(Photo: Getty)

Late in this year's election cycle, Mayor Michael Bloomberg suddenly announced the creation of a "super PAC," Independence USA, through which the billionaire mayor could funnel unlimited sums of cash to candidates who support his political agenda of gun control, gay marriage and education reform. Looking at the federal races Mr. Bloomberg aimed to influence through the new political action committee, however, a majority of his candidates narrowly lost last night.

For example, in western Connecticut, moderate Republican Andrew Roraback suffered a 48%-to-52% loss to Democrat Elizabeth Esty, despite Mr. Bloomberg spending more than a million dollars on Mr. Roraback's behalf. Similarly, in another suburban seat, Mr. Bloomberg dropped roughly a million dollars boosting GOP Rep. Bob Dold in Illinois, only to see him lose by less than 1%. And, down in Florida, he spent more than $2 million in an attempt to vanquish Republican Congressman Dan Webster, but the incumbent still beat back a strong challenge from Val Demings, 52% to 48%.

In New York State, Mr. Bloomberg only directly involved himself in one race, the rematch between former Rep. Dan Maffei and the Republican who defeated him in 2010, Ann Marie Buerkle. The hotly-contested campaign also featured Independence USA's smallest federal expenditure, at less than $500,000, according to the latest campaign finance reports. Nevertheless, Mr. Maffei did pull out a 48%-to-44% victory, with a Green Party candidate soaking up the remaining tally.

But, because millions of dollars from other outside groups were also involved in Mr. Maffei's campaign, Mayor Bloomberg can probably only point to one congressional race where his spending was clearly decisive. Thanks to the state's new nonpartisan primary system, the top two candidates in California's 35th Congressional District were both Democrats, Rep. Joe Baca and his challenger, State Senator Gloria Negrete-McLeod. By pouring in more than $3 million, Mr. Bloomberg successfully hammered Mr. Baca over environmental and gun issues, leaving the incumbent with a likely 7-point loss in a race he might have otherwise coasted in.

Before the election, Mr. Bloomberg described his electoral efforts this cycle as an attempt "to get our feet wait," with most of his spending to come after he's term-limited out of Gracie Mansion in 2014.

Update (2:40 p.m.): Stefan Friedman, a spokesman for Mr. Bloomberg's PAC, pointed out other elections Mr. Bloomberg has involved himself in, either through fundraising or other third-party efforts, as well as one non-congressional race Independence USA entered for Pennsylvania's Attorney General.  That list can be found below.

“Whether it’s getting guns out of the hands of criminals; allowing people to marry regardless of their sexual preference; or cleaning up the environment, a solid majority of Americans believe that government has to enact common-sense reform – and last night, they made clear that they don’t want to wait any longer," Mr. Friedman said in a statement. "By exercising their democratic rights at the polls and voting for common-sense candidates and causes, the people took a giant step towards achieving reforms that will last a lifetime and benefit a great many.”

WINS
NELSON (D)(FL)
KING (I)(ME)
KING (R)(NY)
MCCASKILL (D)(MO)
HEINRICH (D)(NM)
HATCH (R)(UT)
KAINE (D)(VA)
SCHIFF (D)(CA)
QUIGLEY (D)(IL)
MENG (D)(NY)
RANGEL (D)(NY)
MAFFEI (D)(NY)
CICILLINE (D)(RI)
NEGRETE MCLEOD (D)
KANE (D)(PA)
TESTER (D-MT)
MAINE MARRIAGE
MARYLAND MARRIAGE
MINNESOTA MARRIAGE
WASHINGTON MARRIAGE

LOSSES:

CARMONA (D)(AZ)
BROWN (R) (MA)
RORABACK (R)(CT)
DEMINGS (D)(FL)
DOLD (R)(IL)
VILSACK (D) (IA)

(Photo: Getty)

Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently launched a "super PAC," loaded with at least $10 million of his own money, to influence this year's elections, but in an interview this morning, the mayor said he was just dipping his toes in the water and plans to do even more electoral engineering after he's term-limited out in 2013.

"We'll win some races, we'll lose some of these, but it's sort of to get our feet wet," Mr. Bloomberg said during his weekly appearance on John Gambling's radio show. "Two years from now, when I don't have to worry about just what's good for New York City--I'm going to live here for the rest of my life, my kids are going to live here, I'm going to live in New York State, I'm going to live in America, so I care about all of these levels of government--I'll be freer to do more."

Discussing his motivation for the move, Mr. Bloomberg said he's "complained about this partisanship and lack of cooperation" in Washington, and he finally decided to step up and try to fix things.

