Over this past week, former Democrat-turned Republican-turned Independent-turned Democrat New York City Mayor, Media Mogul, and actual Multi-Billionaire Michael Bloomberg filed paperwork to run in the Alabama Democratic Presidential Primary.

At this point, Mayor Bloomberg has not officially announced that he is running for President.  It was just necessary to file to be on the Alabama ballot to keep his options open.  With a deadline of Friday, Mayor Bloomberg has not yet filed for the New Hampshire primary.  (He is not alone.  Of the candidates who have qualified for the November debate, Cory Booker and Tom Steyer have not yet filed for the New Hampshire primary.   Likewise, Julian Castro — who has met the donor threshold for the November debate but seems unlikely to meet the polling threshold — also has not yet filed for the New Hampshire primary.)  But let’s assume that he (or somebody else who missed the deadline for Alabama) might still get into the race.  Is it too late for somebody new to get in the race.

By requiring that every state allocate delegates proportionately, the Democratic rules theoretically make it possible that nobody will win a majority of delegates to the Democratic convention allowing those delegates to revert back to the days in which the convention actually had to choose between several candidates.  In those days, winning key primaries was a factor in that decision.  So it was not necessary to enter the race early and compete in all primaries. Continue Reading...