It's the last days of the Mayoral race campaigning, and the poor tree pulp is thankful, as there has never been so much paper devoted to telling voters how awesome Mayor Michael Bloomberg is. However, the local media outlets are not so happy, as the Mayor is close to spending $100 million for his reelection campaign. The translates into an approximate $100+ cost per vote, if he were to win 60% of the vote (based on the NY Post's projections for a low-to-moderate turnout). Hilarious! If only the bananaphone could be incorporated into the Al Sharpton salsaing commercial! The Mayor cashed in the perks of being the city's top guy, as he was afforded a lot of free media coverage with yesterday's marathon, besides campaign stops in Queens, whose middle class population is skeptical of him. Fernando Ferrer spent his time campaigning in Harlem with Senator Hillary Clinton, Congressman Charles Rangel, and Manhattan BEEP and one-time mayoral contender C. Virginia Fields. But, to break it down into the nuts and bolts, the Mayor shook the hand of a lion dancer (inside the costume!) and Ferrer pretended to make a call with a banana.
Newsday said Ferrer "relishes" his time on the "love bus," which is what he calls the SUV he uses during campaigning, while the Times notes that Ferrer wants to lose with dignity, if he's gonna lose, which is important as Bloomberg's lead seems to be huge. The NY Post claims to have a sneak peek at the Mayor's acceptance speech, which starts off with "So, the polls can be accurate after all." Twenty bucks says that line is now scrapped. And the Post tries to show that it can be almost bipartisan by reporting that various "Bloomberg for Mayor" signs were illegally places, entailing over a hundred thousands in fines, which is, of course, 0.2% of the total campaign spending.
Did you see Bloomberg or Ferrer this weekend?
Photographs from Newsday
