Council Bluffs, said he was fine with the new requirements.
“When the initial rules came out with a focus on grass-roots fund-raising, of course our campaign was focused on the same thing,” he told reporters. “Now it sounds like there is a different focus and I do believe that we will qualify.”
Tom Perez, the chairman of the D.N.C. , signaled in December that he would be willing to alter the debate criteria to allow Mr. Bloomberg to participate once primaries and caucuses began.
But he also said then: “Our logic for having a grass-roots fund-raising threshold was, it provides opportunity for people who don’t have the national name I.D. to get on the debate stage. If you want to win the presidency, you’ve got to connect with grass-roots America.”
Xochitl Hinojosa, a D.N.C. spokeswoman, argued Friday that the first two nominating contests would adequately measure the grass-roots enthusiasm around a particular candidate, and that the donor threshold was therefore unnecessary.
“Now that we will have the results of two elections and grass-roots support is actually captured in voting, that will replace the donor threshold,” she said.
During the fall and winter, as the D.N.C. began making it harder to qualify for the debates, some candidates who found themselves short of the thresholds began agitating for more inclusive rules.
Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, for example, aired concerns about the diversity of the group that had qualified for the winter debates and led an effort to persuade Mr. Perez to make changes that would expand the roster. Mr. Booker dropped out of the race after failing to qualify for the debates held in December and January.
And as it became increasingly likely that he would not qualify for the debate held earlier this month in Iowa, Mr. Yang wrote a letter to Mr. Perez suggesting that the D.N.C. commission more qualifying polls.
In a statement posted on Twitter on Friday, S.Y. Lee, a spokesman for Mr. Yang, criticized the rule change , arguing it would help Mr. Bloomberg.
“It’s a mistake for @TheDemocrats to change the rules for debates in the middle of this race to yield to a billionaire,” Mr. Lee said. “We need to respect the grass roots movement leading this party forward.”
Former members of the Booker campaign underscored just how much of a financial burden the individual donor threshold had placed on campaigns over the summer. Addisu Demissie, who was Mr. Booker’s campaign manager, said on Twitter that one of the most significant days of his campaign was when the donor threshold doubled from 65,000 to 130,000.
For a lot of the smaller campaigns, doubling their donor counts was essentially an expense, as buying email lists and running acquisition ads on Facebook replaced other campaign priorities such as digital ads and staffing in early voting states. Jenna Lowenstein, a deputy campaign manager for Mr. Booker, said on Twitter that they had thrown out an entire strategic plan for those states in order to buy email addresses.
Mr. Steyer, who argued in December for allowing Mr. Booker and other candidates who missed the polling thresholds onto the debate stage, lamented Friday’s rules change.
“Changing the rules now to accommodate Mike Bloomberg and not changing them in the past to ensure a more diverse debate stage is just plain wrong,” he said. “They are changing the rules for a candidate who is ignoring early states’ voters and grass roots donors.”
Michael Bloomberg will not get the Democratic nomination unless he makes some compromises with the progressives. It will be interesting to see what those are as the campaign unfolds.
As far as the debates go, I think the people who are polling well should be the ones debating, so if his polls are high enough then he should be there.
Sounds like Bloomberg bought the DNC ala Hillary.
Funny how his money is acceptable.
It always amazes me that you can't see that Trump did the same thing you are claiming that Bloomberg did.
Comparing him to Hillary is just silly.
Proof? Where was the payment made and how much?
Trump bought the RNC?
News to me and millions of others.
https://usawatchdog.com/hillary-bought-dnc-clintons-deepening-legal-trouble-fed-head...
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/04/donna-brazile-book-on-hillary-clinton-campaign-dnc...
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/donna-brazile-reveals-proof-dnc-rigged-primaries...
I don't think that Blumberg is willing to make compromises. He is pretty sure of himself and I hope the hell he wins. A billionaire winning vs a wanna be billionaire is priceless. Bloomberg has made some amazing advances for the working man. Trump views the working man as those who will help him to build his coffers.
Bloomberg will not be the nominee unless the progressive wing can accept him. He needs to voice solid support for unions and a national minimum wage hike, at the least.
He is a politician, and he will compromise if he wants to be president. So will Sanders and Warren for that matter.
LMAO, talking about lying while supporting Trump. Now that is funny.
Bloomberg doesn't lie. He owns his actions. That is why people loved him in NYC.
Our current POTUS did the exact same thing.
Exactly!
