Liberal bloggers also expressed frustration with Unity08 because they contend that the group promoted "establishment" centrist or center-right politicians in the molds of Joe Lieberman and Michael Bloomberg while at the same time doing little to promote the progressive values it would seemingly represent.
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The group also came under criticism by political commentators such as David Harsanyi of The Denver Post, who contends that the Unity08 ticket would have served as a "spoiler" for one party's ticket, siphoning off enough votes from one candidate and delivering the election to the other (while failing to win the election itself).
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Chris Bowers of the political blog MyDD called the group's supporters "rich, center-right, 'non-partisan' donors who trash progressives and never criticize conservatives in power," and claimed that the movement has no grassroots support.
In January 2008, Bailey and fellow Unity08 co-founder Gerald Rafshoon left that organization to launch a national effort to draft New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to run for president as an independent candidate.
On January 10, 2008, the organization released a statement announcing that two of its co-founders, Doug Bailey and Gerald Rafshoon, were leaving Unity08 and launching a national draft movement to entice Bloomberg to run as an independent candidate.