Bloomberg-founded gun control group launches ads to flip 15 GOP House districts

[brooklynite]

Source: Poltico

Everytown for Gun Safety, the group founded by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is rolling out a $5 million digital ad campaign targeting 15 House races, as the group continues heavy investment in the midterm elections.

The pro-gun control group announced plans to target House districts embedded in suburban communities outside of cities like Atlanta, Kansas City, Miami and Minneapolis. The 15 districts are all featured on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s “Red to Blue” target list, a program that denotes top-tier races.

The full list of targeted Republican incumbents include: Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.); Mike Coffman (R-Colo.), Karen Handel (R-Ga.), Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.), Erik Philip Paulsen (R-Minn.), Mike Bishop (R-Mich.), Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.) and Barbara Comstock (R-Va.). The group is also going after seven open, Republican-controlled seats that include suburbs in metro areas from Seattle to New York City.

“Suburban swing districts are going to make this election, and gun safety resonates extremely high with suburban voters,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “We’re trying to galvanize new, young and suburban voters in a way that they’ve never been engaged before and meeting them exactly where they are.”

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/25/gun-control-midterms-suburbs-838485

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Bloomberg targeted races before, did he have any success?

Just wondering if announcing these plans blunts its effect because it alerts the other side?

[BumRushDaShow]

2. Here was what he donated to in 2016

https://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/bloomberg-new-york-donor-230861

(actually a mix of (D) and (R) candidates and not just candidates but also ballot measures, which also included beverage tax initiatives and charter schools in addition to gun control)

[bucolic_frolic]

3. Thanks! So he helped re-elect Toomey and defeat Ayotte

He's using his billions more for social architecture than partisanship, though now he sees the crisis the country is in.

I really don't follow him closely, he's almost as Mavericky as John McCain, but from the upper crust Democratic-Republican center, sort of 1910 civic-minded fellow. His fortune seems to grow. He's still making money from Bloomberg Terminals in the age of internet trading? He was sure in the right place at the right time. Of course with his bio ... Johns Hopkins, MBA Harvard, head of investment bank Soloman Bros in the 1970s. Yes these are the places that have knowledge and connections.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. The Teabagger Toomey support was a f-ing disgrace

And yeah, he has certainly been a NY fixture for a long time. Had enough to buy himself a 3rd term as mayor there. But unlike the thing in the WH, he knew how to do the expected "philanthropy", which is a must among the NYC blue-bloods, so he was rarely shunned for his continual equivocations and remaking himself.