Bloomberg doesn't lie
Move over George Washington...
Is this the start of the Bloomberg cult?
I have a feeling this one might make small compromises, ones that won't make him look like a hypocrite or a back peddler.. His strength lies elsewhere.
I doubt that. But glad to see you haven't lost your sense of humor.
I have generally applauded the Democratic Party's efforts around the country to make voting easier for people.
It therefore puzzles me, and I find it ironic that the national party would go to such extreme lengths to limit the candidates available for the people to hear from. It seems to me like the DNC is constructing the rules as they go to make sure that the "top 3" of Biden/Warren/Sanders get the nomination.
I suspect that the leadership decided a long time ago that one of those three has the best chance to win in November based mostly on name recognition and they don't want any "newcomers" messing things up.
Maybe the leadership sees that impeachment was a stupid political idea, and now realize that none of the top candidates--Biden, Sanders, Warren--are mainstream enough or baggage-free enough to beat Trump.
One thing we had confirmed for us by Adam Schiff is that they don't trust the people or the process to do the business of selecting the president. So I guess the party will do the selecting for them.
Yup, Bloomberg's your saving genius. He's gonna drop $10,000,000 on a Super Bowl ad in the cradle of the American, drunk, redneck, backwoods deplorable extolling the virtues of gun-grabbing. It'll be as funny as when that bitch went to West Virginia to kill coal. Trump has a train, you have two clowns on a hand-car.
Again, Bloomberg is not Hillary.... He's already gone to more places than she did. He was just a middle class out of work guy when he came up with an idea that made him billions as opposed to Trump who was given 24 million dollars in the 60's by daddy to start his business. But hey why talk about actual facts?
He has been on TV ads in Pennsylvania and is pointless so far. His only claim is that he is the candidate who can beat Trump. He is, however, notoriously anti-gun and he is going to say so at a virtual gun show.
He is not anti-gun and I am sure he will explain his POV. That is the bill of goods that the NRA is selling.
No doubt Trump has pulled a train, but what exactly does he have a train of now?
Bloomberg brings a thoughtful, adult voice and a resumé in both private and public sector of high competence. On top of that, he would bring dignity back to the highest elected office in our nation and represent us well with other nations.
He is also self-financing his campaign. He does not accept donations and because of that, he is shut out of the debates.
Seems like someone we would want to hear engaging the others in debate.
I don't see the debates helping little Mike. He's about as exciting to watch or listen to as low energy Jeb. He's the tiny one below with Clinton and Trump towering over him.
Yeah - it's important to keep the low information group hooked on drama rather than actual important policies that help the country.
You mean like Nadler and Schiff?
Stick with your blue dress jokes. It makes your team giddy.
Now you're getting nasty - feel better?
Your opinion on what is poor behavior has no credibility when you praise and defend the abhorrent behavior of trump.
Nice try - I've never defended Trump. Show me otherwise.
OMG - too funny. So you don't support trump anymore.....since when?
His height hasn't affected his ability to earn more money than those two impeached gentlemen combined has it?
I mean really Dean, the whole comment is beneath your reputation for salience.
Mike's net worth is $60.1 billion...Trump $3.1 billion and Bill is $76 million.
Seems that we have ''Chump Change Trump'' and ''No Billions Bill'' trying to fake it next to Mike whose pocket change is more than either one or both combined are worth x 15....
Does a man's height in some way determine his character, competence, intellect, etc.? ( I am 6' 1", so ... )
So what is the thoughtful point you offer by making fun of Bloomberg's height?
( By the way, Trump has already shown by example that the proper way to engage in criticism of a person in physical terms is to use Twitter. )
Maybe it does - my older brother is 4 inches taller than me and he's Mensa but I'm not. LOL
Did you take the test Buzz? btw.. Einstein was only 5'9" and Winston Churchill was only 5'7”.
I'm taller than both of them - 5' 10 1/2 ", but I'm sure my IQ would not match theirs. I took an IQ test in my early 20s and one only about 8 years ago - and there was not one point difference in them.
They tested me in the 8th grade. I got into an argument with the examiner over the validity of certain questions. Not sure if I got points added or subtracted for that.
Could the rules have been changed because the DNC was coming to realize that they didn't have any candidate with the charisma that could defeat Trump?
Doesn't that smiley mean "I'm in the dark"? And if so, how does that apply to you?
It means a lot of things, Buzz.
Well, then how would I know what you meant? Maybe I need to flag it. LOL