Mayoral Race

Eighty-million dollars or more can win a mayoral race, apparently, but it can't beat the spread.

Flouting the law, sneering at democracy, bachelor-at-large Michele Bloomberlusconi triumphed yesterday in his flagrant third-time purchase of the top spot in the supposedly smartest city in the world.

BIll Thompson won the Dem nomination, but the real story was elsewhere. In City Council contests, voters delivered the broadest upset to incumbents in recent New York political history.

The mayor has praised Colin Powell as a man of ability, integrity and independence. It's been said before, and it will be said again, regardless of what Powell's record actually suggests.

Obama supporters -- about one million registered Democrats -- can vote in next Tuesday's local primary election, and only a tiny fraction of this number could swing the results.

The pressure on low-income families has only increased over the past eight years. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the median contract rent in New York increased from $706 in 2002 to $950 in 2008, an increase of 12 percent after inflation is figured in.

The Bloomberg camp can't blame anyone but itself for politicizing the dropout rate, since graduation statistics have figured prominently in all the Bloomberg ads and mailers to which voters have been subjected so far this year.