Bloomberg Courts The Black Vote

Mayor Bloomberg appeared at the Reverend Al Sharpton's National Action Network Convention and called the reverend a "calming influence on the city." The Mayor added, "I don't agree with him everything but on balance I've become, over the years, a Sharpton fan." But even with that praise, Sharpton is still backing City Comptroller Bill Thompson for mayor. Sharpton did tell the NY Times that Bloomberg made an effort with the black community, unlike Ed Koch, "Koch gave us such good reasons to vote against him. That’s not the case with Bloomberg. Even on issues where we disagree, the mayor reaches out to us, so there isn’t that hostility." The Times' article focuses on how the mayor's re-election is making an "aggressive" push to appeal to black leaders and, in turn, voters; one political consultant pointed out, "Every black Democrat who votes for Bloomberg is like two votes. It’s a vote the mayor gets and a vote that Thompson was counting on."