Democrats know how to win elections and they see Bloomberg as a liability, at least the smart ones do. (by the way, saying they know how to win elections is not meant as praise but as a statement of fact).
Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg has donated $2.5 million to the Democratic Senate Majority PAC – a small signal that he may have acceded to Democratic demands not to fight against Senate Democrats who voted against the expansion of background checks in April 2013.
Bloomberg’s group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, launched an ad in May against Democratic Senator Mark Pryor of Arkansas, attacking him for voting against the background check bill in the Senate last year. The ad made Democratic leaders uneasy because they believe it could hurt Pryor and prevent Democrats from keeping control of the Senate in 2014. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada told reporters at the time that he spoke to Bloomberg and reminded him that a “Republican-controlled Senate is a sure sign that we’ll never, ever get anything done” on gun control.
Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer of New York also spoke out against Bloomberg’s decision to target Democrats. “Frankly, I don’t think Bloomberg’s ads are effective,” he told the New York Daily News in June. “The mayor of New York City putting ads against people in red states is not going to be effective.” But Bloomberg remained defiant. “This is not a partisan issue,” he said. “If you vote to continue the carnage on our streets I don’t care what party you’re in.”
But Bloomberg appears to have changed his mind. The $2.5 million donation to the Senate Majority PAC, a group dedicated to helping Democrats keep control of Senate, is an indication that he may stop his crusade against red-state Democratic senators who voted gun control. CNN has confirmed that the PAC has already placed ads in defense of Senators Mark Pryor and Mark Begich of Alaska, both of whom voted against the Senate bill to expand background checks.
Bloomberg’s donation does not, however, mean he will financially support individual Democratic candidates going forward. Howard Wolfson, Bloomberg’s former deputy mayor and a close aide, would not confirm that Bloomberg will make donations on behalf of Democrats. “Mike Bloomberg has made clear that he will continue to fight for the causes that matter to New Yorkers, even more so now that he isn’t constrained by the mayoralty,” Wolfson told POLITICO.
Source: http://inthecapital.streetwise.co/2014/01/09/michael-bloomberg-donates-2-5-million-to-senate-democrats-is-he-giving-up-on-gun-control/
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Gregory Smith