Thompson, Bloomberg Bicker About Political Contributions

It's less than a month till the primary election, but frontrunner Democratic mayoral candidate City Comptroller Bill Thompson is gearing up his attack on Mayor Bloomberg. Thompson's campaign complained to the city’s Campaign Finance Board that Bloomberg didn't disclose $3.3 million in contributions. PolitickerNY explains, "The contributions at issue here are mainly to local Republican organizations and the Independence Party, both of which later endorsed Bloomberg"—however—"The contributions were not unreported: the campaign reported them to the state board of elections, not the city board."

CityRoom adds, "Never mind that campaign finance experts noted that those contributions were made from Mr. Bloomberg’s personal checkbook — and that personal spending has never been subject to campaign disclosure requirements." Bloomberg's campaign fired back, noting $6,000 in contributions that Thompson made to the Working Families' Party in 2002 and 2003 that were never reported.

City Room guesses the Thompson campaign strategy behind the complaint: Reminding voters that Bloomberg is "A billionaire who is spending a staggering amount of his own money to win a third term" and "a billionaire who is running as a Republican again — and that he has given a lot of money to Republicans, against a candidate who is a Democrat, in an overwhelmingly Democratic city."