Bloomberg Could Have Made A Real Difference Instead Of Wasting Over $100 Million That Flipped One Seat, Electing A Pointless Blue Dog

Bloomberg hates Trump. Very nice. Congratulations. He spends money expressing that hatred and plans to spend a lot more. Wonderful. If you run into him, you might say, "your country is grateful, Mr. Bloomberg." But that doesn't mean it's time for the country to saddle itself with another out-of-touch, reactionary billionaire, even if one demonstrably less horrible than Trump.

Earlier this week, Bloomberg was in DC promoting Paris to Pittsburgh, a film about Climate Change he financed. Bloomberg told his audience that the brain-dead fake president "really could learn a lot from towns and cities featured in the documentary and which are taking action on climate change... “If he’s not willing to listen to his own administration’s scientific advisers-- and he isn’t-- he should at least listen to the people in this film."

Let me take a moment away from this post to urge you to watch the two and a half minute trailer for Paris to Pittsburgh, something I would say was a great and socially useful way for Bloomberg to spend some of his cash:



By now you've probably seen Chris Hayes' meme and 30-second video suggesting how to efficiently watch the 2020 campaigns unfold. Bloomberg has a (what he and his team think is a self-serving) corollary: "Every voter should ask the candidates not just what do you promise to do, but also what have you done, what have you delivered and how can we implement in a practical way your proposals."

Bloomberg was a Republican mayor of New York City. He switched to being an independent in the middle of his second term and ran as an independent/Republican for his third. And last year, somewhat incongruously, he switched parties and "became" a Democrat.

His political operation is completely staffed by yesteryear's, washed-up conservative Fox-Democrat types, like Doug Schoen, Howard Wolfson, Kevin Sheekey (an actual slime-ball Republican), Bradley Tusk (a Google and Uber lobbyist)... the kind of campaign operatives that make progressives wonder why they bother identifying with the Democratic Party.

Last year Bloomberg put over $100 million into electoral politics and left it to Wolfson to oversee. Today Wolfson puffs himself up and struts around claiming of the 24 Democratic congressional candidates, he spent (Bloomberg's) money on, 21 won, implying it was his Independence USA PAC that made the difference. That's a joke. That $110 or so million was appreciated by many candidates but made the win/lose difference in exactly one district: OK-05 (Oklahoma City), where they managed to upset the applecart in a way NO ONE expected. Yep, Bloomberg's millions elected exactly one Democrat: Kendra Horn, a cowardly conservative Blue Dog with an "F" voting record already-- with a miserable 42.86 crucial vote score. Most election experts agree that she's the most likely freshman to lose her seat in 2020. And no one will care other than the people who work for her.

But virtually all the Democrats Bloomberg spent money on are conservative, status quo types, mostly Blue Dogs and New Dems. In fact, going down the entire list of the candidates the Independence USA PAC spent on, only 3 winners-- Mike Levin (CA). Lauren Underwood (IL) and Donna Shalala (FL)-- haven't joined either the New Dems or Blue Dogs. Progressives who ran in 2018 universally say they were treated with contempt and disdain by the Bloomberg machine and, other than Levin, who was well-connected with establishment shit-heads, not a single progressive got one cent from Bloomberg's Independence USA PAC.

A still-angry Wisconsin Democratic Party official told me pretty much what I'm hearing from progressive activists in every campaign I go to. He was angry Bloomberg refused to back Randy Bryce. "Randy's race would have been perfect for Bloomberg. Relatively cheap media market, tight public polling, and a Republican being financed by the biggest villain out there: Paul Ryan. Problem is, a progressive iron worker is seen by Bloomberg as 'the help,' not the member of Congress. Whether it was Randy’s Latino heritage, his progressive bonafides, or his lack of a college degree, Mayor Stop-and-Frisk saw Randy Bryce as a sub class of human, not worth his time or money." Whoa!

This is where Bloomberg's money went, rather than to any of the candidates who backed the issues Bernie identified as a way forward for the party and country.

• Katie Hill (New Dem-CA)- $5,094,633
• Harley Rouda (New Dem-CA)- $4,458,187
• Kim Schrier (New Dem-WA)- $2,891,589
• Steven Horsford (New Dem-NV)- $2,828,601
• Haley Stevens (New Dem-MI)- $2,632,614
• Elissa Slotkin (New Dem-MI)- $2,417,604
• Mikie Sherrill (Blue Dog-NJ)- $2,216,131
• Lauren Underwood (D-IL)- $2,160,984
• Jennifer Wexton (New Dem-VA)- $1,709,787
• Nancy Soderberg (LOST-FL)- $1,623,370
• Colin Allred (New Dem-TX)- $1,453,520
• Lizzie Fletcher (New Dem-TX)- $1,317,424
• Carolyn Long (LOST-WA)- $1,260,281
• Carolyn Bourdeaux (LOST-GA)- $1,048,672
• Sharice Davids (New Dem-KS)- $998,271
• Dean Phillips (New Dem-MN)- $721,836
• Mike Levin (D-CA)- $686,722
• Elaine Luria (New Dem-VA)- $646,255
• Kendra Horn (Blue Dog-OK)- $429,664
• Jason Crow (New Dem-CO)- 244,583
• Chrissy Houlahan (New Dem-PA)- $212,766
• Donna Shalala (D-FL)- $142,615
• Angie Craig (New Dem-MN)- 130,879
• Lucy McBath (New Dem-GA)- $130,000

The mighty Bloomberg machine purposefully-- and with a real vengeance-- ignored actual progressive candidates from coast to coast-- and if you look at the races where Democrats came closest to flipping a red seat, the moment Bloomberg's people got an inkling the Democrat was a progressive, they refused to spend money in the district. Bloomberg ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS prefers conservative Republicans (like himself) to progressive Democrats. These seven races, pitting solid progressive Democrats against conservative Republicans, would likely have all flipped from red to blue had Bloomberg's Independence USA PAC agreed to spend significant money in them. Instead he spent ZERO:

• CA-50-- Duncan Hunter (R-51.7%) v Ammar Campa-Najjar (D-48.3%)
• IA-04-- Steve King (R-50.3%) v J.D. Scholten (D-47.0%)
• MI-06-- Fred Upton (R-50.2%) v Matt Longjohn (D-45.7%)
• NE-02-- Don Bacon (R-51.0%) v Kara Eastman (D-49.0%)
• NY-24-- John Katko (R-52.6%) v Dana Balter (D-47.4%)
• NY-27-- Chris Collins (R-49.1%) v Nate McMurray (D-48.8%)
• TX-10-- Michael McCaul (R-51.1%) v Mike Siegel (D-46.8%)

Bloomberg could have made a real difference-- instead, he elected a pointless Blue Dog who votes with the Republicans and who will likely be defeated next time she faces the voters.