New Yorkers… Well… At least some New Yorkers… Are starting to bristle at how much it’s expected Mayor Bloomberg will spend on running for office for the third time. He was asked about putting a spending cap on his campaign at a recent press conference.
When the issue was first posed to him at yesterday’s press conference, he snapped back, “I think it’s one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard. I can’t quite understand it, so we will come back to you later.” When asked why he would need to spend what some are projecting to hover around $80 million to get his message across after seven years as mayor, he responded, “Sometimes—I know you will be shocked by this—sometimes some reporters don’t accurately describe what we have done, or what we will do, so we have to find another venue.”
The general consensus by a lot of New Yorkers is that Bloomberg’s spending is disproportionate to any opponent that runs and many are calling for it to be outlawed to “make it fair” for other people running. The obvious counterpoint to that is… Well… Was anyone raising this kind of stink when Barack Obama was outspending John McCain ten to one during the November elections? As 62.2% of the people in New York State went to the polls and pulled the lever for Barack Obama did they care that he dwarfed the spending of every single candidate that ever came before him? Did they also care about the fact that his inauguration cost almost double what George W. Bush’s inauguration cost a few years earlier; an event that was panned because it was considered excessive during a war and a weak economy?
Let’s face facts as New Yorkers. Bloomberg isn’t being asked to spend less out of fairness. He’s being asked to spend less so that whatever warm-body braindead Democrat they get to sacrifice in the next election will have at least a monetary chance. Bloomberg’s popularity is still easily high enough to win his upcoming election and the New York State Democratic Party not only knows it, but they can’t do a thing about it.
That’s why they’re organizing faux outrage at the term limits issue and the money issue; it’s the only shot they have at weakening a Mayor who’s in a pretty strong position to keep his job no matter who runs against him.