BLOOMBERG HAS HIRED THE VICE CHAIRS OF THE TEXAS AND CALIFORNIA DEMOCRATIC
PARTIES
Akela Lacy
February 28 2020, 10:52 a.m.
Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg waves after speaking at a campaign
event in Salt Lake City on Feb. 20, 2020. Photo: Rick Bowmer/AP
FORMER NEW YORK City Mayor Mike Bloomberg has hired two state Democratic
party vice chairs in Super Tuesday states with two of the top three highest
number of pledged delegates. Bloomberg hired Texas Democratic Party Vice
Chair Carla Brailey as a senior adviser to his campaign in December, and he
hired California State Democratic Party Vice Chair Alexandra Rooker for a
similar role in January.
Both Brailey and Rooker are superdelegates who will likely vote for the
Democratic presidential nominee at the party's national convention this
summer. Hiring the leadership of a state party doesn't appear to break any
campaign laws, but it indicates Bloomberg's intent to effectively purchase
political support, said Brendan Fischer, the federal reform program director
at the Campaign Legal Center. "This does seem to fit a longstanding pattern
of Bloomberg using his billions to help generate support among political
elites," he said.
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Rooker is one of two members of Bloomberg's campaign staff who also sits on
the Democratic National Committee's rules committee, which recommends rules
for the convention, the convention agenda, the convention's permanent
officers, amendments to the party's charter, and other resolutions. In
November, the month he entered the presidential race, Bloomberg gave
$320,000 to the DNC, his first contributions to the committee since 1998.
(He was a registered Republican from 2001 to 2007, after which he became an
independent. He registered as a Democrat in 2018.) He also donated $10,000
to the Texas Democratic Party, where Brailey has been vice chair since June
2018, as well as $10,000 to the California Democratic Party. Brailey,
Rooker, and the Bloomberg campaign did not respond to requests for comment
on their hiring.
Brailey rose through the local Washington Democratic Party structure, as a
protege of former Mayor Adrian Fenty, who was himself the patron of current
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a high-profile backer of Bloomberg.
Bloomberg will appear on the ballot for the first time on Super Tuesday,
March 3. His campaign has poured tens of millions of dollars into both Texas
and California where there are 228 and 416 delegates up for grabs,
respectively.
In California, Bloomberg has hired a number of party alums in addition to
Rooker, who was also previously a vice president and shop steward for the
Communication Workers Association Local 9400. Former state Democratic Party
executive director Chris Masami Myers is leading Bloomberg's California
strategy, and Courtni Pugh is a senior adviser focusing on outreach to black
and Latino voters; Pugh previously led Sen. Kamala Harris's California
strategy before she dropped out of the presidential race in December.
Bloomberg has spent at least $46.3 million on television ads in California
so far, has dozens of offices there, and his campaign has said they planned
to hire at least 800 staffers in the state. (They had hired around 300
staffers by the first week of February.)
