ORCL Oracle Corp

By Rebecca Ballhaus, Alex Leary and Catherine Lucey 

WASHINGTON -- Alarmed about the unprecedented cash Michael Bloomberg is pouring into the presidential race, Republicans are moving to press top donors to contribute more than planned to ensure President Trump isn't outspent in the fall.

The president's allies have reached out to supporters such as casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who discussed Mr. Bloomberg's spending during a dinner last week with Vice President Mike Pence, according to people familiar with the matter. Other billionaires Trump allies plan to target include Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and Blackstone Group Inc. CEO Stephen Schwarzman.

Mr. Bloomberg has spent roughly half a billion dollars on advertising alone, according to ad tracker CMAG/Kantar. The former New York City mayor has said he would devote some of his $55 billion fortune to helping whichever Democrat wins the nomination.

"Trump world has always thought he would be better funded than the eventual Democratic nominee," said GOP donor Dan Eberhart. "Now, maybe not."

The president's campaign, together with the Republican National Committee, has raised enormous sums in recent years -- at least compared with past campaigns, though not with Mr. Bloomberg's planned spending. The campaign said last week that the re-election effort's war chest tops $200 million, after it raised $60.5 million in January. That is about double the $29.1 million President Obama and Democrats raised in the same period of 2012.

Allies of Mr. Trump are always asking donors to give more. They are focusing their recent push on getting top donors to give large sums to pro-Trump super PACs -- which can accept unlimited amounts of money -- rather than only hosting fundraisers. People familiar with the efforts said Mr. Bloomberg's spending was motivation for donors to get off the sidelines sooner rather than later.

"The Bloomberg threat is something you have to be ready for," said a fundraiser familiar with the effort. "Better now than in August, when you have to say, 'Oh, shoot, we have to find another $1 billion.' You want enough time to actually spend it right."

Amid Mr. Bloomberg's spending, concerns have also grown among some Republican donors that America First Action, the primary pro-Trump super PAC to date, hasn't been forceful enough in its fundraising. Through December, according to FEC filings, several of the party's top donors hadn't donated to the super PAC. Its largest donor in that period was Linda McMahon, the former U.S. Small Business Administration head and co-founder of World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. who now serves as the super PAC's chairwoman.

"We literally fundraise every day," the group's spokeswoman, Kelly Sadler, said in response to a question about to those concerns.

In early February, the super PAC sent an email to supporters warning of the impact Mr. Bloomberg was having on the race. A memo titled "The Bloomberg Effect," sent on the night of the New Hampshire primary, detailed his media spending and the increase in advertising rates in key states. "We need to be prepared to make certain that President Trump has the financial support he needs to compete," the email read.

Ms. Sadler said officials weren't anxious about Mr. Bloomberg's impact and that the group regularly sent out such emails to motivate donors. The group aims to raise $300 million and had spent about $4 million on ads so far, she said.

The Bloomberg campaign didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the 'Bloomberg Effect' memo."

In addition to spending hundreds of millions on TV and social media advertising, Mr. Bloomberg's campaign now has more than 2,400 staffers, many in battleground states that will decide the outcome in November. While some donors' concerns about Mr. Bloomberg's candidacy subsided after the former mayor's widely panned debate performance last week, the threat of his cash will remain: Mr. Bloomberg hasn't ruled out spending as much as $1 billion through November even if he isn't the party's nominee.

Some of the donors approached about countering Mr. Bloomberg's spending have already agreed to hold fundraisers for the president. Last week, Mr. Ellison of Oracle helped raise $7 million at his home in California. Mr. Adelson is scheduled to hold an event March 12 in Las Vegas.

Mr. Ellison didn't donate to the Trump campaign in 2016 and has never donated to America First Action. Mr. Adelson gave the super PAC $5 million for the midterm elections in 2018 -- part of more than $123 million he and his wife donated to candidates and conservative causes during that election cycle -- but hasn't donated this cycle, according to Federal Election Commission records covering the period through December.

Mr. Pence, who was campaigning with the president out west last week, dined Thursday evening with the Adelsons, people familiar with the matter said. Among other topics, they discussed Mr. Bloomberg's spending, and Mr. Pence raised with Mr. Adelson the resources the president would need ahead of the November election, one of the people said.

Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle, the national chairwoman of Trump Victory Finance Committee and Mr. Trump Jr.'s girlfriend, held meetings last week with more than a half-dozen donors in Las Vegas, including Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, the billionaire brothers who once owned the Ultimate Fighting Championship circuit, a person familiar with the matter said. Mr. Bloomberg's spending came up, the person said, but wasn't the focus of the discussions.

At a Trump campaign rally Friday in Las Vegas, Mr. Adelson sat in the audience wearing a "Keep America Great" hat. Mr. Trump, spotting the casino billionaire, singled him out as a "great, great person" and added: "He's got so much money, he doesn't know what the hell to do with it."

--Tarini Parti contributed to this article

Write to Rebecca Ballhaus at Rebecca.Ballhaus@wsj.com, Alex Leary at alex.leary@wsj.com and Catherine Lucey at catherine.lucey@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 25, 2020 16:08 ET (21:08 GMT)

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