Mike Bloomberg is never going to give up trying to buy this election. Earlier this year, you could not watch TV or go on the Internet without seeing an Ad for "Mike Bloomberg for President." Yet Bloomberg’s Presidential campaign was a legendary bust as the Washington Post wrote.
In the 14 Super Tuesday states and American Samoa, he spent over $224 million in ads. The result? He won eight delegates by the time he dropped out — or, one delegate for every $28 million he spent on ads.
By plowing half a billion dollars into his campaign, the media tycoon became the biggest self-spending candidate in U.S. history in just three months. If you watched TV, listened to the radio or used the Internet at some point since December, it felt nearly impossible to miss a glitzy Bloomberg campaign ad.
While that proved again that elections cannot be bought, it did not stop Bloomberg from trying to buy them.
Now, Bloomberg is paying the restitution fees for convicted felons to be allowed to vote in Florida.
Former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg and his team have raised more than $16 million to pay the court fines and fees of nearly 32,000 Black and Hispanic Florida voters with felony convictions, an effort aimed at boosting turnout for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. . . .
Bloomberg, who has committed at least $100 million to electing Biden in the state, raised the money from individuals and foundations over the past week, his advisers said. He saw the donations as a more cost-effective way of adding votes to the Democratic column than investing money to persuade voters who already have the right to vote, a Bloomberg memo said. . . .
“We have identified a significant vote share that requires a nominal investment,” the memo read. “The data shows that in Florida, Black voters are a unique universe unlike any other voting bloc, where the Democratic support rate tends to be 90%-95%.”
The Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody is concerned about this and wrote:
Even other innocuous offering of an incentive simply to vote could run afoul of section 104.045 or section 104.061, or both, depending upon the circumstances involved. That is, incentives could be offered to a voter in a way that would be designed to directly or indirectly cause the voter or a larger group of voters to vote in a particular manner. In such a case, the person giving the incentive could be guilty of violating section 104.061, Florida Statutes, which makes it illegal to “directly or indirectly give or promise anything of value to another in casting his or her vote.”
As CBS 12 wrote:
By offering to help pay felons' fines to regain their right to vote, Moody claims Bloomberg could be guilty of violating a Florida Statute, which makes it illegal to "directly or indirectly give or promise anything of value to another in casting his or her vote."
Bloomberg failed miserably in his effort to buy the Democrat nomination for President but did nothing illegal or immoral. Now, he is trying to buy Florida for Joe Biden. This time, he may get in some trouble.