New York City – Mayor Bloomberg has already spent at least $18.6 million on his quest for a third term.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
The same city records show his Democratic rival, city Controller William Thompson, has spent about a tenth of that.
Bloomberg, the billionaire who tossed more than $80 million into each of his first two mayoral runs, could spend even more this time around.
The fact that Bloomberg’s not exactly going begging begs the question: If a guy can blow $100 million to get reelected mayor, who’d want to work for him for free?
Quite a few people – about 2,000 – it turns out, and the campaign claims it has already knocked on 240,000 city doors.
At Bloomberg’s storefront campaign outpost on Atlantic Ave. in Brooklyn, the walls are plastered with handmade signs.
There are computers and phones set up, and a paper affixed to a door says, “FULLLY OPERATIONAL BATHROOM,” with one of the L’s crossed out.
On a recent weekend, volunteers Cyndie Massillon, 20, of Flatbush and Jesus (Tony) Rodriguez, 34, of Sunset Park were armed with voter lists and sent out to ring bells in Brooklyn’s leafy Boerum Hill.
Bloomberg is a Democrat-turned-Republican who’s now independent. Massillon and Rodriguez are both Democrats who supported Barack Obama for President.
“I believe in the mayor’s nonpartisan style of governing,” said Massillon, a first-time mayoral voter who studies economics and French at NYU and lives in Flatbush.
“Obviously, he cannot be everywhere at once, so [he] needs people like me knocking on doors and engaging [voters] in conversation about the city’s future,” she said.
Much of the response is positive. Some voters say they back Bloomberg and others say they’re leaning toward him, although they didn’t care for the way he got the City Council to lift term-limit restrictions.
At least one unimpressed woman greeted the volunteers with an emphatic “EWWWW!” Another said he thought Bloomberg should be more polite to the press.
Another Bloomberg volunteer, Manhattan painting teacher Alexis Garfield, has been handing out flyers to people in Bryant Park.
Garfield cheerfully guesses that 85% say they support Bloomberg or at least take a flyer: “Only 15% of the people look [at me] like I’m creepy.”
But with all Bloomberg’s ad-buying power, why does she bother volunteering her time?
“We all thought the guy from ‘American Idol’ was going to win – and he didn’t. If more people had picked up the phone, he would’ve,” Garfield says.
Clearly outspent and possibly outvolunteered – at least at this early stage of the game – Team Thompson says it’s working at its own pace, looking to harness the excitement of Obama’s election and not giving up hope.
New York City – Taking a break during a recent stump through Queens, Thompson – whose campaign recently claimed 1,500 volunteers – was quick to bring up Bloomberg’s seemingly oxymoronic “paid volunteers” of campaigns past.
“People who are volunteering for me are talking about [how] they’d like to see change. … Some of them would like to see better economic situations, more fairness [in] government, affordable housing,” Thompson said.
“Some people are still angry or disappointe
how shameful a rich guy like that still needs people to work for him for free. these people are true suckers!