Florida’s Republican Attorney General Pam Bondi blasted “billionaire bully” Michael Bloomberg for shelling out $10 million on TV ads targeting four state attorneys general who are suing the Obama administration over new carbon emissions regulations.
The ads, which amount to a defense of the White House’s Clean Power Plan, will begin running over the coming days in Florida, Missouri, Michigan and Wisconsin, all states that have historically been presidential battlegrounds. The commercials are being paid for through Mr. Bloomberg’s Independence USA PAC.
The lone Democrat in the group of four attorneys general is Chris Koster of Missouri, who is running for governor next year. The remaining three are Republicans.
There are 27 states total suing the Environmental Protection Agency over the controversial emissions regulations.
Two of the ads describe the attorneys general as accepting donations from “polluters” and bowing to special interests. The ad running in Florida describes Ms. Bondi as “an attorney general for polluters, not for us,” The Tampa Bay Times reported.
In a statement, Ms. Bondi called the former New York City mayor a “billionaire bully.”
“Florida has a great and conscientious track record of improving its air quality and protecting its environment,” Ms. Bondi said. “Now a billionaire bully is attacking Florida, and 26 other states, for having the audacity of defending their citizens against the EPA’s heavy-handed and unlawful regulations, which will drastically increase Floridians power bills — something this billionaire clearly cares little about. This bully wants to defend the federal government; we want to protect the people we serve.”
In Michigan, a similar commercial will accuse Attorney General Bill Schuete of “putting polluters and his campaign contributors ahead of protecting Michigan families,” according to The Times.
The ad targeting Mr. Koster portrays him as an opponent of President Barack Obama’s environmental agenda, and as someone who is not doing the right thing by Missouri’s families.
Andrew Whalen, a spokesman for the Koster gubernatorial campaign, said Mr. Koster “works for the people of Missouri, not a New York City billionaire.”
Mr. Bloomberg told The Times “These four attorneys general are trying to stop the president from doing something that I think is terribly important. I want the public to know what they’re doing. It’s very bad for everybody.”
Mr. Bloomberg, who is the U.N. secretary-general’s special envoy for climate change and cities, has spent $60 million on a campaign called Beyond Coal, founded by the former Sierra Club president Carl Pope after the failure of the cap-and-trade bill in 2010.
• Kellan Howell can be reached at khowell@washingtontimes.com.
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