Bloomberg’s National Senior Advisers Address Community Leaders in St. Louis

The road to the presidential primaries is a long and winding one for the Democratic contenders, without a clear front-runner and less than a month to go before the Missouri Democratic primary on Tuesday, March 10.

Some local Democrats are concerned that the fight for the Democratic nomination is uninspiring with a slew of candidates, all plagued with issues. Though facing a multitude of issues of its own, the Michael Bloomberg campaign wants to change that perception and get its candidate, whom it hails as “the most likely to win against Trump” to the front of the race. 

Mark Botnick, Phyllis Langsdorf, Rob Goldrich

Two of Bloomberg’s national senior political advisers, Rob Goldrich and Mark Botnick, stopped in Clayton on Sunday for an invitation-only reception and Q&A, hosted by community leader Phyllis Langsdorf, with about 80 guests in attendance. The agenda was to share a clearer message about Bloomberg’s plans and garner the support of political and community influencers in the St. Louis region.

One major concern raised at the reception is the fact that Bloomberg has ran as a Republican in the past, and has a history of supporting candidates on the Republican ticket. When asked whether, if elected, their candidate would be likely to push the Republican agenda, Goldrich said that Bloomberg continues to put progress before partisanship to reunite the country and turn the focus on issues that matter to the people.

Another big point of contention is Bloomberg’s widely criticized stop-and-frisk policing policy as New York City mayor. Both Goldrich and Botnick emphasized that once Bloomberg realized the policy had flaws, he discontinued it. Both turned the focus to Bloomberg’s Greenwood Initiative that aims to drive economic empowerment and close the economic gap between whites and African Americans.

Cillah Hall, Betsy Orchard, Julius Adewunmi

As an invited guest and publisher of Gazelle magazine and STL County News, I had questions about the campaign’s ability to spread Bloomberg’s key messages hard enough to make a difference on Election Day. It led to an insightful discussion about outreach plans for our region, including roundtable discussions with the clergy and conversations geared toward “millennials.”

The Bloomberg campaign now has five offices across the state, including the city of St. Louis, Clayton and Bridgeton.