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After sitting on the sidelines of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination until the end of last year, including missing all the debates and skipping the on-the-ground campaigning essential for the first four contests, Mike Bloomberg has shot out of nowhere to claim 15 percent of Democratic support in recent polls.

Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, who once identified as a Republican and then as an independent, finally made his presidential debating debut Wednesday night after leapfrogging to third in national surveys. How did this happen? How was he able to claim a coveted podium spot when more established political figures like Sens. Kamala Harris and Cory Booker were forced from the debate stage — and the race — by sagging numbers?

The simple answer is money. Bloomberg has spent more than $400 million on advertising since November — and he’s spent more on TV in that time than all of his competitors combined. He has bought so many TV ads that other presidential and down-ballot candidates are ­being pushed out of the market as ad prices spike, Politico has reported. And the spending isn’t just on traditional media buys. Bloomberg has spent $87 million on Facebook and Google advertising.

The gargantuan sums don’t include the amounts he has donated to state Democratic parties, congressional candidates and mayors, which might have something to do with his ballooning list of endorsements. And then there’s the even harder-to-quantify sums he’s invested in issue advocacy organizations that are now paying political dividends. In just one example, Bloomberg’s co-founding of the gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety provided his campaign with a massive email list of potential voters out of the gates.

In other words, Bloomberg is well on his way to buying the Democratic nomination and quite possibly the presidency. Whatever you think of his merits and the urgency of removing President Donald Trump from office, it’s easy to see that this is wrong and dangerous for our democracy. Our country’s politics and policy outcomes are already dictated by corporate interests and the ultra-rich. The wealthiest people in our country should not be allowed to use their money to capture the most powerful job in the world.

As clear as the problem is, the solution is a bit harder. Many good government groups and organizations working to solve problems like gun violence and climate change rely on wealthy individuals and personal foundations for financial support, for instance.

But there are a few straightforward steps we can take to immediately safeguard the system from the dangers of Bloomberg’s profligate approach to procuring elected office: We should ban political ads, and we should enact a public financing system for congressional elections so lawmakers don’t have to rely on obscenely rich donors like Bloomberg for support.

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