Michael Bloomberg s rise in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primary campaign is fueled by an unprecedented torrent of cash that has enabled the financial-media tycoon to hide behind a $360 million advertising curtain. This Wizard of Oz campaign has allowed Bloomberg to leapfrog the other candidates all while evading scrutiny, since his omnipresence on the airwaves and online has drowned out almost everything else about him.

Bloomberg skipped Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina while the other candidates faced direct scrutiny from voters and the press there for months. He avoided the debates because he refuses to raise small donor cash to qualify something billionaire Tom Steyer has shown can be done quickly if youre that rich. And he can bypass the media by turning his cash cannon to blanket the airwaves.

The $360-plus million Bloomberg has spent so far on his primary campaign is already more than any presidential candidate has ever spent on a primary campaign. It is equal to the total raised by the six remaining non-billionaire candidates for the Democratic Party nomination through the end of 2019. He could theoretically spend just 10% of his $62 billion net worth and it would come close to equaling the total cost of all federal elections held in 2016. There is zero precedent for this level of spending in any political campaign in American history.

Like the Wizard imagined in L. Frank Baums 1900 fairy tale, Bloomberg takes on various guises to please each targeted audience. The Wizard appeared as a giant head to Dorothy, a beautiful woman to the Scarecrow, a hideous beast to the Tin Man or a ball of fire to the Cowardly Lion. Bloomberg comes to our screens as he wants us to see him: Hes Barack Obama s best friend; a dog lover who is, in turn, loved by dogs; or a self-deprecating Instagram meme-lord. Its the best corporate public relations campaign money can buy. This week, he finally came under significant press scrutiny, and received a deluge of negative coverage. But it could be buried by the slew of ads hes able to buy and endorsements hes won from politicians who have benefited from his largesse.

All of this money is putting up a wall in between people and learning who Bloomberg is, Zephyr Teachout, a Fordham Law School professor and supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), said.