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When I heard the radio commercial attacking a candidate for theLos Angeles School Board, it didn’t make much of an impression—until I heard the tag line.
Funding for the ad, the announcer said, came primarily from “Michael R. Bloomberg.”
What? The mayor of New York City putting money into a school board race on the other side of the continent?
Yes, indeed. Bloomberg has donated $1 million to the Coalition for School Reform, which backs many of the same school reforms—tougher teacher evaluations, more charter schools—that Bloomberg has pushed for in the city he governs.
Half a continent away, Bloomberg’s money also was at work in the political terrain: His pro-gun-control super PAC, Independence USA, spent at least $2.2 million in a special congressional election in Chicago, four times what the top five candidates’ campaigns spent — combined. And it paid off. His candidate, gun-control backer Robin Kelly defeated former Rep. Debbie Halvorson, once the odds-on favorite to succeed Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.
This largesse follows on the heels of Bloomberg’s multi-million-dollar spending in a series of races last year, such as the California U.S. House of Representatives race between Democrat Gloria Negrete McLeod and incumbent Democratic Rep. Joe Baca. Independence USA put $3.3 million into McLeod’s campaign to unseat Baca, a foe of gun-control measures.
Why does this story intrigue me? Because for much of last year, one of the obsessions of the liberal-progressive side of the political spectrum was the fear—bordering on terror—that a collection of “millionaires and billionaires” would unleash a money bomb of staggering proportions that would overwhelm the political process, defeating President Obama and sending armies of legislators and executives into power.
In Michael Bloomberg, we have one of the wealthiest people in the world—with a net worth estimated as high as $25 billion—prepared to put at least some of his money where his political beliefs are. And if, as Bob Dylan says, “money doesn’t talk, it swears,” Bloomberg has the potential to sound like a David Mamet play. Consider: Over the past decade, the National Rifle Association (with its subsidiaries and employees) has donated $2.8 million in campaign contributions. For Bloomberg, that’s not even tip money.
Yahoo News has the full article
