GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. — It feels like Mike Bloomberg has been on KARE 11 more than I have in the last few months, and my job is to be on KARE 11.
The reason why is simple; he's bought ad time.
It is all perfectly legal and it's all a part of his strategy, but it's irking some fellow democrats.
Now you might be thinking - well aren't Sanders, Klobuchar and all the rest of them spending millions too?
Yes, they are.
But what they have in cash on hand in comparison to Bloomberg and the other democrat billionaire running, Tom Steyer is not much.
Abou Amara is an attorney with an extensive career prior, in politics and policy.
He believes billionaires being able to spend their money at will isn’t great for democracy.
“What we are seeing here particularly with Bloomberg is he is essentially buying the ability for people to vote for him and I think its problematic for a democracy that any person regardless of party could spend hundreds of millions of dollars in a short period of time and just as a result of that we begin to see them rising in the polls and potentially having the path to the nomination,” Amara said.
Now, billionaires being able to do this is a relatively recent American phenomenon.
Prior to 1976 - candidates were only able to contribute 50 thousand dollars of their own money but that year the Supreme Court ruled that rule gone.
“The rationale was essentially if it's your own money it can't corrupt you which obviously didn't take into account the idea that if you have enough money you can actually buy constituencies and voters and buy influence. You may not be subject to corruption, but you may be perpetrating the corruption,” Amara said.
The rich came to the race and self-financed in 1992 and ‘96 in Ross Perot and with Steve Forbes in '96 and 2000.
And this isn't just on one side, in 2016 Donald Trump spent 66 million dollars of his own money running for the job.
This time around he has already spent hundreds of millions to try and win again.
And again, it's all legal, but is it fair?