Michael Bloomberg

Unofficially, the bill to change the city’s term-limits law will pass the City Council with about 35 votes in favor, according to Majority Leader Joel Rivera, who spoke to me on the City Hall steps after the Council's Democratic caucus meeting.

As far as what divides the two camps, Rivera said there isn’t much of a split between members who will be term-limited out of office if the law doesn't change, and those that could run for re-election this year. The split, he said, fell along ideological lines: those who are willing to change the law legislatively through a Council vote, and those who think it needs to go before the voters.  read more »

Speaking to reporters in London, Michael Bloomberg said, "It is my understanding that Chris Quinn plans to shepherd through the City Council a bill that will change it from two to three but keep term limits."

So, does that mean Quinn supports the bill?

Not necessarily, a spokeswoman for Quinn explained to me. The mayor was most likely referring to her role in overseeing the City Council, which has to convene and vote on the bill since Quinn hasn't taken a position on the bill yet.

Quinn just arrived at City Hall and told a throng of reporters, "I'm going to listen to my colleagues," and "at some point after that I'll take an official position myself."

Michael Bloomberg’s deference to cosmetics heir Ron Lauder on the issue of term limits is striking, considering that Lauder has never actually been a public elected official. Lauder's involvement -- and apparently, his right to have an outsized say in the city's position on the matter going forward -- is based entirely on the fact that he has a significant personal fortune to back up his advocacy.  read more »

Here’s Bill Thompson at the annual conference for Al Sharpton’s National Action Network event last Saturday at the Sheraton in midtown, reading old quotes from when Michael Bloomberg and Christine Quinn opposed changing the term-limits law.

Thompson said the question facing those two now is whether to "listen" to what the "people of New York City have said on more than one occasion.”

Anthony Weiner was also there and spoke out against the proposed change.  read more »

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s recent announcement that he would seek a third term as mayor brings back the issue of term limits and its connection to good government and long-term planning. I am against term limits anywhere, including the American presidency. The 22nd amendment was an anti-democratic, anti-government mistake, just as the term limit mandate in New York is a bad idea. The argument against term limits is simple and has two parts:

1) People should be able to vote for anyone they want (this is a concept known as democracy).
2) Term limits extend an elected official’s “lame duck” period from about a year to four.  read more »

Michael Bloomberg is very popular, has billions of dollars, and wants to change the city's term-limits law. Ron Lauder is not as well known, has billions of dollars and (basically) wants to preserve term limits.  read more »

So, what happened with the city’s Charter Revision Commission between January 17, when the mayor announced he would create one, and October 5, the day Howard Rubenstein announced that the mayor intended to make Ron Lauder  read more »

Speaking to reporters after Al Sharpton’s birthday luncheon, David Paterson said the state is (still) facing a fiscal crisis, but that tax hikes “are not on the table.” He also said that for the first time, all four Democratic and Republican legislative leaders agree on that point.  read more »

"Hugo Chavez loves his job too. The Mayor is making a mockery of our system. He should be ashamed of himself and so should any sycophants kissing up to him to grab the crumbs off his table." ["Speyer, Zuckerman Back Bloomberg Bid"]

Mega-landlords Jerry Speyer and Mort Zuckerman told The Times' Michael Barbaro they'd love to see a third Bloomberg term. It would help the local economy in troubling times, their reasoning goes--besides, what else would their friend Mike do with his time?

According to Mr. Zuckerman, chairman of Boston Properties, controlling owner of the GM Building, among other trophies:  read more »

It may or may not be a coincidence, but soon after Michael Bloomberg officially said he wants a third term, his office  announced that the official mayoral website is now available in Spanish.

In July, Bloomberg ordered all agencies to make services available in six languages, including Spanish.  read more »

In a brief telephone interview just now, City Comptroller Bill Thompson said, “It’s my intention to run against Mike." Then he soften his language, and continued, "It’s my intention to run for mayor, let me put it that way. And by the way, and I heard from people who don’t think it’s going to survive a legal challenge. I’m moving forward right now.”

