Despite having spent more money than any other Congressional candidate in California this election season, Bill Bloomfield (I) lost the race for the newly redrawn and expanded 33rd Congressional District seat to 19-term incumbent Rep. Henry Waxman (D). Waxman, who had to wage one of the hardest campaigns in his career, defeated Bloomfield by a margin of 53.72 percent (126,880 votes) to 46.28 percent (109,297 votes). In his first run for political office, Bloomfield’s campaign finances came in fifth nationally in both the ‘most raised’ and ‘most spent’ for a Congressional House seat in the country, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. He raised $6,419,627 and spent $5,654,105, and was also the most self-funded Congressional House candidate in the nation, spending $6,057,080 of his own money. The Republican big hitters who came in front of Bloomfield in terms of money spent and raised included Michele Bachmann ($19.3 million spent), Eric Cantor of Virginia ($6.6 million), Allen West of Florida ($13.8 million), and John Boehner of Ohio, who ran opposed, and reported spending about $20 million on his campaign, most of which went to support other House Republicans. The 73-year-old Waxman, who told the Palisadian-Post that his campaign did not take Bloomfield for granted, said he was ‘shocked’ when he saw the amount of money that his opponent ‘spent on his campaign.’ A source in Bloomfield’s camp told the Post that in the weeks leading up to election, the candidate spent more than $3 million of his own money on television ads alone’not to mention the innumerable mailers and signs along PCH and in other areas of the contested district. According to the Federal Election Commission, Waxman spent about $1.8 million, none of which was his own money. Just days before the election, Bloomfield, who grew up in Santa Monica Canyon and Pacific Palisades (and graduated from Palisades High in 1968), said he didn’t want to speak about campaign finances but that he ‘believed it was going to be a close race.’ ’If Congress was working, I wouldn’t have changed my life [to run for office],’ Bloomfield said, adding that ‘Congress needs people like [him] to get things working again.’ Some of Bloomfield’s core campaign messages in his first bid for political office were putting an end to ‘hyper-partisanship,’ ‘fixing a broken Congress,’ and stopping the economy from slipping over the proverbial ‘fiscal cliff’ in the coming months. One of the most memorable Bloomfield campaign ads featured a figure portraying Waxman with shovel, digging a hole symbolic of the national debt. At the end of advertisement, which was featured on various platforms including the Internet, local television and cable channels, Bloomfield quotes Will Rogers stating, ‘When you find yourself in a hole’stop digging.’ The 62-year-old Bloomfield, a former Republican and retired busi’nessman who now lives in Manhattan Beach, accused Waxman of being a hyper-partisan politician who ‘has voted along his own party lines 99 percent of the time.’ Waxman’s campaign focused on Bloomfield’s 20 years as a registered Republican and his past contributions of more than $2 million to conservatives such as Mitt Romney, former presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, House Speaker John Boehner, and even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Nevertheless, Bloomfield insistently attempted to distance himself from the Republican label and took a socially progressive stance throughout his campaign. He told the Post that he was ‘pro-choice candidate,’ he supported a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants already in the country and that he voted no on Proposition 8 (a 2010 ballot proposition banning same-sex marriage). Bloomfield touted himself as bipartisan and as one of the co-founders of No Labels, a grassroots organization that is dedicated to ending partisanship in Congress. However, No Labels, whose membership list includes former President Bush aide Mark McKinnon, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and MSNBC commentator Joe Scarborough, is far from any grass, or roots; it was founded by a group of public relations experts and has been called a political gimmick by the Washington Post. Many political experts at the time of the organization’s formation (in 2010) called it a campaign vehicle for Bloomberg’s presidential aspirations. ’I chose to run as an Independent in March of 2011,’ Bloomfield told the Post previously, adding that it was largely because of McConnell’s vow to end Obama’s presidency. Waxman argued that Bloomfield had recognized that the Republican Party name was badly tarnished in California. ‘He knew that if he ran as a Republican he would lose,’ Waxman told the Post. ‘He hasn’t really done anything except be a good Republican.’ One of the longest serving members of the House (since 1974), Waxman said he is optimistic about Congress working together and plans to reach out across the political aisles. ’Boehner and McConnell are pragmatic men that have been held back by Tea Party extremism,’ Waxman said, adding than with the general election finally decided, he hopes both sides will work together on important issues. Furthermore, Waxman said he plans to work with President Obama on an energy policy addressing climate change; a deficit reduction package that will balance the budget and help people that need government services; and immigration reforms that will give young people brought to this country a pathway to citizenship.
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