Mike Bloomberg transfers $18 million to Democratic National Committee

WASHINGTON: Mike Bloomberg is transferring $18m (£15.5m) from his presidential campaign to the Democratic National Committee in the largest single such transfer ever made.

The largesse is the latest sign of the billionaire businessman’s continued involvement in the presidential race since ending his own campaign this month after a lacklustre showing on Super Tuesday. In the 3 March primaries the former New York city mayor won only one US territory. Bloomberg’s contribution amounts to more than the national party’s typical cash balance. The transfer will help the DNC make up some of the steep fundraising shortfall it has compared with its Republican counterpart, which routinely has raised tens of millions more in election cycles.

Bloomberg, one of the world’s wealthiest men with a net worth estimated to exceed $60bn, promised throughout his campaign that he would help Democrats try to defeat Donald Trump regardless of how his own White House bid fared.

The Bloomberg campaign, which hired a staff of 2,400 people across 43 states, will also transfer its offices in six pivotal states to the Democratic parties in those states, to help accelerate their hiring and organising. Those states are Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Former Bloomberg campaign staffers in those offices will continue to be paid by his campaign through the first week in April and have full benefits through the end of April. After that, they could in theory offer the state parties a trained and ready pool of potential hires to build out their operations heading into the November general election.

Bloomberg had promised staffers when they were hired that they would be paid until November, but earlier this month most of his campaign team was told they had been let go and would be paid until the end of March.

DNC officials said Bloomberg’s money and real-estate transfers would be used to expand the party’s 12-state battleground programme, with a focus on hiring additional staffers to work in organising and data operations. Bloomberg’s former campaign employees will not have any advantage in the hiring process, officials said.