Although Thompson quickly rephrased his initial remark, this is the strongest statement he's made to indicate that he might take on the billionaire mayor in next year’s mayoral election.

Hank Sheinkopf, who has worked as a consultant to Thomspon in two previous citywide races and may do so again, told me, “I would advise Mr.. Thompson to do what his conscience dictates. It’s not clear what will happen,” he added, referring to the outcome of the expected legal challenges.  read more »

Marist is out with a poll saying what most people suspected: Michael Bloomberg is a clear front-runner in a hypothetical 2009 race against likely Democratic candidates Bill Thompson, Anthony Weiner and Christine Quinn.

Michael Bloomberg's press office just announced he'll have a media availability at noon inside City Hall, where the mayor is expected to announce his support for changing the term limits law (but not actually announce he's running, because, that's technically campaigning and not allowed to be done on government time).

Also, Bloomberg will be joining Governor David Paterson at 1:30 in midtown for an announcement about the World Trade Center.  read more »

Christine Quinn has adamantly denied speaking to the mayor or her colleagues about whether or not the City Council would approve a change to the term-limits law, and it looks like most members are set to do that.

So who was talking to the Council? Councilman Domenic Recchia, for one.  read more »

Last night on NY1's Inside City Hall, Howard Wolfson and host Dominic Carter discussed the suprising silence from the Democratic Party on Michael Bloomberg's plan to try to run for mayor again.

"Where's the statement from the state Democrats?" asked Carter.

"That's a good question," answered Wolfson, who was once the state party's spokesman. "The state Democratic Party hasn't taken a stand. I haven't really heard many Democrats take a stand, and I think that speaks to the fact that there's acquience, or support for this."

Wolfson went on, "What has surprised me the most is how few Democratic elected officials are out actually saying this is a bad idea," adding, "I actually think there is a fair amount of support for this."

Carter pointed out that the Jewish holidays might have something to do with it.

"Thats true," Wolfson said. "But perhaps there are some non-Jewish Democrats who could have come out and said something if they wanted to."

Incidentally, at 4 p.m. yesterday State Democratic Party Chairwoman June O'Neill became FaceBook friends with Kevin Sheekey, deputy mayor for all things political.

Last night, a state party spokeswoman told me the organization has no comment, and it's unclear if they will take a position on it.

The story was reported by Max Abelson, Eliot Brown and Dana Rubinstein; and written by Ms. Rubinstein.

New York's real estate community doesn't just love Mayor Bloomberg. It lurves him. And it's greeting the news of his third-term bid accordingly.

A sampling:

"Love him," said developer and landlord Alex Sapir. "Let's keep him forever."

"It's the best news I've heard in years," said residential superbroker Michelle Kleier, president and chairman of Gumley Haft Kleier.

"I can't think of anyone who's done more for New York... in my lifetime," said Howard Lorber, chairman of Prudential Douglas Elliman owner.

"I think he's the greatest mayor we've ever had," said Douglas Durst, of the Durst Organization. Mr. Durst even thinks President Bush should call Mr. Bloomberg down to Washington to "straighten out the financial mess."

"I think the country needs him more than the city does," he said.

Thirty-something Dumbo developer Jed Walentas called Mr. Bloomberg, "the best mayor New York has had - certainly in my lifetime."

And Donald Trump said he begs the mayor ("Michael," to him) to run whenever they meet.

"Any time I see Michael I say, please run," Mr. Trump said. "I don't want to get into the details, but any time I see him. I think it's very important."

So what gives? Why all the love for Massachusetts' own, Michael Bloomberg?  read more »

Liz Benjamin, of the Daily News, suspects there's a reason why the New York Post got the exclusive on Ron Lauder changing his mind on term limits: The New York Post and Ron Lauder share the same publicist, Howard Rubenstein.  read more »

City Councilwoman Gale Brewer represents the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and says in her district, there's unlikely to be a clear consensus on the mayor's reported intent to change the law on term limits and run for a third term.

Speaking of her constituents, Brewer said, "People are going to be really conflicted with the way that they think democracy should be, and their like of Mike Bloomberg." 

