Billionaire New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's pro-gun-control super PAC will finance $1.1 million in advertising for Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe in the final weeks of the race,
Politico reported Monday.
The ads will roll out Tuesday. The election is Nov. 5.
McAuliffe journeyed to New York in August to seek the mayor's support.
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Bloomberg, a political independent, has spent more than $15 million on various gun control initiatives — and spent $1 million helping elect Newark Mayor Cory Booker to a U.S. Senate seat in New Jersey's special election to replace the late Frank Lautenberg, who championed gun control,
The New York Post reported.
McAuliffe supports stricter gun laws, including an assault weapons ban, universal background checks, limiting the size of magazines and preventing people from buying more than one gun a month.
Roll Call reported Monday that the political action committee of the National Rifle Association has spent $466,000 on television and Internet ads highlighting McAuliffe-backed gun control measures.
The
campaign of Republican Ken Cuccinelli, who supports a focus on mental health to reduce gun violence, slammed the ads as out-of-state interference.
"Terry McAuliffe and his allies are spending tens of millions of dollars in an attempt to buy Virginia's governor's mansion and impose an idealogical agenda that will severely restrict Virginian's Second Amendment rights, hike energy prices for Virginia families and undermine our right-to-work laws," Cuccinelli communications director Richard Cullen told Politico.
Cuccinelli is trailing in the polls, partly because he is getting so massively outspent on television.
Groups like Planned Parenthood, the National Education Association and billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer have poured in millions, Politico reported.
"McAuliffe’s liberal supporters like . . . Mayor Bloomberg aren't pumping millions into this race for a few laughs," Cullen said. "They’re doing so because they expect a return on their investment."
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