Bloomberg's Campaign Spending Hits $36 Million
NEW YORK (AP) -- New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has spent more than $36.6 million on his bid for a third term, blowing through $18 million in just two months -- a pace likely to shatter his record total in the last election.
The campaign released the billionaire's latest spending report Friday, ahead of a campaign finance filing deadline next week.
Bloomberg, who said last week that "you can't buy an election" because the public is "much too smart for that," spent $18 million from May 12 to July 11. More than $10 million in two months has gone toward advertising and literature, including television, direct mail and print ads.
The Republican-turned-independent mayor also paid his army of consultants more than $2 million in this filing period, for a total of more than $4 million on consulting this year. He has spent more than $1 million on wages for his day-to-day campaign staff, which now includes former Mayor Rudy Giuliani's cousin, who has the same name as his famous relative.
By this point in his last campaign four years ago, Bloomberg had spent far less -- $23 million. That year, his campaign launched several weeks earlier. He would go on to set a record with a total of $85 million to win re-election.
The law permits self-financed candidates to spend freely as long as they disclose their expenditures, according to the Campaign Finance Board's guidelines.
The two major Democratic candidates in the race, who depend on donations and matching funds, did not have their reports ready Friday, their campaigns said.
As of the May filing, City Comptroller William Thompson Jr. had spent $1.8 million and City Councilman Tony Avella had spent $116,000.
Thompson spokeswoman Anne Fenton said Friday that Bloomberg's millions "can't change the fact that he's ignored this city's working families."
Bloomberg, ranked by Forbes magazine as the world's 17th richest man with an estimated net worth of $16.5 billion, has repeatedly dismissed calls by opponents and others to limit his spending.
The mayor said at a campaign forum last week that he sees "no harm in going out and using that money to tell people about what we've accomplished and what we would do."
He added that there is no such thing as a fair playing field, noting that one candidate might have gone to a better school than another, or might be luckier "for the families they were born into."
Bloomberg made his own fortune after founding the financial information company that bears his name, Bloomberg LP.
Separately Friday, the city released Bloomberg's financial disclosure forms and heavily redacted tax returns.
Not much changed from the previous year, except the mayor did lose money in the stock market like most investors in 2008.
The forms do not specify amounts. Instead, letters "A'' through "G'' represent ranges, with the highest category at just $500,000 and above. For a billionaire who owns numerous homes, gives away hundreds of millions to charity each year and has a wide range of investments, the documents do not paint a detailed financial picture.
As for his stock market losses, the forms show Bloomberg lost several "G'' in 2008. That could be as little as $500,000 or hundreds of millions.
The papers also show some new income for the mayor -- he is receiving rent for horse facilities on a property he owns in Wellington, Fla. The rent was between $1,000 and $4,999.
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First Posted: 07-10-09 03:49 PM | Updated: 07-11-09 01:09 PM