Michael Bloomberg, who has no publicly scheduled events today, arrived at work at 7:15 a.m. this morning and headed to his side of City Hall. He made some light conversation with me (I happened to be sitting on a bench near the mayor's work area) and disappeared into his office.

Reporters had been staking out Bloomberg's East Side townhouse. I guess he prefers to hide in plain sight. 

It was the morning of Sept. 30, the first day of Rosh Hashanah, and Christine Quinn was rushing out the door of City Hall with reporters chasing after her. She knew what they wanted.

The big story that morning was a New York Post cover about term-limits advocate Ron Lauder coming out in favor of a change in the law to allow Mayor Michael Bloomberg to run for a third term. Had Ms. Quinn, the City Council’s speaker, Bloomberg ally and prospective mayoral contender, had any discussions with the mayor about the news?

“I don’t think I spoke to the mayor about anything yesterday—no,” she said, curtly.  read more »

The Republican county leader whose borough has the highest number of registered Republican voters in the city—Phil Ragusa of Queens—said he's unsure anyone from his party would run for mayor if  Michael Bloomberg seeks a third term.

(The New York Times just reported that Bloomberg will try to run again, but I spoke to Ragusa earlier today.)

"I don’t know if there will be someone on the Republican line who would want to run," Ragusasaid. "If we have a Republican candidate who wants to run against him, I would have to support the Republican candidate." But, Ragusa added, "if this term limits [extension] goes through, they may not want to run.  read more »

Christine Quinn did appear in City Hall earlier today, but made a quick departure from the building as reporters tried to ask her about term limits, according to a person who was there and was kind enough to send over a transcript.

Asked for reaction to the news that extending term limits might be easier than expected, Quinn told reporters, “All I can say is what I read in today’s New York Post, and I was surprised that the New York Post cover wasn’t about the 778-point drop on Wall Street and the failure of the bailout deal to pass.” (Actual Post headline: "Mike the III.  read more »

Before walking into his Manhattan synagogue this morning, Ron Lauder reiterated that he would support a third mayoral term for Michael Bloomberg because of the financial difficulties facing the city.

"I saw what happened years ago when the city was going bankrupt. And there is a chance that the city might go bankrupt again," Lauder told The New York Times. 

The idea that the Wall Street crisis might make a strong argument for changing the term-limits law has been proposed by both reporters and supporters of the mayor. 

Political consultant Joe Mercurio has a different, if optimistic, read on that argument.

Writing on Twitter today, Mercurio said, "Trouble with the fiscal experience argument to extend term limits is that the recession will be over before Bloomberg’s third term starts."

There are, however, some experts that think the recession might last longer than that.

There's at least one mayoral candidate who is not going to run against Michael Bloomberg: Republican Bruce Blakeman.

Speaking CW11 this morning, Blakeman said, “I’m still running because the law hasn’t changed yet.” He went on, “There is only one person more qualified than me to be mayor, and that’s Mike. So, obviously if they did change the term limits I certainly would not oppose him in a Republican primary.”

Whether or not other mayoral candidates would abandon their campaigns if the wealthy, popular, incumbent Mayor Bloomberg decides to run again has been a topic of speculation. Christine Quinn and Bill Thompson have declined to say what they would do; Anthony  read more »

Now that Ron Lauder is on board with a third Bloomberg term, the mayor has cleared a major hurdle for another bid, but there are a few details he would need to work out.

Unlike during his two previous mayoral campaigns, Bloomberg is no longer a member of any political party. If he were to run, he'd need to either get permission from a major party to run on its line, or run on a line that he creates himself.

Frank Morano, head of the Staten Island chapter of the Independence Party and huge supporter of Bloomberg's presidential non-bid, declined to say if he would support Bloomberg running on his party's line.  read more »

Two top mayoral contenders, Bill Thompson and Christine Quinn, were not available to comment this morning on the interview Ron Lauder just did with the Post. A spokesman for Thompson declined to comment, and a spokesman for Quinn said she was unavailable for comment [clarified].

