Bloomberg’s Super-PAC spends $2.35 million to defeat Rep. Baca
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New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Super-PAC ‘Independence USA’ poured an additional $2.35 million into a television advertising campaign to defeat Democratic Rep. Joe Baca of Rialto.
Baca is being challenged by fellow Democrat, state Sen. Gloria Negrete McLeod of Chino, in the 35th Congressional District in San Bernardino County.
Bloomberg, a billionaire political independent who has endorsed Democratic President Barack Obama for president, in October announced that he was forming the Super-PAC to back candidates in either party who support his top causes, including tougher gun laws and same-sex marriage. The Super-PAC is targeting Baca because the mayor believes he is weak on gun control laws, he told the New York Times.
The $2.35 million will support a television ad campaign opposing Baca and supporting McLeod, according to a disclosure filed with the Federal Election Commission. That will be in addition to more than $400,000 spent by Bloomberg’s PAC on the race for mailers and other campaign material.
Baca, in a statement released Thursday, criticized Bloomberg’s campaign as being “full of lies.” Baca, first elected to Congress in 1999, is the only Democrat representing the Inland Empire in Congress.
“It is appalling that an East Coast outsider like Mayor Bloomberg is trying to dictate the outcome of a congressional race thousands of miles away,’’ Baca said.
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-- Phil Willon in Riverside
