Bloomberg’s new goal: Being a one-man counterweight to the NRA
“There has never really been an effective counterweight to the NRA — at least in terms of dollars, cents and the ability to get a message out,” said Stefan Friedman, a spokesman for Bloomberg’s new super PAC, Independence USA. “I think the mayor’s been clear this is an issue he cares very passionately about and this could very well be a curtain-raiser to the future.”
Bloomberg formed his super PAC in mid-October and announced it had a budget of up to $15 million devoted to the 2012 elections. He described three criteria for potential beneficiaries, starting with candidates who “will help protect Americans from the scourge of gun violence.” (The others were support for education reform and gay marriage.) So far, he’s helping least five House candidates as well as Democratic Pennsylvania attorney general hopeful Kathleen Kane…
Friedman said Bloomberg’s new super PAC could change that equation — at least in the races he’s involved in this year. “If the mayor can provide that [counterweight] and help some of the candidates, he’s eager to do that,” Friedman said. “This is the first time the NRA has faced a significant, equally funded foe in these districts.”
In addition to his super PAC activity, Bloomberg recently got involved in the Maine Senate race of former governor and fellow independent Angus King. He donated $500,000 to an outside group that bought ads for King and hosted an October fundraiser for King at his Manhattan home.
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Good luck taking our guns in the South.
Punchenko on November 4, 2012 at 10:07 AM
I wonder how many bottles of water that would buy for Staten Island?
davidk on November 4, 2012 at 10:10 AM
Good luck with that Bloomie.
The vast majority of illegal homicides are caused by gangsters in Blue cities. NYC, LA, and Chicago. Why don’t you clean up the streets you pocket Hitler.
CorporatePiggy on November 4, 2012 at 10:10 AM
It never ends with these tools…..
BallisticBob on November 4, 2012 at 10:10 AM
NYC voted to have this idiot run their lives, the rest of us didn’t. Butt the F out of our lives.
jnelchef on November 4, 2012 at 10:11 AM
davidk on November 4, 2012 at 10:11 AM
Say, how is Staten Island doing?
Coney Island?
Ah, trifles to Bloomy!
ajacksonian on November 4, 2012 at 10:11 AM
Winner!
jnelchef on November 4, 2012 at 10:11 AM
shotguns are nice when looters are about.
rob verdi on November 4, 2012 at 10:12 AM
Me thinks someone doesn’t know the meaning of the word, NEW. Bloomingidiot has been trying this carp for years, suing Virgina and Texas for the legal sales of firearms, suing Pennsylvania and Illinois for the legal manufacture of firearms, no there is nothing new about this at all.
SWalker on November 4, 2012 at 10:13 AM
Given his performance in all of other areas of governance he’s be involved in…I’d say that’s good news for the NRA. Having a symbolic buffoon as your opposition is every bit as good as having a sharp politician on your side.
AUINSC on November 4, 2012 at 10:14 AM
On a wholly unrelated note, I wonder if the hurricane aftermath will revive any talk of Staten Island seceding from the City.
Everyone deserves a municipal government that cares about their utilities and necessities first and foremost. Staten Island clearly isn’t getting it. Bloomberg and the NYC government barely care about Manhattan, much less the rednecks over the bridge.
HitNRun on November 4, 2012 at 10:15 AM
Molon Labe.
RadClown on November 4, 2012 at 10:18 AM
It’s like the guy is focused like a laser beam on everything in the world except doing his own job with the smallest shred of competence.
NukeRidingCowboy on November 4, 2012 at 10:19 AM
I can’t fathom how a city of 8 million plus people can just allow this Napoleonic little pri*k to keep buying power..I realize liberals are sheep but come on, seriously?
Tim Zank on November 4, 2012 at 10:19 AM
Bloomberg is about to be introduced to ECONOMICS…the Market always wins. He’s one guy, the market is MILLIONS of guyz/galz.
The business example is IBM v. The Clones…IBM was VASTLY larger than most of the clones, and yet COLLECTIVELY the clones displaced IBM, though in a head-to-head match-up IBM was greatly stronger, IBM could not beat THOUSANDS of firms making WinTel machines.
JFKY on November 4, 2012 at 10:19 AM
Little Hitler, thuggish crackpot, miniature totalitarian, fascist midget.
darwin on November 4, 2012 at 10:20 AM
He should take a lesson from Obama, the number-one firearms salesman of all time, and shut up about gun control then.
Glenn Jericho on November 4, 2012 at 10:21 AM
I think not!
Heh!
Lanceman on November 4, 2012 at 10:25 AM
Wow, what a great time to go public with this. Your citizens who are out there trying to protect what little they have left post Sandy, I’m sure appreciate this. Wouldn’t want any of those pesky looters/robbers to get hurt.
Is he trying to distract from his incompetency in handling this disaster and the misery of those in the midst of it?
Those big mouth “stars” should be bringing food and blankets and water to those who need it every effin day.
Blake on November 4, 2012 at 10:26 AM
Population of Staten Island: 470,467
Cost of bottled water: <$0.25/bottle.
$15,000,000 would buy 60,000,000 bottles of water.
Enough for each resident to have four bottles a day for over two months.
davidk on November 4, 2012 at 10:28 AM
I’ve emailed Bloomie some useful information for his SuperPac.
