Wall Street donors canceled a fundraiser for Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) after New York City Mike Bloomberg urged Democrats to withhold campaign cash from the four senators in the party who opposed requiring background checks for gun purchases, Politico reported Tuesday.
Begich is up for reelection in 2014 and will face Alaska Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell, a Republican. The fundraiser was to be hosted by Dick Beattie, John Eastman, Robert Rubin and Peter Solomon.
Background checks are widely popular -- more beloved than apple pie and baseball, according to surveys.
But Begich joined three other Democrats and most Senate Republicans in blocking the bill. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has insisted the chamber will return to the issue, and Vice President Joe Biden has launched a renewed bid.
A HuffPost/YouGov poll conducted after the Senate rejected a background checks proposal found that 74 percent continue to favor requiring background checks at gun shows and for online sales, as the Senate agreement would have done, while 16 percent said they were opposed to such checks.
Opponents of background checks have faced withering criticism at home, the first time a vote against gun control has borne a political price.
Robert Rubin is the former head of Citigroup, a past Treasury Secretary, and took an accidental dip in a swimming pool at a party with White House staffers during the Democratic convention.