Mike Bloomberg’s Democratic rivals have a wealth of ammunition with which to challenge the media mogul’s bid for the White House, experts said Sunday.
Bloomberg has already tried to blunt two of the most potentially potent issues — his enthusiastic support for the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk program and his history of crude, sexist remarks.
But Bloomberg’s 12 years as mayor and his subsequent endeavors as a deep-pocketed activist offer other avenues to criticize him from both the left and right sides of the ideological spectrum, said David Birdsell, dean of CUNY’s Marxe School of Public and International Affairs at Baruch College.
“There are several Bloomberg pinatas that are going to get whacked at in the Democratic primary,” Birdsell said. “And there are pinatas that are socially progressive that are going to get whacked at from the right.”
Bloomberg — who changed his registration from Democrat to Republican for his first City Hall bid, then switched to independent — will be attacked for a lack of party loyalty, said political consultant Hank Sheinkopf, who worked on former President Bill Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign.
Bloomberg has long sided with conservatives on the subject of charter schools, including donating nearly $500,000 to boost a 2016 ballot initiative in Massachusetts, which at the time pitted him against Democratic candidate and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
“I think his support for charter schools is a negative in the Democratic primary,” said Hazel Dukes, longtime leader of the state NAACP.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg’s spending in support of gun control and against climate change could hurt him in the general election if he winds up the Democratic nominee, experts said.
