According to City Comptroller Bill Thompson's latest campaign fiance filings, the Observer reports that he spent "$9,003,711...on his campaign, which came within a few percentage points of beating Michael Bloomberg's $102 million re-election campaign...In his latest filing period, Thompson spent $1,040,000 on television ads, along with $309,887 on consultants. Among Thompson's notable expenditures is $400 for a makeup artist Sue Crystal. A campaign spokesman said it was for the debate in El Barrio, whose television sponsor, New York 1, did not offer the candidates makeup before appearing on air." Factoid: "Anthony Weiner's campaign also donated on $4,950 on October 29, the day Thompson's pollster released numbers saying the race was tightening." more ›

At an event where Mayor Michael Bloomberg, alongside the city's Veteran’s Affairs employees and NYC Service participants, helped put together care packages for overseas troops, the mayor was asked about the Wednesday night debate between Democratic mayoral hopefuls City Comptroller Bill Thompson and City Councilman Tony Avella (the two Democrats spent much of the debate attacking the mayor). Bloomberg said he didn't watch the debate but apparently heard about it, suggesting the candidates "wasted an opportunity" in attacking him instead of giving reasons why they would be good for the city, "I'm not going to 'face' either of them... I'm running on a record, and I'm trying to lay out the things that I would do if given another opportunity." more ›

In this week's issue of the New Yorker, reporter Ben McGrath looks at Mayor Bloomberg—headline, "THE UNTOUCHABLE," subhead, "Can a good mayor amass too much power?" While the article offers an image of Bloomberg with a crown hovering over his head, the caption says this, "Ambitious younger mayors around the country call him Papa Smurf." Indeed, further into the piece, McGrath writes, "[Newark mayor Cory] Booker and other ambitious younger mayors around the country, like Adrian Fenty, in Washington, D.C., call him Papa Smurf." more ›