Mayor Bling, all Gothamist can say is "Damn!" The word is out that you've already spent $5 million on your reelection campaign, which happens to be the amount the your Democratic challengers can spend for the primary (due to city campaign finance laws, which the Mayor can ignore, thanks to his billion dollar fortune). The big news is that the Mayor seems to be creating the "most sophisticated database" of voters, one on par with a presidential election database, at the sum of $2.5 million. The spokesman of Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields' campaign said, "I think you're at a level that's barbaric. I've never seen in 30 years this kind of maneuvering to buy an election." Additional costs include swank 19,000 square foot offices; the NY Times reported:
"Mr. Bloomberg has spared no expense in the early efforts of this campaign, according to his filing. His office rent is $55,000 a month, exceptionally high for a campaign headquarters. The space near Bryant Park, to which reporters were invited yesterday, has frosted glass walls, hardwood floors and new televisions. Kevin Sheekey, the mayor's top strategist, said it was nearly twice as large as the one the campaign used in 2001.
Plus, the Mayor has hired many Democratic operatives at much higher salaries. Gothamist is curious how much the Mayor would have to pay, for some operatives to switch gears for this campaign. What he does have in his favor is a pretty socially liberal agenda; while Mayor B is a Republican on paper, he was a Democratic for his pre-Mayoral life.
Gothamist wonders if the televisions in the Mayor's office have access to all the tiny cameras that the Mayor's team must have installed over all the city.
Photo montage of the Mayor from the NY Times, November 29, 2004
