New York Times society reporter, Joyce Purnick, author of a recent semi-authorized Bloomberg biography, wrote Bloomberg a “memo” in the form of an op-ed piece in Tuesday’s paper. She said that he had made a “bad investment” spending all that money to win an election. As the incumbent, she wrote, “you are in and destined to stay in.”

Purnick went on to deliver a history lesson on the last fifty years of mayoral elections in which only two incumbents, Beame and Dinkins, three if you count Koch’s try for a fourth term, won reelection. New Yorkers, she opined, are “pragmatic, even complacent, when their city is not in anguish.” She wondered why anyone would even bother to run against the man who is managing our “stable” city so well.
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* Elizabeth Benjamin reports that Bloomberg has broken his own spending record, shelling out $85.2 million for his third term run. Bill Thompson has managed to raise $270,000 during this filing period — though it’s much less than what Fernando Ferrer was able to raise during the same period in 2005.

* Speaking of Fernando Ferrer, at Thompson’s event at Hunter College last night, Ferrer called Bloomberg a “rather sleazy politician,” reports The Observer.

* New York magazine: Come on, Mike. You can buy votes more artfully than this.

* Clyde Haberman asks, “When is Mayor Bloomberg like a Broadway Show?”

* A seven-year-old left Bloomberg hanging after he tried to give her a high-five.

* Mireya Navarro writes that Bloomberg’s big environmental plans have only produced small gains so far.

* The Daily News says Thompson got it right when he said the City can’t afford 4 percent raises for municipal workers.

Here’s Thompson’s “man on the street” video of New Yorkers talking about what they think of Bloomberg’s campaign spending:

* Jarret Murphy, investigations editor at City Limits, writes in The Huffington Post that the $65 million Bloomberg has paid to “needy campaign consultants” is more than the annual budget of 42 New York City agencies (remember Bloomberg cutting the budget of the Public Advocate’s office by 40 percent?) and more than the combined income of 2,000 average New Yorkers: “But sometimes wealth isn’t admirable or noble. Sometimes it isn’t alluring, or impressive, or awe-inspiring or even intimidating. Sometimes wealth is just kind of repellent, even a little sad. Wealth can even be cheap, if it tries hard enough.”

* Tom Robbins points out in The Village Voice that “when you’re on Mike Bloomberg’s pay roll, consistency isn’t your first concern.”

* The City Room has slideshows of Thompson’s and Bloomberg’s campaign advisers.

* The Post reports that Thompson and Bloomberg are fighting over paperwork for a police academy in Queens.

* Elizabeth Benjamin reports that on Sept. 22, the New York County GOP received another $50,000 personal contribution from Mayor Bloomberg.

* MTA Chairman Jay Walder says Bloomberg’s campaign pitch to make some crosstown buses free is nonsense because it’ll take fare revenues away from the MTA, which has already suffered a budget crisis and had to raise fares this year.

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.

“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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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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* Azi Paybarah reports that In response to all those New Yorkers who feel that Bloomberg’s television ads are overkill, the mayor said simply, “don’t watch.” He also said he doesn’t have time to watch television, and didn’t watch last night’s Democratic mayoral debate. Why? According to the AP, Mayor Bloomberg feels he has no challengers in the election. Huh — so why spend nearly $40 million before the general election?

* Bloomberg found himself forced to give a deposition for the third time in three months, reports NY1. This time around, a judge is trying to determine whether FDNY entrance exams in 1999 and 2002 intentionally discriminated against black and Hispanic applicants.

* Baseball site Bugs and Cranks says Bloomberg has poor baseball fan etiquette:

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