"I don't respect people who complain and don't try and do something about it," he said. "Just complaining is not something I think is very productive, so I'm going to try and support candidates--and you can do it with $1, or $10, or voting--but I want to support candidates who believe as I do. Marriage equality and common-sense gun laws and educational reform, people who can work across the aisle."

As to how he feels about this sort of outside spending in general, the billionaire mayor said he's fine with it as long as all of the money is publicly disclosed.

"I don't have a problem with people getting together to support a candidate," he explained, "if you want to give your money and hire people to do these things, or pay for ads, as long as it's disclosed. I think it should be disclosed at the city level, I think it should be disclosed at the state level and at the federal level, because you have a right to know who's trying to influence the Legislature."

Pataki. (Getty)

Earlier this year, former Gov. George Pataki launched a Super PAC aimed at tilting the many competitive U.S. House races in New York toward the Republican Party. He claimed millions of dollars in pledges with expectations to raise “in the high seven figures,” or, “if things go well, in the low eight” in total funds. But he’s not close to that number so far, according to last month’s federal filing, he’s raised only $30,000, spending about $750 total. After a press conference endorsing Wendy Long’s senatorial campaign this morning, however, Mr. Pataki told The Politicker he still expects to make an impact.

“I’m still very hopeful,” he said of his donors coming through for his Super PAC endeavor. “The people aren’t focusing on the House races at this point, understandably, and I haven’t been because I have a lot that I’m working on. We have plans down the road. We’re going to do our best to hit the seven-figure mark and see what we can do.”

“Hit the seven-figure mark” seemed a bit less than the “high seven” to “low eight” he assured the Wall Street Journal he would raise, however, and we inquired about the lower sum.

"I know one of the first rules of politics is to never give the number," he said. "We're still hopeful of raising the funds necessary to have an impact in the more than half dozen competitive U.S. House races that I know are going to be so important."

We then asked if donors were simply not honoring their commitments.

"I'm sure they will. It's August, it's July and August," he replied. "The election's not far away, but you drive to New York, as I did this morning, it's amazing how little traffic there is. I think post-Labor Day we're going to see a lot more action."

Supporters of LPAC include Glee star Jane Lynch and Laura Ricketts, an Obama supporter who is co-owner of the Chicago Cubs. Ms. Ricketts' father, Joe Ricketts, made waves in May when his anti-PAC super PAC contemplated an effort to take out the president by portraying him as a "metrosexual black Abe Lincoln."

"This year we have seen politicians repeatedly support policies that harm women,” Ms. Lynch said. “It is important to me to elect leaders who care about issues that impact women and their families. That's why I support LPAC."

LPAC Chair and Treasurer Sarah Schmidt said LPAC was inspired by "continued attacks on reproductive freedoms" and "marriage equality" that occurred in the past year.

The lesbian PAC plans to give money to "strong pro-women candidates" who support "ending discriminatory treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals and their families," "protecting access to reproductive freedom and quality healthcare" and "furthering social, racial, and economic justice for all Americans." LPAC will be engaging with races on the city, state and federal level.

Charlie Rangel (Photo: Hunter Walker)

Congressman Charlie Rangel has steadily been making the Campaign for Primary Accountability super PAC's support for one of his opponents, State Senator Adriano Espaillat, an issue throughout his reelection campaign. "Right-wingers from Texas are trying to stop him," one of his campaign mailers declared, for example. However, that super PAC -- despite promising to spend "six figures" -- never even bothered to spend as much as $10,000.

But in the modern era of super PACs, there's always another. In a campaign email to supporters entitled "Houston, We Have a Problem," the incumbent congressman lamented the existence of a different Super PAC supporting another one of his Democratic opponents, Clyde Williams.

"Did you see this story?" Mr. Rangel wrote. "The New York Times reported that a new Super PAC aimed at defeating me was just given $75,000… by one man, Reginald Van Lee."

"But here’s the real kicker: he’s not even from New York," he continued. "He’s originally from Houston, Texas. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think one rich man from Houston should swing an election in my hometown."

Unsurprisingly, Mr. Rangel turned this situation into a fundraising request for his own campaign. But with only a handful of days until Election Day, campaign contributions coming in this late are likely to have a mitigated effect.

Update: Capital New York reports that the Campaign for Primary Accountability is claiming to be getting involved in the race through a proxy organization, but subsequently admitted they aren't really getting involved in the race.

Charlie Rangel (Photo: Facebook)

Congressman Charlie Rangel is trying to use a Super PAC that's backing his opponent State Senator Adriano Espaillat to his own advantage. The Politicker received a mailer from Mr. Rangel at our Washington Heights bureau in which the congressman encourages people to give him their votes because of the Super PAC's support for his rival.

