On Manhattan’s Upper East Side, to be a little more specific.

There, Politico reported last night, former New York mayor and current gazillionaire Michael Bloomberg has called for Florida Democrats to make former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz the state party’s new chair. More to the point, Politico noted, Bloomberg "is ready to open his wallet for the party again if Diaz is chair." (The "again" refers to the $100 million that Bloomberg purportedly spent to boost Joe Biden’s and other Democrats’ campaigns in Florida this fall, to no discernible effect.) "No one is better suited for Florida Democratic Party chair," Bloomberg told Politico, "than Manny Diaz."

Now, there’s no contesting that Florida Democrats need to get their act together, and Diaz, a 66-year-old Cuban immigrant, certainly appeals to and has longstanding contacts with a measurable chunk of the Florida electorate, some of whom clearly abandoned the Democrats in November’s election. The question is why a 78-year-old New Yorker should cast so decisive, if de facto, a vote to determine the future of Florida Democrats.

Diaz appears to have lots of support, to be sure, though some party activists have said they’d prefer to have a Black person at the party’s helm. And no doubt the election-season chops of the Florida party matter to Democrats across the nation, who know they can’t go on losing the nation’s third-largest state in election after election. And rebuilding that party will take considerable resources, though it will also take a surge of enthusiasm among young activists, which is not the sort of thing that rises in tandem with Bloomberg dollars.

Not to be a proverbial wet blanket this close to Thanksgiving, but Bloomberg’s recent Florida foray doesn’t demonstrate that his judgment in matters Floridian is flawless. Maybe Diaz can build a more effective party organization; maybe he can’t. But aside from the question of whether Bloomberg is making a shrewd investment or just throwing good money after bad, there’s the question of how having Mike’s millions cast the decisive vote in this contest comports with any kind of small-d democratic theory.

I know, I know: This is just for party chair; no one’s buying a candidate, and $100 million can get you a shitload of lawn signs. But still …