New NRA ad campaign targets Michael Bloomberg

Michael Bloomberg is not on any ballot in November, but a new ad campaign from the National Rifle Association hopes to make the former New York City mayor an issue in the upcoming midterm elections, lambasting his push for stronger gun control laws.

The multimillion-dollar campaign kicks off with a $500,000 TV ad buy targeting Bloomberg's stance on guns and linking it with some other high-profile crusades he waged as mayor, like his now-overturned ban on large sugary drinks.

"Liberals call this flyover country," the narrator intones in the campaign's first ad as the camera shows an expanse of rural America. "It's an insult, but nobody insults your life like this guy: Michael Bloomberg - billionaire, elitist, hypocrite. Bloomberg tries to ban your snack foods, your soda, and most of all, your guns."

Bloomberg is one of the highest-profile gun control advocates in the country, vowing to spend millions of dollars of his own money urging lawmakers to support stricter gun laws and forming a group - Everytown for Gun Safety - dedicated to the cause.

The former mayor has positioned his group as a counterweight to the NRA, which has a long and successful track record of punishing lawmakers who stray too far from the group's line on guns.

Last year, in the wake of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, lawmakers in several states successfully pushed through laws tightening state oversight of gun ownership. One such effort, in Colorado, ultimately led to the recall of two state lawmakers who supported the proposal.

Last month, though, Bloomberg dismissed the recall elections in Colorado, saying the communities that voted were "as far rural as you can get."

"I don't think there's roads" there, he said.

Opponents deemed the remarks condescending, a characterization echoed by the NRA's ad. "That's what he thinks of your state, too," the narrator warns viewers.

"Hey Bloomberg," the ad concludes. "Keep your politics in New York, and keep your hands off our guns and our freedom."

The campaign, which was first reported by USA Today, is scheduled to run on cable television in states with competitive midterm elections in November, including Colorado. The campaign will be supplemented by digital ads in Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Nevada, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Georgia - all but Nevada home to crucial Senate races this year.

"Michael Bloomberg has declared war on the NRA and our five million members," Chris Cox, the executive director of the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action, told USA Today. "We will not sit back and let him use his billions of dollars to impose his radical anti-freedom agenda on the American people."

But when you're a man with a near-bottomless pile of cash to spend and no obvious future in elected office, there's not much incentive to back down. "We've successfully linked several candidates that we helped defeat to the NRA," Bloomberg spokesman Stu Loeser told USA Today. "This November, we will help defeat others who have made the mistake of aligning with the NRA."