The Student News Site of Colorado State University

The Rocky Mountain Collegian

The Student News Site of Colorado State University

The Rocky Mountain Collegian

The Student News Site of Colorado State University

The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Print Edition
Letter to the editor submissions
Have a strong opinion about something happening on campus or in Fort Collins? Want to respond to an article written on The Collegian? Write a Letter to the Editor by following the guidelines here.
Follow Us on Twitter
Crypto Exchange Listing: Types of Exchanges and Compliance Requirements
March 25, 2024

The crypto industry continues to evolve, fueled by the increasing institutional adoption of crypto. Today, numerous companies are entering the...

Leibee: Don’t support politicians who buy elections

Editor’s Note: All opinion section content reflects the views of the individual author only and does not represent a stance taken by The Collegian or its editorial board.

If you open the website of any remaining Democratic political candidate, you are greeted by a request for a donation. Candidates like Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard are all asking for money. They need donations to be able to walk up onto those debate stages, and they need donations to stay in the race.

Ad

The current exception to this is Mike Bloomberg. If you open his website, there is not an option to donate to his campaign even if you wanted to. Bloomberg’s aides say he has never accepted a political contribution, and he will never accept one. The aides said Bloomberg will even go as far as not accepting the grand $400,000 a year salary if he were elected president. He says he “cannot be bought.”

No one can buy Bloomberg, but he can buy anything. Being a billionaire is essentially a fast pass to any political office. In fact, he is the richest person to ever run for president in United States history.

According to NBC News in 2019, Bloomberg’s team reserved $30 million for television ads just 10 weeks before the Iowa primary. While other candidates start raising money months and even years in advance, any billionaire can announce their candidacy weeks before and advertise themselves to the top.

Looking at TV ad spending between Nov. 25 and Dec. 3, Tom Steyer spent the most after Bloomberg, but he spent only $1.2 million. Every other candidate spent even less. For every dollar Warren spent on TV ads, Bloomberg spent about $150. Bloomberg isn’t just spending a little bit more. He has spent 1,200% more on Facebook ads than Sanders since Jan. 1.

Billionaires can buy their way out of their mistakes, never being held accountable because it is true that if you have enough money, your mistakes tend to disappear.”

Just look at The Collegian’s website. He is the only candidate with his ad running across the top. Open page three of The Collegian from yesterday’s print edition, and you will see his full-page ad. A full-page ad for Bloomberg in The Collegian is $380, plus or minus some for any discount he may have received for also advertising on the website. He ran his ad twice, making it around $760 for him to advertise in print alone at one university. 

There are 1,626 public colleges in the United States. If we assumed that every public college went off a similar pricing scale, that would be over $1 million for print ads alone just at universities. For other candidates, that kind of advertising is not financially feasible. 

Yes, every candidate has money. However, there is Bloomberg’s money, and there is every other Democratic candidate’s money. This infographic is a frightening and revealing visual of what Bloomberg’s wealth looks like compared to the other Democratic candidates. Overall, Bloomberg will not run out of money for this election. If he loses this one, he could likely pay for himself to run for every single presidential election until he wins. 

Every other Democratic candidate is at least partially relying on their success in debates to encourage supporters to donate to their campaign. Prior to the Democratic debate in Las Vegas on Feb. 19, Warren announced that she was trying to raise $7 million by the Nevada caucuses on Feb. 22. Her success in the debate helped raise enough money for her campaign to continue.

Ad

Bloomberg did not do well in the Feb. 19 debate, but he has enough money that it doesn’t matter. Every candidate came after him for his wealth and how out of touch he is with the American people. The problem with billionaires buying their way through elections isn’t just the unfair advantage, but that billionaires generally do not understand the issues and needs of the working class.

Sanders said it best at the debate, stating, “Maybe it’s time for the working class in this country to get a little bit of power in Washington, rather than your billionaire campaign.” Billionaires can do everything wrong in a campaign and still stay. Billionaires can buy their way out of their mistakes, never being held accountable because it is true that if you have enough money, your mistakes tend to disappear. 

However, if a candidate like Warren was accused of hiding tax returns, implementing racist policies and harassing women the way Bloomberg was, their campaign would be over. 

The reason it’s important to acknowledge that billionaires have so much power in elections is because we don’t want to be fooled into thinking that people like Bloomberg are in the race because people genuinely support him. Without his money, where would he be? 

Katrina Leibee can be reached at letters@collegian.com or on Twitter @KatrinaLeibee.

Leave a Comment
More to Discover
About the Contributor
Katrina Leibee, Editor-in-Chief
Katrina Leibee is serving as The Rocky Mountain Collegian's editor in chief for the 2021-22 academic year. Leibee started at The Collegian during the fall of her freshman year writing for the opinion desk. She then moved up to assistant opinion editor and served as the opinion director for the 2020-21 academic year. Leibee is a journalism and political science double major, but her heart lies in journalism. She enjoys writing, editing and working with a team of people to create the paper more than anything. Ask anyone, Leibee loves her job at The Collegian and believes in the great privilege and opportunity that comes with holding a job like this. The biggest privilege is getting to work with a team of such smart, talented editors, writers, photographers and designers. The most important goal Leibee has for her time as editor in chief is to create change, and she hopes her and her staff will break the status quo for how The Collegian has previously done things and for what a college newspaper can be. From creating a desk dedicated entirely to cannabis coverage to transitioning the paper into an alt-weekly, Leibee hopes she can push the boundaries of The Collegian and make it a better paper for its readers and its staff. Leibee is not one to accept a broken system, sit comfortably inside the limits or repeat the words, "That's the way we've always done things." She is a forward thinker with a knack for leadership, and she has put together the best staff imaginable to bring The Collegian to new heights.

Comments (0)

When commenting on The Collegian’s website, please be respectful of others and their viewpoints. The Collegian reviews all comments and reserves the right to reject comments from the website. Comments including any of the following will not be accepted. 1. No language attacking a protected group, including slurs or other profane language directed at a person’s race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, social class, age, physical or mental disability, ethnicity or nationality. 2. No factually inaccurate information, including misleading statements or incorrect data. 3. No abusive language or harassment of Collegian writers, editors or other commenters. 4. No threatening language that includes but is not limited to language inciting violence against an individual or group of people. 5. No links.
All The Rocky Mountain Collegian Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *