On Friday, the Democratic National Committee (DNC), controversially announced that they would no longer use candidates' grassroots fundraising numbers as a means for qualification for their debates. Many have suspected that this rule change was to accommodate former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, who made a late entry into the race in November, and has prided himself on not taking any donations. Not just no corporate or lobbyist donations, but no small-dollar, grassroots donations either. As a result, he was unable to participate in the debates, despite meeting the polling qualifications on two occasions, as the other requirement was that participating candidates must have a certain number of individual donors. However, now that the DNC has changed their rules by eliminating the latter qualification, Bloomberg may have the opportunity to participate in the remaining debates.
The DNC's rule change, however, seems to be going against the word of chairman Tom Perez, who, in June, defended the donor requirement by saying, “You can’t win the presidency in the modern era if you can’t build relationships with the grassroots,” as well as at least one of its staffers. For context, in July, then-presidential candidate and former Sen. Mike Gravel (D-AK) qualified for that month's debate via the donor requirement, reaching over 65,000 individual donors. However, as he did not meet the polling requirement (at the time, candidates only had to meet one of the two requirements, but 20 candidates, the maximum number allowed on stage total, had already met the latter, which took precedent over the donor requirement), he was not invited. On Saturday, the Gravel Institute, a nonprofit scheduled to launch next month to continue Gravel's legacy, tweeted a conversation the former senator's campaign had with an unidentified DNC senior official, who was quoted as saying, regarding the rules at the time, "We can't change them later on for the benefit of any candidate," as justification for why they would still exclude him from the then-upcoming debate. So, if they promised never to change the rules to accommodate any one candidate then, why would they change them just six months later, and was it to benefit Bloomberg?
Well, as it turns out, on November 19, just five days before launching his candidacy, Bloomberg donated $319,500 to the DNC Services Corporation, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Additionally, according to the New York Post, the former mayor donated $800,000 to the Democratic Grassroots Victory Fund, the DNC's joint fundraising committee with the Democratic Parties of each state plus the District of Columbia, that same day. These contributions amount to a total of $1,119,500 to these two committees associated with the DNC. Given these numbers, it seems very likely that the rule change was made to give Bloomberg a chance to participate in the debates.
In conclusion, it is apparent that Bloomberg has bought the DNC's loyalty to him, and as a result, they are now giving him the favorable treatment they refused give candidates like Gravel, who had the grassroots support necessary to make the stage, but not the money needed to buy the DNC's loyalty. This is just yet another example of what happens in a country where money is considered free speech, and how the DNC determines who is and isn't a "legitimate" candidate.
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