Oct. 3: Three Is Not a Charm For Bloomberg

By Sylvia Gurinsky

Let's get this straight: In the middle of a bad economy he didn't directly cause, but has done nothing so far to fix for his city despite his financial history, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants the city council to amend the term limits law so he can run for a third term.

To quote the television cop Steve McGarrett, "Now that's what I call chutzpah."

The legislation will be introduced:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/03/nyregion/03bloomberg.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

For now, a majority of those polled by Quinnipiac University would support Bloomberg running for a third term:

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/03/poll-finds-most-support-3rd-term-for-bloomberg/?hp

But the devil may be in the details, and New Yorkers may change their minds once the nuts and bolts of the campaign start next year. For starters, many people are upset that the city council, and not New York citizens, are making this decision on whether to extend term limits not just for the mayor, but for many others, from two to three. They should be.

Bloomberg says he wants the third term to help steer New York out of the financial crisis, but what's he done so far? Does he have a magic bullet we haven't heard about? Evidently not, or he would have been in Washington at the budget negotiations, wouldn't he?

Yet another New York Times article indicates his motivations for wanting to run again:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/03/nyregion/03ego.html?ref=nyregion

Spare the people from political egos. Or at least let the people of New York City decide whether term limits should be extended before Bloomberg tries to stoke his ego.