New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has been mentioned as a potential U.S. presidential candidate, said he doesn’t believe an independent can win.
Bloomberg, who isn’t affiliated with Republicans or Democrats, said a candidate running outside the two-party system couldn’t get a majority of the 538 votes in the Electoral College, which would trigger a provision in the U.S. Constitution giving the House of Representatives power to decide the election.
“Unless you get a majority, it goes to the House,” he said today during a conference sponsored by the Wall Street Journal in Washington. “It’s going to go to the Republicans because the Republicans have just taken over the House.”
Republicans gained at least 60 House seats in the Nov. 2 election, enabling the party to seize a majority in the chamber in January.
Bloomberg, 68, the billionaire founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP, has on several occasions denied he intends to run for president in 2012. Several commentators, including David Gregory of NBC News, speculated that he might be among the possible candidates.
In 2007 he conducted polling and traveled around the U.S. to test the potential for a self-financed run, before abandoning the effort the next year.
Full story: Bloomberg Says Independent Candidate Can’t Win Contest for U.S. Presidency – Bloomberg