A Tipping Point?

Pile. On.

The Quinnipiac Poll The Mayor Probably Won’t Cite . . .

. . . came out today with a majority opposed to his plan:

By a narrow but significant margin, 51 percent to 45 percent, New York City voters oppose extending the eight-year term limit to 12 years so that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg might serve a third term, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday morning.

The poll suggested that a remarkable shift in public opinion had occurred in recent weeks, as the mayor’s proposal to extend term limits through City Council legislation — nullifying the results of two voter referendums — has been engulfed by controversy. In the new poll, 89 percent of respondents said the issue should be decided through another referendum, not by the Council.

The poll results suggested deep conflicts in the electorate, with many voters struggling to reconcile their fondness for Mr. Bloomberg and for his agenda against their belief that term limits are generally a good idea and represent the will of the people.

Nearly three weeks ago, when the Quinnipiac poll asked city voters whether they supported extending term limits to allow Mr. Bloomberg to serve four more years, 54 percent said yes and 42 percent said no. That survey, on Oct. 3, was conducted before the mayor formally announced that he would ask to extend term limits.

Remember, More Democracy, Not Less . . .

. . . because the great thing about strongarming elected representatives is that they can then be voted out of office:

The term-limits battle heated up yesterday as opponents accused Mayor Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn of threatening undecided council members.

“I’ve heard from some council people that they have been pressured, they have been threatened. I am obviously very disturbed by that,” said city Comptroller Bill Thompson, who plans to run for mayor next year .

Councilmembers Bill de Blasio and Letitia James, both Brooklyn Democrats, leveled the same charges.

“People were being told if you do the wrong thing, there will be negative ramifications,” de Blasio said.

In A Bloomberg State Of Mind

Brenda and Eddie were still going steady in the summer of ’75 when they decided the marriage would be at the end of July everyone said they were crazy “Brenda, you know that you’re much too lazy And Eddie could never afford to live that kind of life” But there we were wavin’ Brenda and Eddie goodbye:

Michael R. Bloomberg, who says he strictly separates his philanthropy from his job as mayor of New York, is pressing many of the community, arts and neighborhood groups that rely on his private donations to make the case for his third term, according to interviews with those involved in the effort.

As opposition mounts to his plan to ease term limits, those people said, the mayor and his top aides have asked leaders of organizations that receive his largess to express their support for his third-term bid by testifying during public hearings and by personally appealing to undecided members of the City Council. Legislation that would allow him to run for another term is expected to come up for a Council vote as early as next week.

The requests have put the groups in an unusual and uncomfortable position, several employees of the groups said. City Hall has not made any explicit threats, they said, but city officials have extraordinary leverage over the groups’ finances. Many have received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Mr. Bloomberg’s philanthropic giving and millions of dollars from city contracts overseen by his staff.

An official at a social service group that receives tens of thousands of dollars from Mr. Bloomberg and has a contract with the city was startled to receive a call in the past few days from Linda I. Gibbs, the deputy mayor for health and human services. Ms. Gibbs asked whether the organization’s leaders would be willing to call wavering council members to argue for Mr. Bloomberg’s term limits legislation.

“It’s pretty hard to say no,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of upsetting the mayor. “They can take away a lot of resources.”

Now Paul is a real estate novelist who never had time for a wife and he’s talking with Davy who’s still in the Navy and probably will be for life and the waitress is practicing politics as the businessmen slowly get stoned yes, they’re sharing a drink they call loneliness but its better than drinking alone:

Several of New York City’s top political figures on Sunday denounced Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s administration in unusually harsh terms for asking nonprofit groups to support legislation that would allow Mr. Bloomberg to seek a third term in office.

Many of the organizations contacted by the administration rely on Mr. Bloomberg, a billionaire, for tens of thousands of dollars a year in private donations and millions in city contracts, making it difficult to turn down the request, these leaders said.

“It is an abuse of power, and it must stop,” said the city’s top financial watchdog, the New York City comptroller, William C. Thompson Jr., who may run for mayor next year.

Representative Anthony D. Weiner, another likely candidate for mayor, said that “if you rely on the mayor or the administration to fund your organization, saying no when the mayor calls is not an option.”

Mr. Bloomberg’s tactic, he said, “walks right up to the line of coercion, and it’s very corrosive.”

I’m gonna try for an uptown girl she’s been living in her white bread world as long as anyone with hot blood can and now shes looking for a downtown man that’s what I am:

On Sunday afternoon, 13 nattily-dressed union leaders representing thousands of New York City’s public and private workers shuffled out of City Hall and assembled before a bank of television cameras. The men — and they were all men — wanted to talk about term limits and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

Harry Nespoli, president of the Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association, was the first to speak. “What I am going to do is have each one come up to the microphone and turn around and give their name and have a short speech about why they are support extending term limits,” he said.

If the event lacked a spontaneous feel, it was because it was not at all spontaneous. The deputy mayor for operations, Edward Skyler, who helps negotiate labor contracts for the city, and Patrick Brennan, a political consult who has worked on Mr. Bloomberg’s mayoral campaigns, had called the union heads and asked them to show up. So they did, but without any of their rank-and-file workers, who are normally the backdrop for such events.

Fifteen minutes before the press conference, the men met had met with Mr. Skyler to talk about their speeches. The result was an hour-long recitation of the same four talking points — extending term limits from eight to 12 years, as Mr. Bloomberg wants, creates more choice for voters; the economy is in trouble; elections are the best form of term limits; Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is an accomplished leader; and, finally, that these speeches are not a political endorsement (though some certainly came close.)

. . .

At the end of the press conference, a reporter asked whether the support for changing term limits was at all motivated by self-interest, since many of the public unions have received healthy pay raises under the Bloomberg administration.

John J. McDonnell, President, Uniformed Fire Officers Association, replied that his union “has enjoyed good contracts” under Mr. Bloomberg, “but we have earned them.”

On “Tying The Two Together”

Well that explains it then:

“The public was against changing term limits,” he said, “but at the same time, they had this enormous confidence in the way the city was going. And I just couldn’t understand why the two were not tied together.”