Lauder told the paper he would support a one-time extension of term limits so Michael Bloomberg can be mayor again. Lauder, who nearly single-handedly brought term limits around, was considered a potential obstacle if Bloomberg did decide to run again.

I’m still waiting to hear back from a spokesman to Anthony Weiner; his campaign has previously said  read more »

A spokesman for David Paterson issued a lengthy statement late yesterday about Michael Bloomberg's plan to sue Indian tribes for not collecting taxes on cigarettes.

According to the statement, the governor and the mayor spoke yesterday and were cooperating to find a solution.

But it goes to say the answer "will not be found in a courtroom."

Here's the statement:

From Press Secretary Errol Cockfield:

The Mayor's frustration on this issue is understandable and it has been a vexing challenge for state government for decades. Four previous Governors, all with good intentions, tried their best but were unable to reach a resolution. This is a priority for Governor Paterson and he is currently in serious discussions with representatives of all of New York's federally and state recognized Indian Nations to try and reach a resolution to preclude the need for more endless litigation.

 read more »

Michael Bloomberg just sent out a statement on the Sun:

In a City saturated with news coverage and commentary, The Sun shone brightly, though too briefly. Whether you agreed or disagreed with the Sun’s writers, they were smart, thoughtful, provocative – and sometimes even courageous. What other paper in America urged Dick Cheney to run for President? The Sun launched the careers of many talented and dedicated journalists, whose stories often raised the bar for their competitors. I am sorry to see the Sun halt its presses and send my best wishes to all labored so hard to make it a success, especially Seth Lipsky and Ira Stoll.

Michael Bloomberg’s tax policy is giving his political allies a headache.

At a breakfast in midtown last week, State Senate Republican Majority Leader Dean Skelos tried to send a clear anti-tax-increase message to business leaders.

“As I said before, the Senate is ready to do what’s appropriate to reduce spending, but we should not raise taxes, as some have indicated. In this fragile economy, it would be disastrous to raise taxes,” Skelos said.

The speech, hosted by the Association for a Better New York event, went over well with the pro-business crowd. But speaking with reporters afterward, Skelos had a slightly harder time dealing with a question about Michael Bloomberg's recent comments that, in order to balance the budget,  read more »

Here's Mayor Bloomberg on his Friday morning radio show with John Gambling on the World Trade Center and the Port Authority's commitment to open the memorial by Sept. 11, 2011:

We all agree that the critical thing is that we have to have on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 the Memorial built with people being able to get to it--the platform, the water cascading down, the trees, the names. The museum underground can take a little bit longer and it will just because of the complexity of the problem. ... The governor and I have both said to [Port Authority executive director Chris Ward] we want the Port to guarantee any cost overruns over that, because otherwise you don't have any confidence they will, but you have to give them an economic incentive.

 read more »

Yesterday, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver announced that he would be open to reinstating the commuter tax.

The timing struck some people as unusual, since it gives Republicans an issue use against Democrats who are running for competitive State Senate seats, with only weeks to go before the election. (A poll earlier this week showed Democratic advantage in a number of those races.)

The tax, which was repealed in 1999, is opposed by suburban and upstate Republican lawmakers whose constituents don't want to have to pay to work in the city.

On his radio show this morning, host John Gambling asked Michael Bloomberg, “Do you find it unusual that maybe it came up now, and not after November 4th?”

“Um, you’ll have to ask the Speaker,” Bloomberg said.  read more »

Democratic City Council members now challenging Republicans for State Senate seats are facing criticism over a 2002 vote to raise city property taxes by 18.5 percent.

Michael Bloomberg supported the increase in property tax.

At his press conference just now, I asked Bloomberg--who has been supportive of State Senate Republicans--if that's fair to criticize those lawmakers over the vote.

“For doing what [are they being criticized]? Paying our fire fighters and police officers and improving our schools? I don’t understand what you think they did wrong,” Bloomberg said.

When I told him that Republican State Senator Serf Maltese--who the mayor endorsed--is using the tax increase to attack his opponent Joe Addabbo on a mailer, Bloomberg said he hadn’t seen the mailer.  read more »

After Sheldon Silver dropped the news that he's open to reinstituting the commuter tax, Michael Bloomberg told reporters in City Hall that he himself is also in favor of bringing it back. Bloomberg stopped short of demanding Republican state lawmakers take action.

“I’ve always thought it was a very bad mistake to give up the commuter tax back when it was done,” the mayor said. “I’ve been screaming about the commuter tax for all the time I’ve been here.”

New York City's commuter tax was lifted in 1999.

Bloomberg added, “The fact that the speaker is in favor of it is encouraging, but there’s 145-odd members in the Assembly, and we’re going to need a majority of them, as well, if we are to reinstitute it.”

That, essentially, was the lesson of the failure of congestion pricing.

Introducing a panel on urban development at his Clinton Global Initiative conference, Bill Clinton said of Mike Bloomberg, “There is no job to be done in America important to our future in which he would not do better than just about anyone I’ve ever met.”

Republican State Senate Leader Dean Skelos told business leaders this morning that the economy is in for tough times, but “we should not panic and we must not act out of fear.”

“In this fragile economy, it would be disastrous to raise taxes,” he said, speaking at the Association for a Better New York breakfast at the Hilton in midtown.

Afterwards, when asked about Michael Bloomberg’s economic plan, which would likely include repealing the seven percent property tax cut, Skelos said, “Everybody has to do what they think is appropriate for their constituents."

He went to say that raising the personal income tax “would be the worst thing that can happen in New York City or any other part of the state.  read more »

Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler released a list today of Michael Bloomberg’s member items -- the City Council members’ projects that the mayor funded directly from 2003 to 2008.

The request came amid closer scrutiny of discretionary member-item allocation, which is being investigated by a U.S. prosecutor after fake names were found to have been inserted into the budget and slated to get money.

A few quick, somewhat random observations:

The amount of money spent by the mayor went from $1,720,500 in Fiscal Year 2003 to $5,614,000 in Fiscal Year 2006 (which began on July 1, 2005 - the summer he was running for re-election - through June 30, 2006).  read more »

A couple of interesting observations I heard on today’s Siena poll of key State Senate races.

The first has to do with Republican incumbent Serf Maltese, who is currently running even with his Democratic challenger, Joe Addabbo. Consultant Joe Mercurio said he found that “surprising,” since that’s basically how Maltese’s 2006 race ended up, and that was against a challenger who was virtually unknown.

"I figured Addabbo would do better than an unknown,” Mercurio told me.

The other observation was about Craig Johnson on Long Island, who has a 24-percentage-point lead over his Republican challenger, Barbara Donno. Of all of the six races Siena chose to look at, this one has the highest percentage of undecided voters: 26 percent.  read more »

Here is Michael Bloomberg, earlier today, arguing against the idea that the federal bailout legislation should limit the salaries of executives at troubled companies.

Also: Bloomberg doesn’t think the $700 billion legislation should be called a “bailout,” because, he said, “for all I know, the government is going to make a lot of money.”

Michael Bloomberg had a stern warning for commissioners or administration officials who complain about having to cut their budgets.

Speaking with reporters at the Sheraton New York in midtown, where the Clinton Global Initiative is being held, Bloomberg said, “I think we go into this with a group of commissioners in this city—and deputy mayors—that are as good a group as anyone’s put together.

"Are they going to complain? Are they going to feel prevailed upon?" he asked. "Absolutely. Now suck it up and get back to work, because that the job and they’re going to have to do it.”

At the opening plenary session of the Clinton Global Initiative just now, Michael Bloomberg appeared with Lance Armstrong to announce a joint anti-cancer effort between their foundations.

After the cyclist mentioned his announced return to competition, the Mayor said, "l did like the comments about doing it again, but that's another issue."

He smiled broadly as the audience applauded and laughed.

Then Bill Clinton more or less endorsed a third term for Mayor Bloomberg, saying of Hizzoner:

"I admire him, I'm grateful for his service and I'm guessi