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Presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg is pouring tens of millions of dollars from his vast personal fortune into his campaign. A piece of it is going to an unknown digital business called Hawkfish — which Bloomberg himself founded during the spring.

Hawkfish will be the “primary digital agency and technology services provider for the campaign,” Julie Wood, a Bloomberg campaign spokeswoman, told CNBC. She added that the firm “is now providing digital ad services, including content creation, ad placement and analytics” for their campaign. It will also help Democratic races across the country in future election cycles, she said.

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The mainstream media and other Democratic presidential contenders have talked a lot about former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg’s spending on presidential campaign ads, which passed $200 million back in January. He has hired 2,100 staffers, multiples greater than every other candidate. However, neither of those numbers completely conveys the size, sophistication and effectiveness of the operation he is building.

Dan Kanninen, states director for the Bloomberg campaign, shared with me the details of the operation on Sunday. Those 2,100 staffers are spread around the country, including 800 in CaliforniPresidential candidate Mike Bloomberg is pouring tens of millions of dollars from his vast personal fortune into his campaign. A piece of it is going to an unknown digital business called Hawkfish — which Bloomberg himself founded during the spring.

Hawkfish will be the “primary digital agency and technology services provider for the campaign,” Julie Wood, a Bloomberg campaign spokeswoman, told CNBC. She added that the firm “is now providing digital ad services, including content creation, ad placement and analytics” for their campaign. It will also help Democratic races across the country in future election cycles, she said.a (300 full-time and 500 part-time), 125 in Florida and 135 in North Carolina. They have some 125 offices, soon to increase to 150. They have offices in all 14 Super Tuesday states. They looked at the compensation for many government and political interns ($15 per hour) and decided to increase that to $17 to $18 per hour for field organizers. With their long hours, that works out to be about $6,000 per month. The thinking was that this was a reasonable wage that recognized the value these employees provided to the campaign. All employees receive health-care benefits.

This army has been forming since December, and Bloomberg has vowed to keep the infrastructure in place through Election Day. The philosophy is that the longer people are on the ground, the better they know the area, form relationships and avoid the slam that campaigns only show up for a few weeks once every four years.


The campaign looks at Super Tuesday as 165 congressional districts, each of which may require a different approach based on the delegate rules that apply there. In addition, Bloomberg is invested heavily in states following Super Tuesday, especially in critical battleground states for the fall, among them Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Bloomberg has made a separate commitment to spend $20 million to register 500,000 voters.
Bloomberg’s ad campaign has a robust Spanish-language operation, especially in Arizona, Texas and California. Unlike some other campaigns, Bloomberg also recognizes a growing Hispanic presence in North Carolina, where they have a strong outreach program.