All Over Except the Voting For Bloomberg, Thompson

WILLIAM C. THOMPSON JR.: Hoping to spring an upset. As this newspaper appeared on the stands Nov. 3, uncertainty about voter turnout that day left the outcome of the race for Mayor very much in doubt despite polls showing Mayor Bloomberg holding a commanding lead and his record-breaking campaign spending figuring to blunt any late surge by City Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr.

The Comptroller insisted he was steadily closing the gap, citing internal polls that he claimed showed as of Oct. 29 that he was within three points of Mr. Bloomberg among likely voters. Independent pollsters, however, showed the Mayor holding leads of between nine and 18 points.

Can WFP Be Difference Maker?

Both campaigns were counting heavily on get-out-the-vote operations. Mr. Bloomberg’s heavy spending on volunteers to ensure that those supporting him got to the polls figured to be tested by Thompson campaign efforts that relied heavily on the Working Families Party, which was a key factor in the Democratic primary victories of several challengers to City Council incumbents and the runoff wins of City Councilmen Bill de Blasio and John C. Liu for Public Advocate and Comptroller. Both those men are expected to easily gain office against underfunded, underpublicized Republican opponents.

STAKING HIS CLAIM ON EDUCATION: Mayor Bloomberg, who during his first campaign for office vowed to make improving the public schools his top priority, claimed they have turned the corner during his final debate with challenger William C. Thompson Jr. He cited a 20-percent increase in the number of students passing statewide reading and math exams and said, ‘The test scores are reflective of what’s really happening in the classroom.’ Public-employee unions are split in the mayoral contest, and the largest and most-powerful of them, the United Federation of Teachers, is neutral. Negotiations on a contract to replace the one that expired Oct. 31 are believed to be a factor in the UFT’s stance under new President Michael Mulgrew.

Mr. Thompson has the backing of the next-largest municipal union, District Council 37, as well as that of Transport Workers Union Local 100, the Uniformed Firefighters Association, the Correction Officers Benevolent Association and the Professional Staff Congress, which after wrestling with the issue became the only city educators’ union to endorse him last week. Communications Workers of America Local 1180 has gone beyond the normal efforts to turn out members for a chosen candidate by launching a $500,000 TV ad campaign attacking Mr. Bloomberg and his policies.

The Mayor has the support of all five of the city’s police unions, Teamsters Local 237, and the Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association. He also has a big edge in backing from private sector unions, particularly in the construction trades, whose members have benefited from his pro-development policies.

Not the Life of His Party

Mr. Thompson has received less support from leading Democrats than usual, getting a tepid endorsement from President Obama—who has several times praised Mr. Bloomberg— and not much help from Governor Paterson. The man who has emerged as perhaps the most popular Democrat in the state and the preferred choice of party leaders including Mr. Obama for Governor next year, Andrew Cuomo, endorsed Mr. Thompson while making several campaign stops with him last Thursday.

Mr. Bloomberg has generally gotten high marks for his stewardship of the city over the past eight years, but the manner in which he gained the right to seek a third term—persuading the City Council to amend the Term Limits Law rather than putting the matter before the voters who enacted it in 1993 and reaffirmed it three years later—has stirred anger that left him vulnerable.

Rival’s Change of Emphasis

Mr. Thompson, who had joined a suit that unsuccessfully tried to have the amendment ruled unconstitutional, told reporters after the court decision that he didn’t expect the issue would play a major role in his campaign, but over the past few weeks he has repeatedly assailed Mr. Bloomberg for “a complete and utter disregard for the democratic process” as part of his effort to make up ground.

Charging that the Mayor’s policies and increasing city taxes and fees were making the city “unaffordable” for many long-time residents, the Comptroller said during their Oct. 27 debate, “I think this city is going in the wrong direction.”

Mr. Bloomberg countered by saying, “My opponent has proposed something like $5 billion in additional spending” that he claimed could only be covered by imposing “job-killing taxes.” Referring to Mr. Thompson’s statement last year that any tax hike should be across the board and his since-revised position that he would target the wealthiest New Yorkers, the Mayor said, “I can’t keep straight who he’s going to tax, but he’s going to tax somebody.”

Eyes Reduced Contracting-Out

The Comptroller retorted, “I may be talking about a ‘millionaire’s tax’ because they have broader shoulders in tough times.” He also said that before considering any tax hikes he would “start looking first at the $9 billion in services that are contracted,” an issue that has been championed by DC 37 as it tries to stave off layoffs of hundreds of its members in the city social services and school systems.

He also said that if elected he would seek greater civilianization in the Police Department, consistent with an arbitrator’s 2005 order that Mr. Bloomberg and his Police Commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, have done little to implement. That would both save money, because civilians’ pay and benefits are considerably less costly than those for uniformed officers now holding up to 3,500 jobs the arbitrator said could be civilianized, and “put additional police out on the street,” Mr. Thompson said during the WABC-TV debate.

Mayor: Can’t Cut ‘Essentials’

Mr. Bloomberg, who six years ago pushed through an unpopular 18-percent property tax hike rather than order massive cuts in city agencies to deal with a budget deficit, made clear he has no reason to rethink his position. “We cannot cut essential services,” he said. “That’s the mistake that was made in the ’70s” when Teachers, cops, firefighters and sanitation workers were among the more-than 50,000 city workers who were laid off. “We’ve protected the services that we have to protect.”

The two men clashed repeatedly about their records on education. Mr. Bloomberg claimed the school system had been stagnant during the five years beginning in 1996 when Mr. Thompson was President of the Board of Education; the Comptroller rebutted him by citing gains in reading scores during the latter part of his tenure and said that if he had $20 billion available to spend on education, as the Mayor has had, he would have produced greater improvements than the schools have shown over the past eight years.

Mr. Bloomberg said that there has been a 20-percent increase in students passing the statewide math and reading exams during his tenure, and

violence is down 45 percent and there is decorum in the classroom. The test scores are reflective of what’s really happening in the classroom.”

His rival disagreed, saying, “They’re being taught to memorize things. They’re not being taught critical thinking and comprehension.”

While the Comptroller repeated his charge that the incumbent was “out of touch” with most New Yorkers’ and their needs, Mr. Bloomberg countered,

It’s very easy to say, ‘I feel your pain.’ That’s not what they need.”

When Mr. Thompson was pressed by one questioner about why he intended to replace Mr. Kelly as Police Commissioner given his success in continuing to reduce crime even as the size of the uniformed force has shrunk by about 5,000 officers, he insisted that the credit for that feat belongs “to the working men and women of the Police Department.”