Bill Knapp, a media strategist for Mr. Bloomberg, formed a new consulting firm, MRB4USA LLC, to work on the 2020 bid, according to campaign officials. That company billed the Bloomberg campaign for more than $2.8 million in November and December. Another media strategy firm, Siegel Strategies LLC, named for the ad-maker Jimmy Siegel, was paid nearly $1.5 million.
Beyond Mr. Schoen, Mr. Bloomberg has assembled a team of pollsters who have also been paid handsomely. Mr. Bloomberg has paid $700,000 to Global Strategy Group and $133,000 to Brilliant Corners, the firm run by Cornell Belcher, a former pollster for Mr. Obama. The campaign also paid $692,000 to Marathon Strategies, a consultancy founded by a Democratic strategist, Phil Singer.
One of Mr. Bloomberg’s paid consultants was also identified as a top endorser and as his “national political chair:” Michael Nutter, the former mayor of Philadelphia. Mr. Nutter’s company has billed the Bloomberg campaign for $15,000 of services.
Mr. Bloomberg’s report also indicated the fluid relationship between the people and resources deployed for his campaign and those nominally attached to his private company. The report included $12 million in payments to Mr. Bloomberg’s company, Bloomberg LP, that were listed as prepayments for campaign expenses. A campaign aide said those funds, and several other expenditures linked to Bloomberg LP, were intended to cover expenses the company would incur as a result of the campaign, including compensation for corporate employees who have shifted over to his political operation.
But it was unclear how many people that money was used to pay, and the F.E.C. report offered no way to verify exactly how the money was used.
In addition on Friday, a super PAC supporting Mr. Biden announced that it had raised $7.6 million “to date,” and revealed some of its donors — those who had given a combined $3.7 million in 2019 — for the first time.
The largest contributor, George Marcus, a California real estate investor, gave $1 million.
A dozen other donors gave at least $100,000, including: the investor Bernard L. Schwarz; Alan Leventhal, founder of Beacon Capital Partners; Joe Kiani, founder of Masimo; and Barry Gorin, the C.E.O. of a leading commercial real estate company. Executives with The Blackstone Group combined to add another $200,000.