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Bloomberg Spends $64 Million On Third Term Bid So Far
By
Jen Chung
Published Oct 3, 2009
Modified Oct 3, 2009
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By
Jen Chung
Published Oct 3, 2009
Modified Oct 3, 2009
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Mayor Bloomberg continued to shock the political world by revealing he has spent about $65 million on his mayoral campaign so far—three times what his challenger, Democrat City Comptroller Bill Thompson has. Hey, if you're going to be the richest New Yorker—and 8th richest American—you've got to spend it somehow right?
The NY Times offers some context: "To market Bounty paper towels last year, Procter & Gamble spent about $63 million. To advertise Yoplait Light yogurt, General Mills spent about $62 million." NY1 points out that at this time during the 2005 campaign (against Fernando Ferrer), he "only" spent $47 million.
NYPIRG's Gene Russianoff lamented to the TImes, "It badly distorts the city’s democracy to have one candidate spend his own money like a drunken sailor — or more accurately, like a million drunken sailors," but Bloomberg 2009 campaign spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker said, "We’re confident that Mike Bloomberg’s record of progress on job creation, crime and education will prevail over Bill Thompson’s record of failure. But we’re not taking anything for granted."
Thompson's reaction? "The only word that can be used for the amount of money that's being spent is 'obscene.'"
Tagged
bill thompson
campaign spending
election 2009
mayor bloomberg
money
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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