GunFacts
CorporatePiggy on November 4, 2012 at 10:28 AM
From cold hands.
davidk on November 4, 2012 at 10:29 AM
If Obama wins, I’ll be doing my quadrennial firearms purchase.
Glenn Jericho on November 4, 2012 at 10:34 AM
I fear Bloomberg. If it were a choice between him and Zero, I’d have to take a good, hard second look at Zero.
Xasprtr on November 4, 2012 at 10:34 AM
I don’t ever want to hint at what has been the purchasing trend in our house this year.
Cindy Munford on November 4, 2012 at 10:34 AM
Bloomers is a fool. Let him waste his fortune chasing unicorns. The rest of the United States is not like the city of New York where a two-bit tyrant can steamroll people’s rights with ease and impunity.
NotCoach on November 4, 2012 at 10:36 AM
Outside of the tone deaf and irrelevant “No Labels” cult (and who’s left there after his calamitous performances with the 2010 blizzard/snow plow affair and now Sandy? Kathleen Parker, John Avlon, Thomas Friedman and Michael Bloomberg?), the incompetent tyrant has no constituency left. Go ahead and take on the NRA, tough guy. Few things would make people happier than watching him taking on an organization as big as his mouth…and getting squashed like a bug.
fitzfong on November 4, 2012 at 10:39 AM
Exactly! Who cares if they’re spending millions in areas they really won’t impact anyway? The only place that PAC would have a voice is in the squishy liberal areas. So no big deal.
But I do think it’s pretty laughable. He wants to be the counterweight against the 2nd Amendment. How American. LOL
ButterflyDragon on November 4, 2012 at 10:45 AM
Bloomberg is like Obama. Can’t keep the streets clear of snow or the lights on in the city or the criminals in jail, but thinks he has a 10,000-foot view of things and can do great works without having to worry about the messy details, all he needs is enough power to force his beautiful ideas on people. Megalomaniacs throughout history have always been like that, and they always cause the lion’s share of human misery in the world.
Socratease on November 4, 2012 at 10:46 AM
Why doesn’t Nanny Bloomberg take on the First Amendment as well? How about the Fourth and Fifth too?
rbj on November 4, 2012 at 10:53 AM
Good.
Gun control and homosexual marriage – both issues huge losers for the left.
Keep beating that drum, Mussolini Jr.
Rebar on November 4, 2012 at 10:55 AM
Exactly. It seems that many, if not most, elected politicians idolize Teddy Roosevelt, and by extension, feel the need to be seen to be doing something important. Active government and grandstanding are their keys to re-election. John McCain has often exhibited this tendency and bristles when he receives any pushback. Bloomberg is the same, only his ego is exponentially larger and his accomplishments are infinitely smaller (in every way).
fitzfong on November 4, 2012 at 11:04 AM
Staten Island = the new Lower Ninth Ward
Bloomblob = the new Ray Nagin
slickwillie2001 on November 4, 2012 at 11:04 AM
and those are his good points.
arnold ziffel on November 4, 2012 at 11:06 AM
The business example is IBM v. The Clones…IBM was VASTLY larger than most of the clones, and yet COLLECTIVELY the clones displaced IBM, though in a head-to-head match-up IBM was greatly stronger, IBM could not beat THOUSANDS of firms making WinTel machines.
JFKY on November 4, 2012 at 10:19 AM
This is another version of what Android is doing to Apple right now. Look at Apple’s stock value: it was at 705 less than a month ago; it closed at 576 Friday. In the worldwide market Android has 75% market share to Apples’s 15%.
mad scientist on November 4, 2012 at 11:11 AM
Will New Yorkers finally wake up and see that their tax dollars are spent tilting at windmills?
Probably not.
mad scientist on November 4, 2012 at 11:13 AM
Which is why eternal vigilance is the price we must pay. When we stop opposing tyrrany, tyrrany wins.
Extrafishy on November 4, 2012 at 11:15 AM
Bloomberg is way past his expiration date.
claudius on November 4, 2012 at 11:29 AM
You want to stop Doomberg? Hang this Sandy catastrophe around his neck. He’s supposed to be a big believer in Global Warming, yet did nothing to protect his city from the threat. Instead he wasted millions if not billions on Quixotic campaigns against salt and sugar.
Further, NYC was supposed to be getting billions in disaster preparedness aid after 9/11/2001. What happened to all that money? Why wasn’t NY prepared?
Hang SANDY on him, and discredit him. Its the only way. Oh, and tar his lesbian successor Quinn with it as well.
Iblis on November 4, 2012 at 11:29 AM
You come down heah and try and take my guns, you’re leaving feet first pal.
Dack Thrombosis on November 4, 2012 at 11:32 AM
Don’t forget with zombies you have to aim for the head.
…in all seriousness, my vocabulary does not include words harsh enough for this wretched imitation of a human being, and that includes all the four-letter adjectives.
MelonCollie on November 4, 2012 at 12:14 PM
Counterweight for what end?
What has the effective counterweight to Big Government been?
Mimzey on November 4, 2012 at 12:17 PM
Says the guy with bodyguards.
Alana on November 4, 2012 at 12:29 PM
Have you looked at Bloomberg lately? If you need a counterweight, he’s your man.
Odysseus on November 4, 2012 at 1:18 PM