Bloomberg is trying to remake the Democratic Party in his image

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VIEW IN BROWSER | SUBSCRIBE FRI, DEC 27, 2019 CNBC POLITICS EDITOR'S NOTE Hello,   Mike Bloomberg, for the moment, is a long shot to win the Democratic presidential nomination. He is in fifth place, according to Real Clear Politics' national polling average. He isn't even bothering to compete in the momentum-setting first four contests of the primary season. And he is a billionaire in a race where billionaires might as well be public enemy no. 1.   Yet his vast wealth – estimated at $54 billion, which dwarfs the fortunes of other billionaires in the 2020 race, fellow Democrat Tom Steyer and Republican President Trump – may still end up giving him control of the Democratic Party, if not its nomination to be president.   Bloomberg, who turns 78 in February, is positioning himself as the anti-Trump. Instead of running with the kind of aggressive populist swagger Trump uses to appeal to voters' emotions, the former three-term New York mayor is attempting to win using brute-force technocracy. His campaign is staking its pitch to his reputation as a detail- and data-focused executive with a successful track record in business and government.    Bloomberg also oversees a philanthropic and political empire. He has already put millions of dollars to work to battle climate change and to advocate for stricter gun laws. And he has spent millions to help Democrats win back the House of Representatives as well as control of the Virginia state legislature.   Bloomberg is bent on getting Trump out of the White House, whether he is the Democratic nominee or not; he has pledged to spend more than $100 million on anti-Trump ads this cycle. Meanwhile, CNBC's Brian Schwartz reports that Bloomberg is courting influential big-money Democratic financiers. No, he doesn't want them to donate to his campaign. He doesn't need them. Rather, he is pushing them to coax their donor networks into giving more to the Democratic National Committee and state Democratic efforts.   It's easy to see how this helps him make his case for the party's nod. With a self-funding presidential candidate, Democratic donors can flood other important races that often get overlooked in a presidential election year. Absent a Bloomberg victory, though, it also serves as a warning to populist left-wing candidates like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren: You can reject help from wealthy donors all you want, but you won't stop the elite from shaping the party's infrastructure and agenda.   Trump took ownership of the Republican Party because he shocked the world and won. Bloomberg might not even need to win to claim the Democratic Party as his own.   Thanks for reading.   Thoughts? Email me at CNBCPolitics@nbcuni.com. 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