New York Mayor Bloomberg on brink of landslide re-election

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg looks set to romp to re-election victory this week, cementing an unlikely marriage of convenience between the Republican billionaire and this traditionally Democratic city.

With polls giving Bloomberg a seemingly unassailable 2-1 lead over his Democratic challenger Fernando Ferrer, Tuesday's mayoral election has already taken on the air of a confirmation rather than a competition.

The most striking poll numbers are those showing that 57 percent of likely Democratic voters say they will cast their ballots for Bloomberg, compared with 38 percent for Ferrer.

Bloomberg's lead is all the more remarkable given that two years ago his approval rating stood at 24 percent, the lowest level since the New York Times began taking polls on mayoral performance in 1978.

At the time, the mayor was seen as aloof and dispassionate, and his recipe for handling the city's massive budget deficit -- lay-offs, tax increases and service cuts -- proved deeply unpopular in a city still emerging from the trauma of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Critics accused him of trying to run the city the way he ran the financial news and information empire that bears his name and made his fortune.

Since then, however, Bloomberg's technocratic pragmatism has proved an effective antidote to New York's post-September 11 malaise, with the deficit brought under control and tourists flocking back to the Big Apple.

School test scores have improved, crime levels have fallen, public hospitals have been revamped, racial tensions cooled and Bloomberg's approval rating has climbed above 60 percent.

It's a scenario in keeping with his inaugural speech promise that New York would "emerge from short-term pain to long-term gain."

His quest for re-election has been backed by endorsements from the city's major influence peddlers, including the New York Times which predicted that another four years of similar accomplishment could see him remembered "as one of the greatest mayors in New York history."

The one caveat to the Times's gushing testimonial regarded what the newspaper called the "obscene" sums that Bloomberg, drawing on his personal fortune, has spent on his two mayoral campaigns.

In 2001, he stumped up 75 million dollars, and in the current campaign he has already spent 64 million dollars -- of which at least 20 million dollars went on advertising.

The Ferrer campaign, by contrast, has an expenditure of seven million dollars.

"It would be tragic if Mr. Bloomberg were mainly remembered as the rich man who bought two elections, and paid far too much for the second one, when he has so many achievements," the Times said.

Others though see an ethical silver lining in Bloomberg's apparent profligacy.

If Bloomberg's millions have bought him virtually unlimited advertising time, they have also bought him financial freedom from the powerful interest groups who have traditionally dominated the city and to whom many previous mayors had become alarmingly beholden.

In an effort to soften his billionaire profile, Bloomberg accepts a salary of only one dollar a year, lives in his own apartment -- rather than the mayoral mansion -- and rides to work and back on the subway.

Despite such efforts, New Yorkers, who have traditionally elected mayors in the brash larger-than-life image of their city like Ed Koch and Rudy Giuliani, have never really taken to Bloomberg on a personal level.

His diminutive stature, stiff demeanour and nasal delivery have defied populist appeal, but he has undoubtedly earned respect for running a city that has often been considered ungovernable.

And although nominally a Republican, Bloomberg is actually a life-long Democrat who switched parties in what was widely seen as a calculated move to secure the mayoral post.

As a result his social views are generally more in line with New York's liberal traditions than the Republican mainstream.

Source: Associated Press