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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Via The City Room:

So what if Michael R. Bloomberg has outspent William C. Thompson Jr. by 13 to 1 so far?

The mayor’s race may resemble, financially, a match between David and Goliath, but one the underdog’s supporters has a message for the giant: Bring it.

The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which supports Mr. Thompson, the city comptroller and the leading Democratic candidate in the race, has begun a cheeky, defiant advertising campaign urging the mayor to “spend it all.”

The message “expresses not only our concerns about the way this election is being conducted, but also our confidence that, regardless of how much money his Republican opponent spends, Bill Thompson’s vision for New York City will make him our next mayor,” the union said in a statement.

The mayor spent at least $150 million of his personal fortune in his first two races, in 2001 and 2005, and has vowed to spend as much as $80 million or more this time around. So far, he has spent $37 million on his 2009 campaign. That compares with about $2.7 million spent by Mr. Thompson, who has raised $6 million.

Another fantastic cartoon by Keith Seidel. Click on the cartoon to see the full size.

According to a new Quinnipiac poll, Bloomberg is losing ground in his quest to capture a third term as mayor.

Via USA Today:

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is losing some ground as he vies for an unprecedented third term leading the nation’s largest city.

In a Quinnipiac Poll out this morning, Bloomberg leads top Democratic challenger William Thompson 47% to 37%. Though Bloomberg still has a comfortable margin, that 10-point lead is less than half of what the mayor had in the same poll in mid-June, when Bloomberg was ahead of the city comptroller, 54% to 32%.
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Sherman Yellen, wrote this astute piece about Mayor Bloomberg’s lack of “moral imagination and the sense of proportion necessary to run a great city and keep its human scale alive” in May for the Huffington Post. If you haven’t read it yet, it’s a must.
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We have had sixteen long years of Republican rule in New York City. Rudy Giuliani’s contempt for civil liberties and the gleeful abandon with which he stoked racial fires are the lasting images of the Giuliani years. The police officer who sodomized Abner Louima with a broomstick, the undercover police gangs who gunned down innocent black citizens and were praised by Giuliani are indelible memories for many New Yorkers. The officer who was said to have announced to his victim that “It’s Giuliani time” never said it — but neither did Gerald Ford say “Drop Dead” to New York. Both remarks captured essential truths.

Rudy Crew, a former New York City school chancellor whom Giuliani forced out, expressed what many New Yorkers felt when he remarked, “There’s something very deeply pathological about Rudy’s humanity; he was barren, completely emotionally barren, on the issue of race.”

Michael Bloomberg’s bland and bloodless public persona has created the false impression that he is less angry, more judicious than his predecessor. Maybe so, but like Crew, those who have been the target of Bloomberg’s anger think otherwise. Take a look.

WNYC’s Kathleen Horan took to the streets and asked New Yorkers how they feel about Bloomberg’s run for a third term and his eight years in office. Here’s what she found:

(Source: WNYC)

Translation? You can’t beat the money. A few weeks ago, Azi Paybarah, the reporter who Bloomberg called “a disgrace,” wrote about Bloomberg campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson and his transformation from being a Bloomberg critic to a Bloomberg crony.

Wolfson, a longtime Democratic operative co-wrote a NYT Op-ed in 2005 saying that Bloomberg’s outrageous campaign spending “distorts the terms of the debate.”

Paybarah writes:

I emailed Wolfson, now a Bloomberg campaign spokesman, to ask if the criticism he had four years ago still applies. Wolfson wrote back, “I’m flattered that our opponents are still taking the time to read our oped. We wrote in 2005 about the importance of ideas in mayoral elections, stating “ideas matter more” and I believe that just as strongly today, which is the reason I’m working for the candidate in the race with the best ideas for New York City—Mike Bloomberg.

“I agree with Comptroller Thompson who has said that money won’t decide this race—ideas, vision, and record will.”

(Source: PolitickerNY)

I think that the Mayor in spending $20 million this early is trying to create a distorted sense of reality. He is trying to let you believe that he can’t be beat. The truth is talk to New Yorkers they want somebody new. – Rep. Anthony Weiner

If you have a good message people are going to be responsive. If you have a bad message, if you have done a bad job or don’t offer hope for the future no amount of money is going to make a difference. – Mayor Michael Bloomberg

(Source: WNYC)