Photo by Gage Skidmore courtesy Flickr under Creative Commons CC BY-SA 2.0.
Michael Bloomberg failed to win much Democratic support in his expensive quest (spending an estimated $1 billion of his personal fortune) to secure the 2020 nomination for president, but the former New York City mayor is continuing to push his unrelenting gun-control agenda with lots of money.
He has plenty of it, and has no problem using it in an attempt to buy peoples’ freedom.
On Monday, Bloomberg confirmed that he is going to spend $60 million of his own money—a drop in the pan for a man worth in surplus of $50 billion by some estimates, but unfathomable funds to us commoners—to aid Democrat candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives across the country who would vote to restrict our right to keep and bear arms.
The $60 million is being poured into digital and television ads. It will also include a dump of funds to the House Majority PAC, connected to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has already gushed that the Bloomberg injection “was pivotal to our success two years ago.”
The multi-faceted, multi-million dollar expenditure also includes a revival of Independence USA, a 2012 PAC Bloomberg brought to life to help candidates running in local state and federal races nationwide.
But for recipients and potential recipients, it’s more than just a fat check; it is about establishing a relationship with a man who can ultimately make or break their future in public service. Whether or not they agree with gun control, those seeking a slice of the Bloomberg pie will have little choice but to promise to vote for more gun control.
A New York Times investigation published earlier this year—when he was still a big-spending presidential contender—said that the “philanthropic and political spending in the years leading up to his presidential bid illustrates how he developed a national infrastructure of influence, image-making, and unspoken suasion.”
Even his charitable giving over the past year—some $3.3 billion to Johns Hopkins University, his alma mater—is enmeshed in his gun-control philosophy. The year after leaving office in New York City, Bloomberg is said to have dished out more than $500,000 into electing an anti-gun governor in Maryland, where the university is located.
Let’s go back further.
In the years after securing the mayor title in 2002, Bloomberg emphasized his quest to “rid our streets of guns, and punish all those who possess and traffic in these instruments of death.” But he wasn’t content targeting the streets of the Big Apple.
In April 2006, he brought 15 mayors across the U.S. to his well-guarded Gracie Mansion to drum up support as he created Mayors Against Illegal Guns. And while still in power, Bloomberg continued his tirade into Virginia.
Then, after departing office in December 2013, Bloomberg brought to life Everytown for Gun Safety with a swift $50 million, which has muscled gun-control upon us via his massive fortune.
This year, in keeping with the prominent businessman’s pledge to spread millions to hopefuls across the country, Everytown also gets $60 million to put toward its goals of “electing candidates who will govern gun safety in mind,” “beat the NRA,” and “change how America thinks about gun violence.”
The ad bombardment is expected to take aim at eight key states: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Texas. So, if you’re there, get ready up for a gun-demonizing onslaught designed to “change your mind.” And know where it comes from: a man with a lot of money who couldn’t buy popularity to get the Democratic Party’s nomination for president, but is, nevertheless, intent on pulling strings.
