Bloomberg spending $25M to elect centrists from both parties

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg will commit $25 million to help elect centrist candidates from both parties in the 2014 midterms, according to a report in the New York Times.

Bloomberg will buy television ads through his Independence USA PAC, wading into a number of Senate, House and gubernatorial races.

{mosads}“He wants to elect people who are open and actually inclined to work with people across the aisle,” Howard Wolfson, Bloomberg’s political adviser, told the New York Times.

Former Rep. Robert Dold (R-Ill.) is one of the candidates being backed by the group. Dold is looking to reclaim the seat he lost after one term in 2012 to current Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) by just over one percentage point.     

Bloomberg also plans to back candidates from different parties within the same state.

In Michigan, he’ll support Democratic Rep. Gary Peters’s bid for Senate and Republican Gov. Rick Snyder for reelection. In Massachusetts, he will back two outsiders: Republican nominee for governor Charlie Baker and Seth Moulton, the Democratic candidate running to replace Rep. John Tierney (D).

Bloomberg will do the same in California, where he will throw his money behind House hopefuls Carl DeMaio (R) and Pete Aguilar (D). In Pennsylvania, he is backing Democratic challenger Tom Wolf, who hopes to unseat Gov. Tom Corbett (R), and Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick (R) who faces a challenge from Democrat Kevin Strouse for his House seat.

The majority of those races are close — within five percentage points in recent polling. Only Tom Wolf enjoys a larger lead, and there haven’t been recent polls in Aguilar and Fitzpatrick’s races.

The Times report also said he’s planning to wade into the Rhode Island gubernatorial race by supporting Democrat Gina Raimondo.

Bloomberg has long had an independent streak. He identified as a Democrat until he switched to the GOP in a successful bid for New York City mayor in 2001. In 2007, he switched from the GOP to a registered Independent.

He’s also been heavily involved in pushing for gun control as a board member of Everytown for Gun Safety, a political group that grew out of Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns.