Bloomberg To Use Slush Fund To Promote His Education Reforms

Just in case you thought the Mayor of Money was going to go away after he leaves office, beware the following:

Running a city is not enough for Mayor Bloomberg.

The billionaire businessman, philanthropist and issues advocate announced plans Wednesday to expand his influence in local, state and national politics by plowing more than $10 million into a new super PAC that aims to influence elections across the country over the next few weeks.

“It’s unprecedented for an outgoing three-term mayor to do this,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.

Bloomberg’s initial $10 million to $15 million investment is a relatively small one in the world of big-money super PACs, but Sabato predicted that Wednesday’s announcement is just a start for the mayor.

“I can’t imagine he’ll stop there,” Sabato said. “He’ll have to keep up with the Joneses. Mayor Bloomberg isn’t going to want to just be a garden-variety billionaire.”

Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson, a former top political aide to Hillary Clinton, will take a leave of absence from city government to lead the effort.

He said Bloomberg will support candidates who are moderate, independent and willing to work across political lines.

“The mayor thinks Washington is broken,” Wolfson said. “It’s paralyzed by partisanship. We need to elect people who can cross party lines to get things done.”

The mayor plans to focus on gun control, gay marriage and education policy, he said.

We do not live in democracy.

We live in an oligarchy and a corporatocrcy where a billionaire who somehow has gone from having $5 million in wealth when he took office to over $24 million 12 years later even as most of the rest of America was seeing a decline in their wages, home values and personal wealth can use this money to buy politicians to do what he wants on policy long after he leaves office.

Make no mistake, Bloomberg will be throwing that cash around during the 2013 NYC mayoral race.

And make no mistake, some of the 2013 NYC mayoral candidates will happily gobble up those funds.

So even after Bloomberg leaves office, he'll still be, essentially, pulling the strings on policy.

But on the plus side, at least it'll give Wolfson something to do.