"Pinned down on the battlefield in Korea, Charlie Rangel decided to devote himself to public service if God let him survive. And he's never stopped fighting for us," the mailer says. "But now right-wing Tea Partiers from Texas are trying to stop him by telling us how to vote--and its time to fight back."

The "super PAC" from Texas Mr. Rangel refers to in his mailer is the Campaign for Primary Accountability, Houston-based PAC that targets incumbents. In a statement announcing its support for Ms. Espaillat, the CPA described Mr. Rangel as a prime example of the downside of incumbency.

"Charlie Rangel has sadly become the model of how some long-term incumbents become too comfortable with the special interests that infest Washington," the statement said. "As chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Rangel was responsible for extending the notorious tax break that allowed GE to pay zero taxes on billions of dollars of profits."

The CPA has supported both Democrats and Republicans who are running against longtime incumbents. Though the PAC's activities have been bipartisan, it has several prominent conservative donors including ERICPAC, the political action committee run by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, and Joe Ricketts, the billionaire who made headlines earlier this month when his own Super PAC considered a plan to target President Barack Obama by painting him as a "metrosexual black Abe Lincoln."

Obama as Lincoln drawn by Victor Juhasz in 2008.

Last week, a Super PAC's plan to paint President Barack Obama as a "metrosexual black Abe Lincoln" dominated the news cycle. Here is the Observer's rendition of what that might look like drawn by artist Victor Juhasz for this paper's cover in November 2008.

We found this picture thanks to the long memory and extensive archives of Scooter NY editor-in-chief Peter Feld. It doesn't seem like we'll ever see the Super PAC version of "black metrosexual Abe Lincoln" since the plan was subsequently disavowed by both the Romney campaign and the Super PAC itself.

Our Obama-as-Lincoln drawing was used for a story on early reports Hillary Clinton would be named Secretary of State in the Obama administration. The full cover image features Obama as Lincoln alongside Ms. Clinton, Joe Biden and a bearded Bill Clinton in 19th Century garb. Check it out below. 

Otis Moss III (Photo: Facebook)

Reverend Jeremiah Wright's successor as pastor of Chicago's Trinity Baptist Church, Otis Moss III, took to Twitter to comment on the New York Times' story about a controversial plan by a conservative Super PAC run by billionaire Joe Ricketts to attack President Barack Obama by associating him with Reverend Wright.

"We must fight this! Just got word about the structure of the ads. I will be calling on people of good will to stand with our church," Mr. Moss wrote. "It is not about denomination or theology This is an attack on the black church, ministry and prophetic witness."

President Obama met Reverend Wright in the late 1980's while he was working as a community organizer in Chicago. He went on to join Trinity Baptist Church and Reverend Wright officiated at his wedding and baptized both of his daughters. Their association became controversial during the 2008 elections after ABC News revealed excerpts of Rev. Wright's sermons in which he accused the American government of having invented the HIV virus, repeatedly lying and in which he described 9/11 as "America's chickens ... coming home to roost."

President Obama subsequently described the sermons as "divisive and destructive" and withdrew his membership from the church. Rev. Wright was retiring when the scandal broke in March, 2008. He had given his last sermon as pastor one month earlier and Rev. Moss was already preaching from Trinity's pulpit. Mr. Moss officially took over as the church's senior pastor in mid-2009. On Twitter today, Rev. Moss also asked for support now that the scandal is being resurrected.

"We ask for prayer for our church and community. Thank you," he wrote.

Joan Harrell, a spokeswoman for Trinity Church, told The Politicker Mr. Moss would not be commenting on the situation beyond his Tweets.

"Thank you very much for offering Dr. Moss the opportunity for an interview but he is not providing any more comments about the New York Times story," she said.

George Pataki (Photo: Getty)

In the middle of his media tour promoting his new Super PAC, former Governor George Pataki also took time to answer questions on the primary process and whether he should have entered the Republican presidential field himself on Inside City Hall last night.

The host, Errol Louis, first asked Mr. Pataki if the new rules that elongated the primary were a mistake.

"I don't think so," he replied. "After the fact, you look at it and say, 'It lasted too long, there were too many candidates.' But I think it was more of a function of the messaging and the candidates than the process itself."

He added, "No one was able to -- early in the process -- convince an overwhelming majority of Republicans that they were the right person, and that's the way it is."

