Campaign Coaching

Last week, billionaire Michael Bloomberg won his campaign for a third term as the Mayor of New York City, but only by a surprisingly close margin. According to the report of his victory in the New York Times, "Published polls in the days leading up to the election suggested that the mayor would win by as many as 18 percentage points; four years ago, he cruised to re-election with a 20 percent margin." This time, however, his margin was only 5 percentage points. The Wall Street Journal's report of the outcome quoted Maurice Carroll, the director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, who said, "I'm not sure it weakens him, but it certainly makes him think a little bit."

The closer-than-expected finish was widely attributed to the unpopularity of Bloomberg's reversal of New York's term limits law to run for a third term. The New Yorker magazine's political columnist, Hendrik Hertzberg, wrote that "the muscling aside of term limits, whatever the law's merits, was a travesty."

To counter the public antipathy, Bloomberg spent an unprecedented $90 million of his own money on the campaign, but his efforts only made matters worse. His extravagant barrage of email, snail mail and television ads produced an angry backlash in the electorate of a city burdened by the economic downturn.

As Election Day approached, His Honor sensed the public's concerns and did quite a bit of thinking. According to another story in the New York Times, Bloomberg, who had had a reputation for being "blunt, dismissive and even crass," decided to alter his brusque presentation style.

In the next post, you'll read about the three significant changes Mayor Bloomberg made.