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The Bloomberg factor

Ellis Henican

September 14, 2005

His name was nowhere on Tuesday's ballot. He isn't even officially a Democrat.

But was it any surprise that the snazziest election-night party -- fancy hotel ballroom, adjoining pump-it-out phone bank -- was the one hosted by Mike Bloomberg?

Of course not.

He could certainly afford the catering bill. And the first round of the Democratic campaign for mayor of New York was almost entirely about him.

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Was Bloomberg too Republican?

Was Bloomberg too rich?

Was Bloomberg too stingy on affordable housing, too meek on school reform, too soft on violent crime?

"Yes," "yes," "yes," and "yes," roared Freddie Ferrer, Anthony Weiner, Gifford Miller and Virginia Fields, hoping that someone -- anyone! -- would pay attention, even briefly, before Election Day.

In the end, a few people did. On a tiny voter turnout, they put Ferrer and Weiner at the front of the pack, leaving open the question which one of them gets to be steamrolled by Bloomberg in November.

This is what passes for excitement in mayoral politics this year.

It was hard, in the final days of the Democratic primary campaign, not to see the race as an empty exercise. None of the four candidates created much enthusiasm. Weiner's surge to second place was about as riveting as it got.

Other, bigger news -- Hurricane Katrina, most prominently -- kept drowning out the campaign. And Bloomberg has such a massive set of advantages looking ahead to November, something truly wild would have to happen for him to be dislodged.

A bottomless pit of money. Poll numbers in the stratosphere. Union endorsements that almost always go to Democrats.

Nothing in politics is ever certain, but his re-election is about as certain as New York politics gets.

And even many of the Democrats who made it to the polls Tuesday made clear that they were only lending -- not giving -- their support.

"Of course I voted," said Mildred Pelton of Rego Park. "I always vote. I voted for Tony Weiner."

And what will she do when Bloomberg's name finally reaches the ballot? "That's different," she said. "I'm voting for him."

As she spoke in the lobby of the Rego Park Jewish Center, half-a-dozen other ladies nodded their assent.

"It's not just her," Lorraine Rubin of Forest Hills made clear. "Many are sticking with the mayor."

Now this was not the perfect cross-section of New York voters. It was the Queens Chapter of Holocaust Survivors. The mayor had just spoken to the group.

His speech wasn't exactly rousing. His speeches rarely are. But Bloomberg got a standing ovation coming and going, and he obviously charmed the 250 seniors in the room. He flirted shamelessly with Hanka Hirshaut, the group's 87-year-old president, who had joined him on a recent trip to Israel.

"I don't want to start spreading stories," he said. "But you and I did spend a lot of time together."

That went over big.

When he finally came outside, he lingered for a moment on the Queens Boulevard sidewalk, squinting into the Rego Park sun. He had the nonchalance you might expect of a man with a fortune in the bank and a double-digit lead in the polls.

"I'm running," he said in what turned out to be his final one-on-one interview of the four-way Democratic campaign. "But I'm not running against somebody. I am running on a record that I would like to have people say, 'I want that to continue.' " What a difference four years can make.

"When I ran the first time, there were two candidates, neither of whom had been in office," he said. "They both made promises. I was lucky enough to get elected. Now the public can look at me and see whether I delivered on the promises, whether what I said I'd do turned out to be good. Did I make tough decisions? Did I make the right decisions? I think so."

And which of the four Dems was he secretly pulling for Tuesday night?

"I didn't have any say in it," Bloomberg said. "You can role-play if you want to. I don't think it matters. I don't think the election will be about my opponent. The election this time will be about my record -- and whether people like it or not. You like the record? Fine. And if you don't -- you know, democracy gives you an opportunity to change."

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The Bloomberg factor

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