i posted this on another thread but I will post it here as well. Bloomberg is genius at manipulating campaign laws. he is conducting an ingenious injection of $600 million to one billion into the general election under the guise of primary , just as he has subverted the laws by injecting half a billion of charitable, tax deductible money into politics.
There is a very interesting theory that his "candidacy " for president is just a mechanism to generally give to Democrats at much much lower cost to him, and not a genuine candidacy.
a) His "primary" campaign "advertisements" -- now at $100 million in one single month in pure anti -turmp ads -- allow him to run 100% anti-Trump advertisements, ie of long term benefit to any and every Democrat primary candidate, at lower primary advertising rates, and with less FEC scrutiny since instead of contributions to the DNC presidential effort (which is what in fact they function as) they can be claimed to be primary campaign costs.
Seriously look at this: https://twitter.com/KDbyProxy/status/1196155022259740673?s=20
In fact he is organizing "events for "his primary campaign" that include having on the stage and therefore helping Democrat legislature candidates. those are effectively spends in support of state and US congress candidates he likes -- while claiming the expense is for "his campaign" not theirs -- and not going to the FEC reporting as a donation
b) He is also not allowing his news outlets to investigate or write negatively about his primary "opponents" because he is supposedly "in the race," while he is allowing them to investigate Trump. So that is his candidacy -- and his money and assets benefit ALL Democrat hopefuls while freely attacking Trump, which is effectively a contribution of another 100 million in media value to Democrat candidates without it even being a contribution from a legal standpoint.
Bezos can do the same thing in four years. 1) Announce he is going to run in the primaries; 2) forbid the Washington Post which he owns from investigating or negatively reporting on his Democrat supposed "opponents" while allowing Washington Post to eviscerate the Republican candidate an in kind donation of free media to the DNC worth tens or hundred of millions of dollars yet not included in FEC filings; 3) get around media pricing rules differentiating cheaper primary advertising vs more expensive general election advertising; 4) get around other FEC rules.
And since he's self financing, he'll take a tax writeoff if he loses.