Wednesday, October 1, 2008

BLOOMBER READY TO BUY FOUR MORE YEARS


New York Mayor Wants Third Term
By SARA KUGLER
AP

NEW YORK (Oct. 1) - For a long time, Mayor Michael Bloomberg seemed to despise the very notion of changing a voter-approved law restricting elected officeholders to two terms in office.
When a bill reached his desk in 2002 that would have extended the terms for some officials, he vetoed it. He said the proposed law was wrong because elected officials shouldn't be changing rules to benefit themselves politically.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg
Stan Honda, AFP / Getty Images

Michael Bloomberg, shown in a file photo, wants to serve a third term as mayor of New York City, sources say. But in order to run, he will have to change a city law that limits the number of terms a mayor can serve.


But Bloomberg now appears to have reversed himself. He wants to change the law and run for a third term.
A person who has been briefed on the matter told The Associated Press that Bloomberg will announce Thursday that he will seek to overturn the term-limit law and run for another four years. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement hasn't been made.
Bloomberg, a former chief executive officer who started his career on Wall Street, will cite the nation's precarious economic situation as the reason that New York needs a tested financial manager to stay on and guide the city, the person said.
The individual close to the mayor said his plan is to go through the City Council to extend the law to allow a third term because it is too late to get the issue on this year's ballot.
Bloomberg quickly drew the scorn of term-limits supporters.
Mark Green, the former city public advocate who lost to Bloomberg in 2001, called the move "an antidemocratic, unfeeling, power grab." Green said civic and labor officials had already been talking about mounting a pro-term-limits campaign should Bloomberg seek to overturn the law.
"He's picked a fight. And now he'll get one," he said.
The New York Times said in an editorial published Wednesday that it supports the idea of scrapping the term limits law: "This is a rule that needs to be abolished. If the voters don't like the results, they can register their views at the polls."
Bloomberg, who founded the financial information company Bloomberg LP and whose worth is estimated at $20 billion, winning re-election by 20 percentage points in 2005.
Bloomberg's change of heart comes amid the nation's worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The turmoil has dealt a serious blow to the city's economy, which relies heavily on Wall Street profits for its tax base.
The decision follows a year in which he toyed with a White House bid, drawing constant speculation, before ultimately deciding against it.
If Bloomberg did seek another term, it will be politically risky, however. Polls have shown that the public supports term limits.
Chris Kelley, associate director of the government watchdog group Common Cause New York, accused Bloomberg of attempting to subvert the will of the voters, saying it was "an end-run around the voters' choice" and "just incredibly disappointing."
After the Sept. 11 attacks, then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani floated the idea of a three-month extension to his term to ease the transition of power. He also suggested overturning the city's term-limits law, but ultimately decided against it. Even in the wake of the attacks, with Giuliani's approval rating at 90 percent, one poll found that 55 percent of New York City voters opposed repealing term limits.
Democrats lining up to run include city Comptroller William Thompson, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Rep. Anthony Weiner and city Councilman Anthony Avella. On the GOP side are supermarket magnate John Catsimatidis and lawyer Bruce Blakeman.
In 2006, Bloomberg scoffed at the notion that an individual could be truly irreplaceable.
"My experience in business has been, whenever we've had somebody who was irreplaceable, their successor invariably did a better job, and I think change is good," he said.

Associated Press writers Samantha Gross and David B. Caruso in New York and Devlin Barrett in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

2 comments:

  1. We have term limits with good reason.If power stays in the same hands power itself is an invitation to corruption. In our some what democratic republic even at the mayor's office the toilet is flushed now and again. The office is about the city not who is in the office. It's just a good idea we don't sell elected offices so one who has a lot of money and is used to being able to buy things when he wants to can spend enough money making enough people vote him into office but the good news is that in American politics he still gets evicted. It's good not to have a King.

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  2. Slept in Clinton Lincohen Bedroom! Big Fat Greek Caricature! The Holy Father gone to Turkey to redeem and consecrate the Greeks,
    so don't need no more soviet temples. Don't need no gyro blimpie Bart when got a regular Pope without the diner attitude. My pop kept hitting momma with a skillet on the head. Friends ended up in the hospital after their pop beat them. Pops got drunk and ruined my first car. Killed two cats and a dog, thrown out the window. Neighbor drowned the canaries in ouzo, lit, ate them. Ma overdid whip so she could give less pie. All our stuff came pilfered, with logos. Greeks overcook all meat so no one knows is bad. Another banned tenants flushing toilet paper. Waiters inpune sanitation because "dirty is natural and healthy." Priests just answered "behave, respect, tradition!" Now priest comes "no intercommunion!" Where was
    he when we needed him to protect us from our crazy parents? Don't
    sell me "educated Greeks" because we know all them Trojan Horse
    cheated on the exams. Besides it's just TV repair school. Remember
    all those jailed old disco Greeks, tax cheats to "protest" Jerome Ford
    stopping the Trojan Horse in Chyprious? We can't get good jobs
    because no one trusts Greeks, because of Trojan Horse. They always faked reading Greek. That's why we borrowed regular Catholic books instead of read Greek. Sure, we sacrifice to Greek myths three times a year to please yiayia, and she's nun the wiser when we go to regular Catholic Mass on Sundays when she bummed from bouzaki dances. Ain't need no more Bart, just the regular Pope. That's why we all married regular Catholic when we grew up. So they can trust us.

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