Bloomberg forms own super-PAC

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is forming a super-PAC to spend some of his personal fortune helping centrist candidates win election to Congress.

Bloomberg will spend at least $10 million promoting his top priorities — gun control, education policy and gay marriage — while helping centrists such as Independent Senate candidate Angus King in Maine, Democrat Gloria Negrete McLeod in California and Rep. Robert Dold (R) in Illinois, according to The New York Times. 

In a statement, Bloomberg said he would work to elect centrists, regardless of party. 

“I’ve always believed in the need for more independent leadership, and this new effort will support candidates and causes that will help protect Americans from the scourge of gun violence, improve our schools and advance our freedoms,” Bloomberg said in a statement.

{mosads}Bloomberg has been a vocal critic of both presidential candidates on gun control. Following the recent shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., Bloomberg called on President Obama and Mitt Romney to make explicit their prescriptions for gun control. 

The multimillion-dollar political campaign will take place over the next three weeks. Howard Wolfson, Bloomberg’s deputy mayor for government affairs and communications, will head the super-PAC’s campaign. 

Bloomberg has already been working to help King, hosting fundraisers to help finance a $500,000 ad campaign on his behalf.

The Center for Responsive Politics ranks Bloomberg as the 10th-highest contributor to outside spending groups. He has contributed more than $3 million to Mayors Against Illegal Guns Action Fund, an organization funded almost entirely by him, though the group has spent relatively little of that money so far.