Bloomberg takes show on the road

[Geee]

Politico:

By MAGGIE HABERMAN

Term-limited New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is at work expanding his national profile, delivering a string of high-profile candidate endorsements around the country and using his outsized megaphone to become a spokesman for swaths of disgruntled elites who were once part of President Barack Obama’s base.

What he wants isn’t entirely clear. The mayor, armed with a $15 billion fortune, publicly denies in the most emphatic terms—death, incapacitation—any interest in cutting short his third term to run for higher office.

But his schedule and growing portfolio suggests he's looking for a national voice or something more, one that echoes well beyond the city’s five boroughs, and he is attracting attention from elites who have become disillusioned with the White House.

His last time before the voters in 2009—which came after a controversial move to extend term limits—resulted in a surprisingly narrow five-percentage point win, even after spending a staggering $109 million.

Nevertheless, Bloomberg has pressed ahead with a coalition against illegal guns that he launched several years ago, started an immigration reform coalition of mayors and business leaders including Rupert Murdoch, and brought on three deputy mayors with either national political or government experience—Howard Wolfson, Robert Steel and former Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith.