Bloomberg Spending Record Amount on Reelection Campaign

Records released Friday show that New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg has spent over $85 million of his personal wealth in an attempt to win a third term in office, the highest amount ever expended by one individual seeking public office in the U.S.

On November 3 the voters of New York City will have the opportunity to elect their mayor. And one of the individuals they will be able to cast their ballot for is the current incumbent Michael Bloomberg, whose personal worth, according to the New York Daily News, is $17.5 billion. With that vast amount of money available to him it should perhaps be no surprise that Mr Bloomberg, for a long time a Democrat, who first won office after switching to the Republicans, and is now officially an Independent, albeit with Republican support, has chosen to spend what is actually quite a small part of that fortune on trying to retain one of the most prestigious positions in U.S. politics. In contrast with Mr Bloomberg's expenditure, which stands at $85 million at present but could reach between $110 million and $140 million come November 3, Democratic candidate William Thompson, the New York City Comptroller, has spent just $6 million to date. A Thompson campaign spokesman has confirmed that much of the money raised by Mr Bloomberg's opponent has come from small individual donations. However Mr Thompson is not raising anywhere near the amounts of money Mr Bloomberg's challengers in 2001 and 2005 managed to attract. When Mr Bloomberg first sought the office of mayor in 2001 he spent $74 million and his successful reelection campaign of 2005 cost him $84.6 million. Howard Wolfson is a spokesman for Mr Bloomberg and he said of the record sum being spent by the mayor of the largest city in the U.S.:

Voters in this race have a choice between one candidate who is independent and doesn’t take a dime from special interests and another who practices politics as usual

As the New York Times reports Mr Wolfson's take on the situation is not shared by certain groups who believe Mr Bloomberg has weakened the democratic process, not just by spending a vast amount of money in an attempt to be reelected but also by revising term limits. Gene Russianoff of the non-partisan New York Public Interest Research Group said:

Whether Bloomberg wins or loses, the toxic combination of mega-spending and crass use of his office to bypass the voters on term limits will always be a stain on his mayoralty. These twin assaults on municipal democracy will undermine his political clout in a third term and sadly fuel public skepticism about elections and elected officials

The New York Times is suggesting that the money being spent by Mr Bloomberg may not actually be necessary as his popularity with the electors in New York City and his already high profile, from having spent nearly eight years in office, should see him secure the victory he craves. TV ads, mailings, phone banks and polls are responsible for large elements of the Bloomberg campaign expenditure but considerable sums have been spent on food, transportation, furniture and parking too. For example food for campaign workers has cost Mr Bloomberg $322,521, of which $8,892 has gone on pizzas from Goodfellas Brick Oven Pizza on Staten Island and in the Bronx. Some $293,953 has been spent on transportation, $176,066 on furniture and $39,858 on parking. On Thursday the New York Daily News reported details of a poll conducted by Marist College which gave Mr Bloomberg a 16 percent lead over Mr Thompson.