DCCC’s Maloney uses federal bailout scheme to woo Hasidic voters in tough reelection race in N.Y.
With all the attention this week on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s latest financial gambit, it’s worth taking a moment to recall that it’s the same maneuver being used by the party of New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in his own quest to fend off an ambitious Republican challenger.
That’s the campaign that Bloomberg has undertaken against Patrick J. Toomey, whose own campaign has made no secret of its reliance on the support of an unapologetically liberal electorate in the City of Brotherly Love. In 2008, Toomey upset Bloomberg – in a race that is often described as the “inevitability” contest – by knocking the mayor out of office and taking on the role of one of his toughest opponents in New York history. Toomey has been making his case to the Democratic base ever since, arguing that he can put the conservative billionaire ex-mayor out of office and, in return, give New York the kind of government it deserves.
But Bloomberg is in no position to give Toomey what he wants. He needs to get out of the race to let his opponent compete and make it clear that he won’t be there for long. That way, the Bloomberg campaign can raise funds without having to worry about what it would do to the city’s coffers with Toomey’s presence in the race. And that’s the part that’s particularly interesting to watch: the Bloomberg campaign isn’t really that interested in winning this election; it’s only interested in preventing Toomey from winning an election that looks like almost certain victory for him.
There are many reasons for that. For one thing, it helps to have an incumbent in the race and a very high profile one at that – which is why it seems so odd that Bloomberg has been willing to go out of his way to support Toomey’s candidacy after he lost so handily in 2008. For another, the mayor has just announced a new campaign television ad, which is a big help for the Bloomberg campaign:
The ad, which is running across the country, will feature two of Toomey’s