Nov 4, 2009 5:01 pm US/Eastern
Bloomberg Brushes Off Talk Of 'Narrow' Victory
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg celebrates his victory for a third term as mayor of New York City Novemember 3, 2009 at a hotel in New York.
STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images
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New York City's 2009 Mayoral Candidates, Michael Bloomberg (left) and William Thompson
CBS
He ran the most expensive self-financed political campaign in U.S. history, but now Mayor Michael Bloomberg is trying to portray his narrow victory for a controversial third term as part of a national trend against incumbents.
In many ways, the 2009 elections were like a season of the CBS hit reality show "Survivor."
The "tribe" has spoke, and Bloomberg was the only contestant not voted off the island. New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine was thrown out, and Westchester Executive Andy Spano was too.
The mayor apparently thinks the same factors that killed the Corzine and Spano campaigns led him to squeak by challenger Bill Thompson instead of crushing him.
"What you're really seeing here is a frustration with a difficult economy that's really hurt some people, not everybody, but it's hurt some," he said.
Bloomberg spent over $100 million of his own money on the race for a controversial third term, leading to charges he bought the election. But the mayor wanted to focus on the fact that his 51 to 46 win over Thompson was actually a very comfortable margin of just over 50,000 votes.
"We didn't win with just a plurality, we won with a majority. That's what Democracy is all about," he said.
Speaking of campaign costs, one unanswered question is if the mayor will follow tradition and give his campaign workers big bonuses. In 2001, he doled out $850,000 in bonuses; in 2005, he nearly doubled it to $1.5 million, more than his Democratic rival spent on his entire payroll.
Then-campaign manager and now Deputy Mayor Kevin Sheeky got a $400,000 bonus. Patricia Harris, now First-Deputy Mayor got $350,000.
Will the 2009 staffers be in line for similar rewards?
"I haven't even thought about that," Bloomberg said.
What the mayor did think about was getting out and thanking voters. Bright and early he was in Bensonhurst having coffee at the same deli he's gone to the day after his past two elections.
With the economy in such bad shape, the mayor may face a very difficult third term.
"I think anybody who's running the city of New York for the next four years is gonna be tough. I think any city in America is gonna be tough, and that's why you want somebody with the ability to manage," said Sen. Martin Golden (R-Brooklyn).
We won't know for some months the total cost of the mayor's 2009 election effort, but at the $100 million level, that would mean the mayor spent $179 for each vote he got.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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