6/21/13, "Is Michael Bloomberg Using City Resources For His "Mayors Against Illegal Guns" Group?" Ace of Spades, John E.
"I really hate doing the question headline, but this definitely needs answering. I started poking around last night.
At first I pinged mayorsagainstillegalguns.org and found that it was resolving at a New York City government IP address.
Pinging NYC.gov returns the same information.It turns out I didn't even have to look that closely, because the mayorsagainstillegalguns.org domain is registered to the city of New York.
As you can see there, the registrant name is "NYC DoITT", which is the New York City Department of Information Technology & Telecommunications.
According to this, Mayors Against Illegal Guns appears to be a 501(c)(4).
"Bloomberg's group, a social welfare organization set up under section 501(c)4 of the tax code, is the first to comply with a U.S. District Court ruling requiring such organizations, which normally keep their donors secret, to disclose them if they run issue ads that mention federal candidates. The case, Van Hollen v. Federal Election Commission, was settled March 30, 2012."
The action fund arm of MAIG is a 501(c)(3).
Even if MAIG is reimbursing the city for these services, questions would still remain. Like, would New York City offer these same services to NYCTeaParty4Eva.org? Section 1072(p) of the city's charter on information technology appears to give the Mayor a little leeway, but I can't imagine it would cover his personal nonprofit groups.
"p. to perform such other responsibilities with respect to information technology and telecommunications matters, including responsibilities delegated elsewhere by the charter, as the mayor shall direct."
Another Bloomberg group, Renew Our Economy, has their domain registered to Mayors Against Illegal Guns. This is all a bit of a mess, which shouldn't surprise anyone at this point. At best, this is really sloppy. At worst, this could be pretty serious. We'll see what develops." via Hot Air
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6/21/13, "Why is the website of Bloomberg’s anti-gun group housed on New York City servers?" Hot Air, Allahpundit
"Is MAIG getting some sort of break on the cost by parking itself at NYC instead of elsewhere? If so, has the City Council authorized that or did Bloomberg decide unilaterally that it’d be okay because he said so?
Even if the city’s being reimbursed at full cost, MAIG’s getting an opportunity for city-provided hosting that other advocacy groups (particularly pro-gun groups) would surely never have. Which is not to suggest that this is some inescapable problem for Bloomy: The Council will, I’m sure, happily appropriate whatever money’s needed as a grant in order to cover the group’s server costs and maybe pay for the next valediction for Tamerlan Tsarnaev as a victim of gun violence. But I’m curious to know if Bloomberg even tried to do this through proper channels or if he just told his group to go ahead and set up shop there and not worry about it. We’ll see."
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When I typed 'Renew our Economy' (referenced in top post) in google, "RenewOurEconomy.org" came up which is an open borders, pro-amnesty group co-chaired by Michael Bloomberg and Rupert Murdoch.
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The Nation notes NY's weak Conflicts of Interest Board has always let Bloomberg do his thing:
2/10/11, "How Bloomberg Does Business," The Nation, Aram Roston
"Though Bloomberg doesn’t run the day-to-day affairs of Bloomberg LP, he still owns almost all the shares, handpicks the firm’s managers, talks with them as much as he feels he needs to, and therefore imposes his own will on the firm when he likes. (New York’s ineffectual Conflicts of Interest Board limited but never fully defined the mayor’s role at the company he founded: the board allows him to “maintain the type of involvement that he believes is consistent with his being the majority shareholder.”)...
Given Bloomberg’s push for a national platform, any intersections between his corporation’s interests and the government warrant scrutiny. And Bloomberg LP runs an effective and sophisticated lobbying shop to promote the firm’s interests with federal agencies and Congress.
It’s striking how, in a fully synergistic Bloomberg style,
a news organization,
a financial information company and
a team of lobbyists
often seem to be working in smooth concert."...
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6/22/13, "NYC Taxpayers Help Sponsor Bloomberg’s Gun Control Group," Jim Swift, Weekly Standard
"Maggie Haberman and Steve Friess of Politico add,
“At minimum, the use of a city web server and city employees underscore
what critics have long derided as a blurring of the lines between
government resources and Bloomberg’s own multi-billion-dollar fortune,
his company, and his pet interests in his three terms as mayor."
It is unclear why Bloomberg, who has a net worth of $27 billion and has given millions of dollars in donations to Mayors Against Illegal Guns Action Fund, would involve the City of New York in purchasing and hosting the webpage for Mayors Against Illegal Guns....
(Bloomberg spokesman) La Vorgna continued, saying that Mayor Bloomberg’s
push for changes to federal firearms law was part of the “federal agenda
for New York City” and compared it to other efforts Bloomberg, as
mayor, has undertaken—like the effort he and other mayors are involved
in to limit the use of food stamps in purchasing sugary drinks.
The Mayors Against Illegal Guns website, according
to La Vorgna, like other Bloomberg efforts to lobby the federal
government, was done as part of “his capacity as mayor.”
UPDATE: Bloomberg spokesman Marc La Vorgna emails,
saying Mayors Against Illegal Guns is not "a 501(c)(4) social welfare
organization," as this article originally stated.
The group's "action fund" -- a separate entity -- is the 501(c)(4). But, as Haberman and Friess note in Politico, "The overlap between Bloomberg’s groups and the city are evident throughout the registration information for several of the websites associated with them."
While La Vorgna claims mayorsagainstillegalguns.org isn't affiliated with the 501(c)(4) "action fund" effort -- it is not immediately clear which webpage belongs to the 501(c)(4), since demandaction.org is listed as "A campaign of Mayors Against Illegal Guns."
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