Billionaire and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg is testing the waters in Virginia for his new $500 million climate-change project by dropping more than $600,000 on two Democratic Virginia delegate candidates.
Bloomberg’s group, Beyond Carbon, donated $613,200 to two Democrats running for the Virginia House of Delegates, according to records from the Virginia Public Access Project.
Nancy Guy, who is running to represent District 83, received two donations from Beyond Carbon Action Fund totaling $348,400 on Oct. 29. Shelly Simonds, who is running to represent District 94, received two donations totaling $264,800 on the same day. Neither campaign responded to a request for comment.
Both of the Republican lawmakers being challenged by Guy and Simonds pushed back against Bloomberg’s involvement. Delegate Chris Stolle, who is being challenged by Guy, sent out a press release touting his work on bipartisan environmental bills and noting that the Sierra Club gave him an award for “his work to address Climate Change and sea level rise.”
“I have spent my time in the General Assembly proposing bipartisan, common-sense solutions to the effects of climate change,” Stolle said in the release. “Voters should be insulted by this bad faith attempt by New York Billionaire Michael Bloomberg to buy the House of Delegates for his fellow Democrats.” – READ MORE