Michael Bloomberg campaign scores prominent Miami politico as Florida primary nears
Michael Bloomberg’s presidential campaign is hoping to get a boost from another former mayor.
Two-term Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, whose time in City Hall mirrors Bloomberg’s mayoral tenure in New York, is joining the campaign as a policy advisor and surrogate weeks before the first votes are cast in the 2020 presidential primary season. Diaz will serve as the campaign’s national political co-chair, along with former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter. Diaz will also co-chair Bloomberg’s Florida campaign.
Diaz framed his support for Bloomberg with anecdotes from their shared history as mayors of major U.S. cities in the first decade of the 2000s. During that time, the mayors were both members of the national coalition of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, they both tapped the same consultant to develop a climate action plan, and they collaborated on anti-poverty strategies through work with the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund. Now, Diaz serves on the board of Bloomberg Philanthropies.
“We worked on a number of issues together, where he was really, in many respects, an inspiration and a mentor,” Diaz told the Miami Herald on Monday.
Diaz’s endorsement would appear to be local coup for the New York billionaire since Diaz had pledged support and raised money for former Vice President Joe Biden in 2019. In September, he told the Herald he was going to “do everything within my power to help the vice president,” including writing a check and raising money.
On Monday, Diaz said he’d initially thrown his support behind Biden since Bloomberg had stayed out of the race, even though Diaz had long been urging Bloomberg to run. Diaz said he’d told the Biden campaign they had his backing unless Bloomberg joined the field.
“I told them if Mike were to change his mind, that means I go with Mike,” Diaz said. “It was all good. No bad feelings.”
The change does remove Diaz, a major bundler, from the Democratic fundraising equation in South Florida. Since Bloomberg is dipping into his massive personal wealth to fund his campaign, Diaz said his phone calls are about policy points and not campaign contributions — which means more folks are willing to pick up.
“It’s funny to see people’s reaction to that,” he said.
Diaz, whose son and namesake is head coach for the University of Miami football team, joins an effort to build support in key states. Bloomberg recently announced his campaign would ramp up operations in March and April primary states by hiring 200 staffers. Florida’s closed primary, in which only voters registered with a party can participate, will be held March 17.
The Bloomberg campaign has gone on a spending blitz this month as part of its strategy to skip states with early primaries and focus on states with large numbers of delegates, with March primaries. Politico reported the campaign had spent at least $14.3 million on ad buys in Florida by early January. No other candidate has spent significant sums on Florida-specific ads.
The friendship between the mayors is evident in Diaz’s 2013 book, “Miami Transformed: Rebuilding America One Neighborhood, One City at a Time,” for which Bloomberg wrote the foreword. Bloomberg noted the importance of bipartisanship in local politics, a point Diaz echoed on Monday when he said he believes the candidate can appeal to voters of both parties. In a prepared statement Monday, Bloomberg welcomed Diaz to the campaign as a politician with a practical approach to governance.
“He and I share a common-sense approach to policy and government,and we’re honored to have him become part of our campaign leadership team,” he said.
Herald staff writer David Smiley contributed to this report.
