On the first official day of the general-election campaign for mayor, Democratic nominee Bill Thompson went right for Mayor Bloomberg’s political jugular yesterday, claiming voters “are not going to forget” he’s the one who changed the term-limits law.
Bloomberg shrugged off the attack, pointing out that he’s done nothing to deprive voters of choice and that three predecessors — Ed Koch, Robert Wagner and Fiorello La Guardia — served three terms.
“In every case, [voters] wanted those mayors to continue and that’s what democracy is about,” Bloomberg said.
Meanwhile, in the runoff race for public advocate, Mark Green lashed out at front-runner Bill de Blasio for accepting campaign contributions from individuals affiliated with nonprofit groups that received funds from de Blasio’s City Council allocations.
De Blasio fired back that Green — who finished a humiliating second in Tuesday’s four-way Democratic primary — was getting desperate and resorting to “divisive” tactics.
Before the dust-up with Thompson, Bloomberg visited Staten Island in a demonstration of the power an incumbent mayor can wield in a re-election campaign.
Bloomberg chose yesterday — a day after Thompson won the Democratic mayoral primary — to announce that Ironstate Development Co. had agreed to invest $150 million to construct waterfront apartments at the underutilized Homeport that would rent for as little as $1,200 for a one-bedroom.
Borough President Jim Molinaro, a Republican and longtime Bloomberg supporter, declared the project would be “one of the greatest enterprises on Staten Island in my lifetime.”
Thompson, meanwhile, won the endorsement of the firefighters union.
Bloomberg responded by releasing statistics, which normally come out later this month, showing that response times to fires are at a record low, which he claimed was more important than any endorsement.
Thompson charged that voter anger toward Bloomberg for extending term limits had been vented on four council members who were among those who approved the extension and went down to defeat in the primary.
“They’re angry about him breaking his word,” Thompson said of the mayor. “They’re not going to forget the person who led the charge.”
“In every case there was a local issue,” responded Bloomberg.
He suggested that while he intended to focus on the issues, he saw no problem in his campaign attacking Thompson, calling it part of a “spirited political process.”
“As someone once said to me, ‘Welcome to the NFL,’ ” said the mayor.