{"id":6832,"date":"2012-10-22T12:26:34","date_gmt":"2012-10-22T16:26:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gunpoliticsny.com\/?p=6832"},"modified":"2012-10-22T12:26:34","modified_gmt":"2012-10-22T16:26:34","slug":"bloomberg-wants-to-provide-spine-for-politicians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gunpoliticsny.com\/?p=6832","title":{"rendered":"Bloomberg wants to provide \u201cspine\u201d for politicians"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Mayor Mike<\/a> on what he wants his super PAC to do<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“… The point of his super PAC, he said, was to provide \u201cspine\u201d for politicians under that sort of pressure, which is why, for instance, it is supporting the re-election of Representative Robert J. Dold<\/a>, a Republican from Illinois. Mr. Dold got a \u201cD\u201d from the National Rifle Association<\/a> for backing some gun restrictions. \u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019re not going to beat the N.R.A. overnight,\u201d Mr. Bloomberg said. \u201cAs you get going, people start realizing that there\u2019s a sane group of people out there that want them to do intelligent things, and that that\u2019s where their support is going to come from.\u201d …”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s nice, except for the fact that Independence USA PAC<\/a>, like Mayors Against Illegal Guns<\/a>, is funded almost entirely by one person: Bloomberg himself<\/a>. \u00a0There’s no “group”, it’s just more astroturf wrapped around Bloomberg’s ego.<\/p>\n

By and large, the antigun groups have given up on directly influencing elections through PACs and GOTV efforts. \u00a0Being astroturf they don’t have a constituency like NRA to raise money from or tell whom to vote for and appear to be shifting towards more “educational”\/public relations type activities in an effort to still appear relevant.<\/p>\n