By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
A staffer in the office of anti-gun New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg traveled to Nevada to lobby on behalf of Mayors Against Illegal Guns – the gun control group largely bankrolled by the billionaire mayor – and apparently tried to conceal it by removing his e-mail address from a lobbyist list on the Nevada state website, the New York Post and Politico have reported.
It is the latest in a series of public relations nightmares for Bloomberg and MAIG. It comes on the heels of a revelation that the MAIG website is hosted by a City of New York computer server, and administered by a city employee.
MAIG is also in headlines because of recent defections by two mayors who dropped out over the group’s anti-gun politics.
The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms has called on New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to launch an investigation into the use of the computer server for MAIG. So far, Schneiderman’s office has remained mute on the issue.
According to the Post, Bloomberg “is spending city cash and resources on his pet project to toughen US gun laws through his national organization.”
Christopher Kocher, special counsel to the mayor’s office, reportedly went to Nevada to lobby on behalf of MAIG, the newspaper said. According to the Post, Kocher “scrubbed his City Hall e-mail address from the state of Nevada lobbying-registration Web site early this month.”
The Post story quoted Gene Russianoff, with the New York Public Interest Research Group, who observed, “It doesn’t seem kosher to me. It’s hard to see how gun control in Nevada makes the city safer in New York.”
Bloomberg’s MAIG also came under fire for having the names of criminals killed by police and armed citizens on a list of “gun violence” victims, and because an MAIG associate in Georgia referred to gun owners as “wing nuts” in an e-mail.
Underscoring the controversy is a simmering resentment that the billionaire mayor is using his checkbook to influence gun policy across the map. Average income gun owners do not like the idea that a rich elitist is trying to erode their gun rights.
The Post story noted that Bloomberg spokesman John McCarthy said the use of Kocher’s time had benefit to the city, so it was legitimate.
“With 85 percent of guns used in crimes here coming from out of state, gun policy everywhere has an impact on the safety of New Yorkers,” McCarthy insisted to Politico. “The mayor’s top priority is keeping New Yorkers safe and that includes seeking sane gun laws in other states and D.C. to help reduce the flow of illegal guns to New York.”
But Political also reported that Kocher registered in Nevada as a lobbyist “on state-based firearms issues.” That, Politico said, “raises further questions about the relationship between the city and the mayor’s self-funded 501(c)(4).”
“City Hall confirmed…that Christopher Kocher, who works as a special counsel for Bloomberg’s office, registered as a lobbyist for the 2013 legislative session in Nevada, to push a background checks bill there,” Politico said.
