Fuming with righteous indignation, the gun prohibition lobby on Wednesday reportedly paid $230,000 to run a two-page advertisement in the New York Times designed to browbeat 100 politicians who have accepted campaign contributions from the National Rifle Association, but a quick check reveals that anti-gunners are also sending big bucks to their political allies.
Published reports say the ad was financed by anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. A Google search will quickly reveal that he’s got no business slamming politicians for accepting donations from any gun rights organization.
For example, after initially pledging $1 million last year the Washington Post reported that the Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund donated $400,000 to Virginia Democrat gubernatorial candidate Ralph Northam, who has shown his stripes as a gun control proponent. Another $300,000 went to state Attorney General Mark Herring’s re-election campaign and the group sent $100,000 to Democrat Justin Fairfax, for his successful campaign to be Virginia’s lieutenant governor.
According to OpenSecrets.org, the Everytown Action Fund had spent $195,769 (as of March 23, 2017) in independent expenditures, communication costs and coordinated expenses to support Democrats in various states, while spending $85,791 against Republicans.
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Head to the West Coast, where, according to the Portland Oregonian, Bloomberg contributed a whopping $250,000 to help the campaign of Oregon Gov. Kate Brown in 2016. It was reportedly the “largest single contribution she has received in recent years.”
“The donation comes after Brown, a Democrat, publicly announced support for three pieces of gun control legislation,” the newspaper noted at the time, “including a ban of high-capacity ammunition magazines, which the Legislature will consider in 2017. Bloomberg has a history of donating to candidates who support gun control.”
KATU News and the Associated Press on May 9, 2016, said Bloomberg also “dropped $250,000 into state Rep. Val Hoyle’s campaign for Oregon secretary of state, raising the stakes in what’s considered the hottest statewide race in Oregon’s May 17 primary.
“Bloomberg is among the nation’s most vocal proponents of gun control,” the report added. “A spokesman for the New York billionaire, Howard Wolfson, said the donation was prompted by Hoyle’s role in helping pass Oregon’s 2015 gun background-check law.”
Politico reported that Bloomberg also contributed to the campaigns of “Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Roy Cooper, and hosted a fundraiser for Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo. He also dropped $250,000 into the Pennsylvania attorney general campaign of Josh Shapiro and $50,000 into Joe Torsella’s Pennsylvania state treasurer campaign.”
According to High Country News, Bloomberg gave $125,000 last year to the political action committee funding ad campaigns against Republican Jinyoung Lee Englund and supporting Democrat Manka Dhingra to fill an open seat in the Washington State Senate. Dhingra won that election, tilting the entire Washington Legislature to Democrats, and they have run a series of gun control bills as a result this session.
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