More Than $2.2 Million in Non-local Money Spent in 2nd District Race

More than $2.2 million was spent to ensure victory for the staunchly anti-gun Robin Kelly in last night’s 2^nd District primary special election.

The money came from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s personal Super PAC, Independence USA. His ultimate intent, according to the New York Times, is to establish a sizeable national base of anti-gun representatives in anticipation of supporting upcoming gun legislation.

“As Congress considers the president’s gun package, voters in Illinois have sent a clear message: we need common-sense gun legislation now,” Bloomberg said.

His words align with the crux of Kelly’s victory speech.

"(Voters) sent a message that tells the NRA that their days of holding our country hostage are coming to an end,”
Kelly said. “And their days of scaring Congress into submission on gun control are coming to a close."

Former frontrunner candidate Debbie Halvorson and her “A” rating from the NRA was the subject of most of Bloomberg’s attack ads. The New York Times is calling her loss “a shot across the bow to other Democrats supporting gun rights.”

“We made a concerted effort to say from the very beginning that this was not going to be about money, it was going to be about people,” Halvorson said. “Little did we know how much it wasn’t going to be about the money on our part.”

Get the whole story from the New York Times