Mr. Pataki, of course, briefly flirted with his own presidential bid, but it was never exactly clear what his path the nomination would be. In addition to another northeastern governor in the race, Mitt Romney, Jon Huntsman was aggressively campaigning in New Hampshire for the moderate Republican vote and there likely wouldn't have been much, if any, oxygen in the race for Mr. Pataki's candidacy.

Asked if he had any regrets about not pulling the trigger on his own campaign, Mr. Pataki demurred.

"Yeah, you can't look back," he wistfully answered. “I'm having a great time; I love what I'm doing. I love having more time with my family. I had a tremendous honor of leading this state in leading this state for over a decade. So, you look forward."

To which Mr. Louis responded, "That sounds like a yes."

Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney on the debate stage. (Getty)

Super PAC's took center stage at the Fox News/Wall Street Journal Republican debate in Myrtle Beach last night when Rick Santorum accused Mitt Romney of using the controversial campaign committees to sponsor "inaccurate," negative ads.

"I've run a very strong and positive campaign, my ads have been positive the only ad that I've ever put up contrasted myself with the other candidates and does so in a way talking about issues," Mr. Santorum said. "Governor Romney's super PAC has put an ad out there suggesting that I voted to allow felons to be able to vote from prison."

Super PAC's are political campaign committees that are allowed to take in unlimited amounts of donations as long as they maintain a separation from the candidates they support. During the last debate in New Hampshire January 8, Mr. Romney and Newt Gingrich also sparred over the negative ads fueled by super PAC's.

Mr. Santorum said a pro-Romney super PAC described him as "allowing felons to vote" by depicting "a person in a prison jumpsuit." The ad stemmed from a vote Mr. Santorum made while in the Senate that called for states to restore voting rights to felons once they completed their sentences and any probation or parole.

"I would ask Governor Romney; do you believe people who are felons, who've served their time, who've extended--exhausted their parole and probation, should they be given the right to vote?" Mr. Santorum asked.

"First of all, as you know, the PAC's that run ads on various candidates, as we unforunately know in this--" Mr. Romney began.

"Actually, I'm looking for an answer to the question first," Mr. Santorum cut him off.

"We have plenty of time, I'll get there. I'll do it in the order I want to do," Mr. Romney answered. "I believe that, as you realize, that the super PAC's run ads and, if they ever run an ad or say something that's not accurate, I hope they either take off the ad or make it--or make it correct."

Mr. Santorum pushed Mr. Romney to answer his question about his stance on giving former felons the right to vote.

"First, I'm asking you to answer the question, because that's how you got the time," Mr. Santorum said. "It's actually my time, so if you could answer the question."

"I don't think people who've committed violent crimes should be allowed to vote again, that's my own view," Mr. Romney answered.

"That's very interesting you should say that Governor Romney," Mr. Santorum said. "In the state of Massachusetts, when you were governor, the law was that, not only could violent felons vote after they exhausted their sentences, but they could vote while they were on probation and parole, which was a more liberal position than I took  when I voted for the bill in the Congress."

Mr. Santorum argued the pro-Romney super PAC ads attacking him for allowing former felons to vote were hypocritical given the policy in Massachusetts while Mr. Romney was governor.

"If in fact you felt so passionately about this that you are now going to go out and have somebody criticize me for restoring voting rights to people who have who have exhausted their sentence, and served their time and paid their debt to socitey, then why didn't you try to change that when you were governor of Massachusetts?"

Mr. Romney blamed the policy on Democrats in the Massachusetts Legislature.

"Well, first of all, as governor of Massachusetts, I had an 85 percent Democratic Legislature," Mr. Romney said. "This is something we discussed. My view was people who commit violent crimes should not be able to vote."

Mr. Romney also claimed to have no control over the super PAC's that support his candidacy. In fact, he said he was against the super PAC's entirely.

"Secondly, I did not have a super PAC run an ad against you. That's, as you know, that's something which is completely out of the control of the candidates. One of the things I decry in the current financial system that gets behind campaigns is that we have these voting requirements that put these super PAC's in power that say things we disagree with," Mr. Romney said. "And I'll tell you, there have been some--there have been some attacks on me that have just been outrageous, and completely inaccurate and have been shown to be inaccurate. That's the nature of the process, I hope it ends."

Mr. Santorum argued Mr. Romney could control the super PAC ads backing his campaign if he wanted to.

"What he's saying is that the ad that says that I said, or I voted to allow felons to vote is inaccurate and it is inaccurate," Mr. Santorum said. "And if I had something in a super PAC that was supporting me that was inaccurate, I would go out and say, 'Stop it.' That you're representing me and you're representing my campaign. Stop it."

The Republican candidates are due to debate next on Thursday night.