October 23, 2008, Rock Paper Billionaire
Notwithstanding overwhelming public opposition, my fair city of New York's City Council voted 29-22 in favor of amending a voter-referendum imposed law mandating term limits of two terms at the behest of the $20 billion man, Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who, at around 65 years old, decided that he couldn't do anything better with his time than, well... have a third term as mayor.
And so there you have it. The same voting public that overwhelmingly opposes the change in the term limits law will almost certainly vote Mayor Bloomberg into a third term, particularly as much of the likely competition for that office will stay away in droves rather than face a popular incumbent with virtually unlimited campaign spending ability.
Like Rudy Giuliani before him who went along with the term limits law, Mayor Mike had previously opposed changing the law... but now that the reality of the law affecting him came into play, well... he got religion.
Don't get me wrong: on net, Bloomberg has been an effective mayor here, and in some ways, the perfect is the enemy of the good. Somehow, it feels wrong that the will of the voters in a direct referendum can be trashed so easily. But then, the Council members anticipated that the voters would probably "punish" many of them by electing them to third terms (also part of the amendment!)
Good old democracy in action.
Comments
The real will of the voters is in the vote. I always thought that term limitations was a way of taking away our vote and since I do not live in NYC... what the heck!
Posted by candace gorman at October 24, 2008 3:33 PM
Well let me try again (first comment seemingly lost). I always thought that voting was the ultimate term limit and that "term limits" was a way of telling voters your vote does not count any more, pick someone else. so,speaking from someone outside of NYC... you want him, you have him....
Posted by candace gorman at October 24, 2008 3:48 PM
Candace, you, poor, misguided plutocrat. You argue against term limits, but fail to realize we do not have a pure democracy. The system's rigged at the top; Exhibit A being a billionaire changing the rules post-midstream. Aren't you upset that the rule change came about after 2 billionaires (the other Lauder) sat down to work things out? Even Rudy didn't have the power to do this (although he personally gained at least $100M within the 4 years after he was mayor). Bloomy's got the $$$$, he doesn't need the post-political consulting gig. He prefers to play statesman now.
Posted by Dan From Canada at October 24, 2008 7:01 PM