Bloomberg Qualifies for Ballot in 2nd State

Two down, 48 to go. Michael Bloomberg flew to Arkansas on Tuesday and personally filed the necessary paperwork to be a candidate in the state's primary, reports the New York Times. The former New York City mayor has now qualified for two states, having filed the paperwork for Alabama last week. Both states have early filing deadlines. “Mike wanted to go and do the filing himself,” says spokesman Jason Schechter. “If he runs, he’s going to go to states that Democrats never go to in the primary campaign. We’re starting that today in Arkansas.” North Carolina might be next.

All three of the aforementioned states vote on March 3, or Super Tuesday. Should he officially join the race for the Democratic nomination, CNN expects that Bloomberg will pretty much skip the early states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina and focus on the Super Tuesday states. A big reason is that the candidates already in the race have huge head starts in the four early states. "We have enormous respect for the Democratic primary process and many friends in those states, but our plan is to run a broad-based, national campaign," says another Bloomberg spokesman, Howard Wolfson. (One of Trump's GOP challengers dropped out on Tuesday.)