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NEW YORK: Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York City, has told his aides to draw up plans for an independent campaign for the US presidency, the New York Times reported on Saturday.
Bloomberg has advised friends and associates that he would be willing to spend at least $1 billion of his own money on a campaign for the November 2016 election, the Times said, citing sources briefed on the former mayor’s thinking.
Bloomberg, 73, has given himself an early March deadline for entering the race, the Times reported, after commissioning a poll in December to see how he would fare against Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, the current Republican and Democratic frontrunners respectively.
No independent has ever won a US presidential election. But Bloomberg, who has close Wall Street ties and liberal social views, sees an opening for his candidacy if Republicans nominate Trump or Texas Senator Ted Cruz and the Democrats nominate Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, the Times said.
Bloomberg served as mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013. He switched his party affiliation from Republican to independent in 2007.
Ahead of the final vote on his decree, Maduro announced he had approved a change that will allow the country’s small export sector to use a more favorable currency exchange rate. He scolded opposition activists for “turning their back on the country.”
“They’re bent on the politics of sterile confrontation,” he said as state television began promoting the slogan “irresponsible opposition.”
Opposition leaders rejected the decree as a trap intended to make them look intransigent and unwilling to fix the economy.
“We’re not closing any doors. On the contrary, today we opened the door to a serious discussion,” majority leader Julio Borges said. “We’re not looking to double down on the same policies that got us into this crisis. What we need is real change.”