CBS News reports that Mayor Bloomberg has spent $64.8 million of his own money his campaign for a third term. Much of the money has been spent on television ads, which have been running practically every day for several months. Campaign finance laws allows Bloomberg to spend as much as he wants as long as he files all of his expenses. Forbes recently listed Bloomberg’s net worth at $17.5 billion.

Democratic Challenger Bill Thompson has spent about half of the $8 million in donations and matching funds he’s raised for his campaign so far, and has been outspent by Bloomberg at a ratio of 20 to 1. Thompson will use the rest of his funds to make a big push against Bloomberg during the final weeks of the election, but won’t be able to do it without raising his profile now and without the help of supporters.

Bloomberg is not taking questions from the press today, so he won’t be answering questions about his spending or about the anniversary of his decision to overturn term limits.

See the rest of the list here.

Fred Siegel, visiting professor at St. Francis College and a contributing editor of the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal, and his son Harry Siegel, an editor at Politico, envision a rough future for middle class New Yorkers if Mayor Bloomberg wins a third term.

Via The Daily News:

The candidate with working-class roots has been a ubiquitous figure this year, with ads touting a leader who attended public schools and is offering voters a “Middle Class Affordability Plan” and a “Five Borough Better Transit Tour.”

That candidate, of course, is the city’s wealthiest man and two-term mayor, who’s self-financing a campaign expected to cost about $80 million.

“A product of public schools, he worked and took out student loans to help pay his way through college,” reads the ad script. “But as far as he’s come, Mike Bloomberg’s never forgotten his roots. He works for a dollar a year as our mayor, and takes on special interests for the benefit of middle class families.”

Candidate Mike, friend of the middle class, emerges, groundhog-like, every four years - only to fade from view once the election is done, replaced by Mayor Mike, who raises property, sales and income taxes, tickets anything that moves, makes sweetheart deals with developers and touts his vision of a “luxury city.”
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Via Too Much:

Up to now, the only insurance exec pay data available has come from the annual reports publicly traded companies have to file on the pay that goes to their top five executives. The Corporate Library, from that data, last month counted 38 health insurer execs who took home at least $5 million in 2008, but called that total “just the tip of the iceberg.”
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Via Queens Crap:

Fox 5 has a story about Avella reporting on how Bloomberg is ripping all of us off.

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“Ms. Harris, 55, advised the mayor not to push for a revision of the city’s term limits law and seek re-election, warning him that the move could sully his image as a reformer.”

Bloomberg Should Have Listened to Her Advice.

Via The New York Times:

Many bosses reward hard-working employees with a pat on the back. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg can build monuments to them.

The mayor, a billionaire, has quietly given at least $1 million to stamp the name of his most trusted deputy at City Hall on a new academic center at her alma mater, Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., according to two people familiar with the arrangement.

The unusual gift, in honor of Patricia E. Harris, the first deputy mayor, highlights what many say is a hidden glue that helps keep Mr. Bloomberg’s extraordinarily loyal, long-serving administration together: the mayor’s money, or at least the promise of it.
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The Daily News usually has some topnotch political reporting thanks to reporters like Elizabeth Benjamin. But then a fluff story like today’s ‘Mayor Bloomberg likes hotdogs!’ pops up on the site and it makes us think, “Is this what the paper qualifies as serious journalism? Is this really worthy of newsprint — for a section called ‘Brawl for the Hall?’”

Bloomberg tells The Daily News:

“I’m not into this fancy food, like shrimp, caviar and lobster,” said Bloomberg. “I like hot dogs, hamburgers and fried chicken the best. I like real food for real people.”

C’mon, who are we kidding? Of course Bloomberg likes fancy food. If he didn’t, why does he go to all those fancy restaurants?
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Bloomberg TV ad back in May

Clyde Haberman of the Times sums up Bloomberg overkill quite nicely.

Via The New York Times:

Anyone who turned to NY1 on Wednesday night got to see something exceedingly rare these days: a locally televised program that contained not a single commercial trumpeting the glories of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. If we had had our wits about us, we’d have recognized this as a sign and bought lottery tickets.
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Here’s the cover of this morning’s amNewYork, the story being about how New Yorkers are sick of all the Bloomberg ads. It’s not exactly news — people were complaining about the overkill several weeks ago, when the television ads first began appearing and the mailings poured in on a daily basis.

Read the story at amNewYork

Thanks to Queens Crap for sending:
Via Restless:

And “Mike” Bloomberg harasses voters! Sure, anyone can spend $37 million from their own pocket to run nearly unopposed for mayor, but how many can do it so efficiently? Bloomberg Campaign Is Juggernaut of Detail

Why doesn’t he just buy the immortality he seeks directly, instead of going through this long charade? With a net worth of $16 billion, and figuring 8 million people in New York, he could give us $2000 apiece!

A big part of leadership is having the “vision” to find a healthy balance of interests. But Bloomberg’s vision is limited to the concerns of Wall Street and banking aristocrats, “innovators” like himself.
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