approached this as he would something on the national level: He tapped
his wealthy pals. Before you could say “lock and load,” an advocacy
group affiliated with former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg decided
to put $700,00 in gun-control money into ads supporting Gecker….
would not take kindly to a New York boo-bah [sic] telling them what they
should do with their guns…. They do not want the nanny state.
Galuszka
is usually a good reporter, but what he’s implying here is that
McAuliffe called up his rich pal Bloomberg and asked him to personally
intervene in the race. Where’s the evidence that this actually happened?
Galuszka
is probably right that the explosion of outside money in the race was
one key factor in Gecker’s loss. But he obscures a key part of
Sturtevant’s success: making it personal. Mike Bloomberg didn’t fly down
to Virginia and bust out his checkbook. But everyone — including
mainstream media outlets – bought that line and unwittingly helped send
Gecker home.
Yes, the non-profit advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety targeted the 10th District race for an almost unprecedented ad buy of an announced $700k. But as Jeff Shapiro pointed out, that amount was at least matched on Sturtevant’s side by the Republican State Leadership Committee, plus additional support from non-profits like the NRA.
Republicans
wisely portrayed the Everytown money as coming directly from a New York
billionaire. But Bloomberg, although a key funder of the organization,
only created one of the group’s component parts (the mayors’ coalition)
and doesn’t seem to be heavily involved in the day-to-day running of the
organization. Why not blame Warren Buffett, who also funds the group?
Answer: Buffett is a folk hero to conservatives, while Bloomberg is a
NYC Jewish “liberal.” (Which in Powhatan, might as well be a space
alien.)
We’ll see more of this next year. Many observers noted how this year’s VA races, particularly the 10th, was a kind of laboratory
for next year’s Presidential race. We’ll soon see a host of national
organizations flood Virginia airwaves with TV ads in this key electoral
college state. Let’s hope the media gets a little more savvy about how
they report about these expenditures, and not just parrot a party line.
Hasn’t poor Mike Bloomberg suffered enough?
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