Bloomberg ads could soon heat up presidential race in NC

Several Democratic hopefuls have already visited the Triangle:

Now, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg may soon start showing up in everyone's homes in the form of campaign ads.

"To put not too fine a point on it, I think he’s lighting his money on fire," Steve Greene, a political science professor at North Carolina State University, said Friday. "I think he has virtually no chance."

Greene said Bloomberg isn’t adding anything new to the Democratic slate aside from his almost bottomless pockets.

"You just cannot buy yourself an election, especially in primaries," he said.

Bloomberg appears to be skipping the early primary states entirely, Greene says, hoping that a money bomb in Super Tuesday states could net him enough Democratic delegates – 40 percent of total delegates are up for grabs in 14 primaries from Maine to California – to make him a serious contender.

But that strategy historically doesn't work, Greene said, adding that Democrats don't seem excited about Bloomberg's late entry anyway.

"I’ve seen no signs of support of the grassroots, and without that kind of support, the media’s not going to be paying any attention to him, no matter how much money he spends," he said.

"The state of the race in North Carolina on March 3 is going to be different based on what happens in Iowa, based on what happens in New Hampshire," he added. "The idea that you can kind of ignore things that come before and just say, 'OK, I’m going to spend a lot of money' just really flies in the face of reality and history."

Candidate filing for North Carolina primaries starts Dec. 2, but the North Carolina Republican Party has already asked that Trump's name be put on the ballot.