Bloomberg ad hits Cuccinelli on guns

New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s ad buy in Virginia features an anti-Ken Cuccinelli ad that focuses on the issue of gun background checks, saying the Republican Attorney General opposed having them at gun shows and calling him “too extreme for Virginia.”

The blistering spot is part of a more than $1.2 million ad buy Bloomberg’s super PAC, Independence USA, is running in the Washington D.C. market in the closing two weeks of the race between Cuccinelli and Democrat Terry McAuliffe, who is leading in polls.


With imagery of the gunmen in three recent shooting sprees, including the one at Virginia Tech, the ad’s narrator says, “The gun show loophole. It means anyone can buy a gun without a background check. The dangerously mentally ill. Criminals. Endangering our families.”

( Also on POLITICO: Liberal poll: McAuliffe up in early voting)

With a large picture of Cuccinelli on the screen, the narrator says, “Ken Cuccinelli opposed closing the gun show loophole — against comprehensive background checks at gun shows for criminals and the dangerously mentally ill. Siding with the NRA and undermining law enforcement. No wonder the Washington Post calls Cuccinelli polarizing, provocative and partisan.”

The ad ends with the “too extreme” line.

“Virginians have a choice between a candidate who is supported by the NRA because he opposes gun background checks for criminals and the dangerously mentally ill and a candidate who who wants to protect families by closing the gun show loophole,” said Stu Loeser, spokesman for the PAC.

Bloomberg, who is the best-known face of gun control efforts, has been among the biggest funders of ads against candidates who have been against legislative efforts to curb the flow of illegal guns. It has become his signature issue over the last four years of his time in New York as mayor.

( Also on POLITICO: Rick Santorum ‘strike force’ for Ken Cuccinelli)

As POLITICO first reported, McAuliffe recently met with Bloomberg in New York and requested backing, according to multiple sources familiar with the meeting.

Bloomberg has made clear that he plans to counter the National Rifle Association’s spending in campaigns. The NRA went up with a spot in Virginia Monday night attacking Democratic AG candidate Mark Herring as a tool of Bloomberg.

The Bloomberg spending on the governor’s race will hit close to saturation-level spending in a single market.

In the Virginia race, McAuliffe is being backed by a number of outside groups, with the Democratic Governors Association being among his chief backers.

Cuccinelli spokeswoman Anna Nix slammed McAuliffe for the ad, which comes on the heels of support from California environmentalist Tom Steyer, who has run more than $3 million worth of spots in Virginia.

“Terry McAuliffe ought to be ashamed of himself for trotting out radical billionaires from New York City and San Francisco who want to impose their liberal agenda on Virginia,” Nix said. “McAuliffe may be pandering to his base by locking arms with individuals who care nothing about our jobs or our constitutional right to defend ourselves, but their big government schemes are wrong for Virginia.”