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When former upstate Rep. John Sweeney (R) lost his reelection campaign this year, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (R) lost something too – an investment.
Bloomberg donated $2,100 to Sweeney in March this year. He also donated $2,000 to Sweeney's reelection campaign in March 2004. Both Bloomberg donations came just after Sweeney's primary wins in 2004 and 2006.
Other Bloomberg campaign donations are also less useful now. Kentucky Rep. Hal Rogers (R) chairs the subcommittee on homeland security, a position he will lose once the new session of Congress begins with the Democrats in charge of the House of Representatives. Bloomberg donated $2,000 to Rogers in 2004. He gave an additional $1,000 to Help America's Leaders, a political action committee associated with Rogers. Also getting Bloomberg's help: Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby (R), now also out of the majority.
Over the past four years, Bloomberg has supported an assortment of New York candidates and PACs, albeit far fewer than he did while before winning his first term as mayor in 2001. Beneficiaries range from the Republican National State Elections Committee to Rep. Vito Fossella (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn).
President George W. Bush got $2,000 towards his 2004 reelection campaign.
Two likely 2008 presidential candidates have benefited from Bloomberg's largesse as well. Arizona Senator John McCain (R) received $2,000 from Bloomberg in 2002, and two $1,000 donations in 1998 and 1999. In early 2005, the mayor also donated $5,000 to Solutions America, a PAC affiliated with Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (R).