Mayor Bloomberg: Ego Over Law

Mayor Bloomberg got the NY City Council to extend term limits so he can stay in office. Forget whether or not term limits are good or bad, Bloomberg’s hypocrisy is reason enough to never vote for him again.

He was pro term limits when they benefited him (harder to run against an incumbent). Now that he’d had to leave his position of power he’s anti-term limits (well, for now – more on that in a moment).

He’s says it’s:

….to give the people of New York a fuller choice…

Really? In 1993 voters endorsed a tow-term limit. In 1996 the rejected a referendum (led by the city council) to extend the limit to three terms. So this time Mayor Bloomberg gave the people what they wanted by not bothering to ask them and ignoring the results the last time the were asked. As the NY Times City Room blog put it:

…a plan that was hatched with a handful of fellow billionaires and business moguls…

Who made the decision? Fifty one city council members, 35 of which were at the limit and can now run again.

Not all of the Mayor’s typical cronies supported the term limit extension so the Mayor bought the support of a key crony. There was one billionaire that that stuck to his principles until the Mayor was able to buy his support by agreeing to let the guy sit on a committee to examine term limits after the election and put the question to the voters (gee, maybe they were right the first two times). There are those who feel this guarantees the return of the two-term limit. Me, I see a fourth term. They are using the crutch that these aren’t ordinary times and the “crisis” demands Bloomberg remain.

So, New York City government is in the hands of the billionaires. Term limits when we don’t like the guy (or gal) and no term limits when one of us is in there. I guess just spending a lot of money in a campaign is too risky.

If the government requires manipulation to keep someone in (or out), whatever the reason, then it’s a failure. What happened may be legal, but New Yorkers should reclaim their city by voting against the current mayor, no matter who runs against him.

As for the people who support lifting the term limits now – it’s the height of hypocrisy then return term limits later.

Tags: bloomberg