Here in our timeline, money from the NRA and the Koch family’s Americans for Prosperity (which also backed the recall) caused no problem for conservatives while Bloomberg’s money tainted the Democrats. That’s just the latest problem for MAIG, which has been losing dozens of mayors from mid-sized towns and cities as its focus has turned to gun-control bills. “They’re not just against illegal guns,” said disgruntled Sioux City, Iowa mayor Bob Scott. “They’re against all guns.”
The New York election was a repudiation of Mayor Bloomberg. The Colorado election is worse—a defeat for Bloomberg the Icon. For half a decade or more, a certain sort of liberal, usually well-off, has convinced himself that the country he dreams of is possible, if only Bloomberg wills it. Bloomberg seemed to believe this too; his guru Kevin Sheekey interpreted polls about how many voters said the country was “off track” and demanded a third-party candidate to right it. After a bad Acela ride in 2012, Thomas Friedman asked Bloomberg to run for president and “challenge, and maybe even improve, both major-party presidential candidates by speaking honestly about what is needed to restore the foundations of America’s global leadership before we implode.”
The people who believed that on Monday probably still believe it. A couple of election losses aside, in a few months Bloomberg will be a private citizen with billions to spend on his political causes. That’s enough time to rethink this theory that you can ignore all critics, drop money from a helicopter, and expect to be forever proven right.
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