Michael Bloomberg Has Found a New $5 Million Cause: Helping Hochul (keep progressives in check)

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

Michael Bloomberg Has Found a New $5 Million Cause: Helping Hochul
Mr. Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York City, has quietly bankrolled a group that is flooding the airwaves with ads to support Gov. Kathy Hochul’s budget plans.



The slick campaign-style ads have been running on repeat during telecasts of “Jeopardy!” and March Madness basketball. They trumpet, at great expense, the agenda of New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul. And at the end of each, a tiny message says they are paid for by a vanilla-sounding group, American Opportunity.

But beneath a maze of shell groups and indirection, the real source of most of the funding for the mysterious new multimillion-dollar campaign to shape the state’s gargantuan budget is a familiar billionaire who once ran New York City and had all but disappeared from state politics: Michael R. Bloomberg.

The emerging alliance between Mr. Bloomberg, a business leader and three-term mayor, and Ms. Hochul, a Buffalo Democrat still struggling to forge a connection with New York voters, could be as significant as it is unforeseen. Though he has become one of the Democrats’ most prolific donors nationally, Mr. Bloomberg did not open his wallet for Ms. Hochul’s 2022 campaign, and sat out some of the state’s most pressing recent policy disputes.

Now, he has given $5 million in seed money to help fund a blitz of television advertising, social media influence campaigns and rounds of mailers targeting individual lawmakers as they grapple with Ms. Hochul over the shape of the budget, according to two people briefed on his giving. Two more people, who also insisted on anonymity, confirmed the gift but not the amount.

Mr. Bloomberg, who has not spoken publicly about the contribution, is not intended to be Ms. Hochul’s only benefactor. A fund-raising consultant for the governor has approached some of New York’s wealthiest political donors in recent weeks looking for smaller contributions and pitching American Opportunity as a way to help her keep the more progressive forces in the party in check

[Just A Box Of Rain]

1. Sounds like Democrat bashing.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

2. The NYT article or the Bloomberg cause?

[Just A Box Of Rain]

4. Which do you think?

[JanMichael]

3. Swell dude.

I can only see my reply which means 3 swell DUers are cheering it.

[FakeNoose]

5. Well OK there are worse ways he could spend his money

... like for instance, he could donate to Chump. I'm glad he's helping Gov. Hochul instead.