Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg - who through his political group has publicly committed to spending $50 million on gun-control politics in 2014 – paid $150,000 to air a series of television ads targeting Clarke’s conservative pro-gun policies.
The money from Bloomberg’s Independence USA super PAC was more than what Clarke and Moews spent on their entire campaigns combined.
Bloomberg spokesman Howard Wolfson told the Wall Street Journal on Monday that he decided to get involved in the sheriff’s race because it allowed him to shape policy on a local level.
“The issue of guns is one that (Bloomberg) cares an awful lot about and there’s a very clear contrast on that issue in this race,” Wolfson told the newspaper.
Good. We need to keep as many leaders like him in power. I’ll say granted, Clarke isn’t perfect in his gun law stance and practices; he’s known for generally refusing to sign off on NFA forms. But given that he’s a Democrat in one of the most liberal counties in the country and he still was one of the first after Newtown to step up and announce his opposition to further gun control, he gets at least a B+ in my book.
There’s a lot of support for gun rights in law enforcement, despite what we may hear from the big city commissioners. I spoke with a police chief just the other day who completely opposed pretty much all kinds of gun control and was proud of the fact that he told liberals to “suck it up” when they complained about too many people carrying guns in his town. I heard another officer, a respected academy firearms instructor, go on a rant about how there’s absolutely no excuse for law abiding citizens to not carry concealed weapons in today’s dangerous society. There’s also the Detroit chief and most of the sheriffs in Colorado…a lot of good guys in blue on our side.