It Was A Terrible Night For Michael Bloomberg
The first came in his backyard of New York, where Democratic voters are on the verge of making Bill de Blasio their nominee for mayor. Bloomberg, as he revealed last weekend, is not a big fan of de Blasio, a candidate who has made a winning campaign out of tarnishing Bloomberg's legacy. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Bloomberg's preferred choice, finished a distant third.
But perhaps the bigger loss for Bloomberg came in Colorado, where two Democratic state lawmakers were recalled after backing stricter gun laws in the wake of two mass shootings last year in Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn. The NRA headlined its press release celebrating the recall elections, "Michael Bloomberg Suffers Resounding Defeat."
"It was a really bad night for Michael Bloomberg," said Greg Valliere, the chief political strategist at Potomac Research, in a note Wednesday morning.
"His money made no difference in Colorado, where voters ousted two proponents of gun control - a chilling message that Sandy Hook had no real impact on this debate. In New York City, the dismal showing by Christine Quinn was a reflection of Bloomberg fatigue by voters."
It was a rare night in which both left and right united in victory in the face of a common enemy - Bloomberg.
On the right, gun-rights advocates delivered a brutal hit to Bloomberg's Mayors Against Illegal Guns. Angela Giron, one of the state senators who was recalled, told the New Republic last month that if even one seat was lost, MAIG "might as well fold it up." If nothing else, the results will likely lead to major pause from state legislators looking to tackle gun-control issues, especially in purple states.
And on the left, de Blasio clearly made his campaign a referendum on growing dissatisfaction with Bloomberg, especially among city Democrats. Look no further than the campaign's star television ad - in which de Blasio's 15-year-old son, Dante, tells voters that his father will be the "only Democrat with the guts to really break from the Bloomberg years."