The good news for Mayor Bloomberg is that he won all the races he was backing in Northern Virginia. The bad news, however, is the reason he backed these candidates was to prevent the Republicans for taking over the Senate, which they appear to have done. This means:
There are 10 gun bills that have passed the GOP-controlled General Assembly and now could also pass the Senate, including one that would repeal Virginia’s current mandate that a person can only buy one gun a month.
However, one of the state’s leading political experts noted that sweeping reform was unlikely.
But with the GOP controlling key committees, it will certainly be easier. The question is whether Bloomberg really believe that Virginia’s one-gun-a-month law help tamp down trafficking to New York City, or whether he’s concerned that if the law is repealed, and Virginia’s trace numbers do not precipitously increase, or in fact decline, whether it will repudiate the entire concept, which Bloomberg’s Mayors are pushing in other states.
Mayor Bloomberg also poured $25k into the Indianapolis mayoral race, looking for another high-profile mayor to add to his coalition. Candidate Melina Kennedy took absolutely every opportunity she could, during discussion of lowering crime (even when the original subject was more centered on drugs) to praise Bloomberg and MAIG and promise that she would join the coalition on “Day One” of her administration. She lost Tuesday night.
Since when has Bloomy worried about the facts repudiating his concepts? It that was the case he would simply close down MAIG now and conceed defeat.
Sadly, the Republicans didn’t really get the Senate. Whenever it comes down to an even split where one defector makes the difference, the Democrats can bribe at least one Republican to switch sides.