Bloomberg, who last month entered the Democratic Party race to
face Republican President Donald Trump in the November 2020
election, said the campaign had ended its relationship with a
company that used prison labor for making phone calls.
"We do not support this practice and we are making sure our
vendors more properly vet their subcontractors moving forward,"
Bloomberg said in a statement.
Bloomberg said the campaign learned of the ties to prison labor
when a reporter called. The Intercept, a news website, was first
to report the use of prison labor.
Ranked by Forbes as the eighth-richest American, Bloomberg has
spent more on campaign ads in the last few weeks than his main
Democratic rivals have all year.
He has so far failed to crack into the top tier of candidates in
public opinion polls.
A Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll conducted on Dec. 18-19 showed
about 5% of Democratic-leaning voters support the billionaire
former mayor of New York. Recent polls show former Vice
President Joe Biden, Senator Bernie Sanders and Senator
Elizabeth Warren are the party's leading candidates.
(Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Howard Goller)
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