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A Little to the Left, A Liiiitle More to the Left

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg hasn't ever been a very convincing Republican. He only joined the GOP a few months before running for office ...

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg hasn't ever been a very convincing Republican. He only joined the GOP a few months before running for office in 2001.

But since his re-election in November, Bloomberg has been acting even more like a Rino. Now that he doesn't need to Republican party for campaign support -- and since he's not interested in running for higher office -- Bloomberg is behaving more like a Democrat. And a liberal one at that.

As the NY Times lays out, Bloomberg over the past couple months has:

  • personally donated $100 million for stem cell research
  • called for tougher gun control laws
  • clashed with Republican Gov. George Pataki over NYC schools funding
  • considered supporting a Democratic challenger to an incumbant GOP state senator
The Times may be putting more emphasis on these recent events than they deserve. Still, Bloomberg's certainly a pretty liberal Dem at heart, and he could swing even more to the left in the next four years of his term.

Zach Patton -- Executive Editor. Zach joined GOVERNING as a staff writer in 2004. He received the 2011 Jesse H. Neal Award for Outstanding Journalism
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