Bloomberg Leaves Republican Party (Breaking)

WCBS-TV | 06/19/07 | WCBS-TV New york

[StatenIsland]

Mayor Michael Bloonberg has announced that he is leaving the Republican Party, and will continue his Mayoralty as an Independent.

[AdvisorB]

Bloomberg has made the late radical liberal NYC Mayor, John Lindsay, seem conservative by comparison.

I believe a Bloomberg campaign for POTUS would be favorable to the center-right coalition, because he would draw from the looney left. Nutroots and other fellow travelers would swoon over a Bloomberg candidacy.

[samadams2000]

GunGrabber Party

[ModelBreaker]

Mayor Michael Bloonberg has announced that he is leaving the Republican Party, and will continue his Mayoralty as an Independent.

McCain/Bloomberg or Hagel/Bloomberg. Watch it happen.

[TomGuy]

You sound like a communist.

Since when is being rich a bad thing in a capitalist country?

You apparently can't comprehend English.

I posted: Maybe he will take the big-business country-club Republicans with him.

Why is that communist? Either you don't understand what communism is or you have an affinity for free speech -- and that sounds rather communist -- if you want to do namecalling.

[Secret Agent Man]

The first initial gasp was because people didn’t know he WAS a republican....

[ModelBreaker]

Let him run for President how is he gonna get on state ballots as an independent? Perot had grass roots support, this guy has none.

Bloomberg has money and he's not scare to use it.

[mtnwmn]

LOL

[StatenIsland]

“Wasn’t Bloomie a Democrat before he went to the Republican party?”

Yes, of course. He looked at a too crowded Dem field, registered as a Repub (who had nobody to run), and paid for the campaign himself. NO local party machine, Repub or Dem, will EVER turn down an offer from a man who wants to finance his own campaign.

In local politics, money talks, policy walks.

[SkyPilot]

Not to be outdone, Sen Trent Lott announced today he intends to not only re-join the GOP, but to grow a spine.

"I've decided to become a Hispanic Au Pair."

[PhiKapMom]

I agree he will siphon more votes from Hillary as Bloomberg was NEVER a Republican — only ran as a Republican to win the Mayor’s race.

Glad to see him leave!

[OB1kNOb]

Bloomberg Leaves Republican Party (Breaking)

Precursor to an independent White House run?

Or just being a media whore drama queen ? Look at me! Look at me! Over here! I'm more important and rich than Paris!

[Alberta's Child]

I don't know why this is news. That moron was never a Republican to begin with.

Here's hoping that Rudy Giuliani does a similar honest assessment of his political views and pursues the same course of action.

[samadams2000]

He should fear...ARKANCIDE!

[My GOP]

“He’s going to be the Ross Perot of 2008, giving us a Clinton Presidency.”

Actually, I think Bloomberg would be the “anti-Perot”, pulling more votes from Clinton than the Republican nominee and thus keeping the Clintons from regaining the WH.

[r9etb]

That depends on what topics he campaigns on. If he hits the correct Republican notes, he can siphon votes. That’s just what Perot did- a careful triangulation of several hot buttons for Republicans and poison pills for Democrats, and Billy Jeff won with 48% (or something) of the vote.

But look at the hot buttons he's actually hitting: gun control, same-sex marriage, and abortion -- for all of them, he takes the Democrat line.

Moreover, Bloomberg is actually from New York; he's an ACTUAL northeasterner -- as such, he could well tie up a lot of the Eastern Seaboard's Democrat votes.

And we cannot forget the most important of all: he is not Hillary Clinton.

At the same time, Bloomberg is not much of a threat to take Republican votes -- each of those same hot-button issues turns off large groups of R voters.

[Jack Hammer]

Yawn. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. Yawn.

[boomop1]

Did he join the billionaire's party?

[wardaddy]

Good...he is worthless.

[sappy]

Good. He only joined the GOP after he couldn’t get the Dem nomination.

[maryz]

Not Independent. Unaffiliated.

Is that a distinction without a difference in New York? In MA, unaffiliated voters used to be called Independent, but a third-party called itself the Independent Party (I forget when) and once got 3% or whatever of the vote -- enough for permanent ballot standing. So now the unaffiliated are officially Unenrolled. A friend of mine -- a lifelong real independent immediately registered as a Dem because "unenrolled" sounded too much as if it meant "unregistered."