Froma Harrop: Donors shouldn't figure in who's in the running

By Froma Harrop / syndicated columnist

To get onstage at the last Democratic debate, a candidate had to have received contributions from at least 225,000 donors. That disqualified Mike Bloomberg. He has only one donor: himself.

That rule sounded nice and democratic with a small “d,” but actually, it is a highly flawed way to measure a candidate’s ability to win a national election. The Democratic National Committee has wisely just removed that requirement from the next debate, scheduled for Feb. 19 in Nevada.

This will almost certainly give Bloomberg a place at the podium in Las Vegas. All he has to do is reach 10 percent in four national polls, and he’s almost there.

Some believe this change was made to help Bloomberg. They may be right. But there was something odd about keeping a Democrat who is obviously a top contender off the debate stage. Recent polls show Bloomberg — along with Joe Biden — best able among Democrats to defeat President Donald Trump.

It’s time to stop dismissing Bloomberg as nothing more than a gazillionaire trying to buy the election. He was a three-term mayor of New York City. That’s a bigger and harder job than any of the other candidates ever held. The borough of Brooklyn alone has four times the population of Bernie Sanders’ state of Vermont. And the differences between New York’s and Vermont’s ethnic, racial, religious and economic diversity can hardly be compared.

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