This is, in part, in honor of Larry in NYC, who has been dogging my diaries about Bloomberg either nitpicking or keeping me honest, depending on your viewpoint. Some of what he says is, in my opinion, dead wrong. BUT, what he is trying to do is make sure I do my fact checking.
One debate we were having had to do with Bloomberg's support of the Republican party out of his own pocket. Now, Bloomberg has the right to donate to whoever he wants, BUT, I consider it telling that his donations go to people far more conservative than he is.
Doing a Lexis-Nexis search, I came up with the following:
Excerpts From: Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
The New York Times
October 5, 2005 Wednesday
Late Edition - Final
...when it comes to donating money to politicians, Mr. Bloomberg's Republican bona fides are as good as they get, judging from his campaign finance records. As mayor, he gave $250,000 to the same Republican party-building effort that Representative Tom DeLay is now charged with using to launder political money. Mr. Bloomberg has also doled out thousands of dollars to politicians who are far more conservative than he is.
Here is part of what I am talking about when I say that Bloomberg is beholden to the likes of Tom DeLay. Bloomberg is no raging fanatic like Bush. I never said he was and never would claim it. BUT, he is indeed rubbing shoulders with those raging fanatics and he is aiding and abeting their takeover of our nation.
Mr. Bloomberg's aides say the donations advance the interests of New York with the political party that controls Washington and federal funds for the city. Yet in the case of his $250,000 donation, in 2002, Mr. Bloomberg was also aiding a major goal of the party that had nothing to do with urban issues: bringing more Republicans to power in statehouses and legislatures. He made his donation when Republicans were considering selecting New York City for their 2004 convention, as they ultimately did.
So Bloomberg will claim he is trying to help the city. But how has his ass-kissing with Bush and DeLay helped NYC? We still get screwed year after year by Pataki and the Federal Republicans. They are happy to take our tax money, but what do they give us in return? Bloomberg's pandering to people far more right wing than him have aided their agenda without getting us more funds for the MTA (bet new rate hikes come soon after the election!), or more funds for our schools or all of the money that Bush promised us after 9/11.
So Bloomberg's pandering to the right is either ideological or it is political (assuming he has higher ambitions) or it is a miserably failed attempt to get the Republican party to pay attention to NYC.
Mr. Bloomberg also gave $140,000 to New York Republicans to elect more members to the State Assembly and Senate, and $25,000 to the Republican National Committee. Asked about Mr. Bloomberg's support for expanding Republican control in state capitals, Ed Skyler, a spokesman, said the goal was to enhance the mayor's influence with Republicans in positions to help the city.
''The mayor has cultivated relationships with people in order to advance New York City's agenda in Washington and Albany, and he has been willing to use his own money in that effort,'' Mr. Skyler said. Mr. Bloomberg has also written checks for $4,000 apiece to Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama and Representative Hal Rogers of Kentucky, who are both social conservatives on several issues on which the mayor disagrees, his aides say.
...
Mr. Bloomberg also donated $2,000 to President Bush in 2003 and, as has been widely reported, gave $5 million in cash to support the Republican National Convention here. He has given $4,000 to Senator John McCain of Arizona, who is a friend, and thousands more to congressional Republicans from New York. He has also given $5,000 to a political action committee tied to Rudolph W. Giuliani.
For state officials, Mr. Bloomberg held a fund-raiser for Mr. Pataki during his re-election campaign in 2002, and the costs qualified as an in-kind donation by Mr. Bloomberg totaling $12,596. He has also continued to support a few Democrats who hold office in New York, such as helping raise money for Assemblyman Michael N. Gianaris of Queens; his in-kind contributions to Mr. Gianaris totaled $4,345.10.
No matter how you slice it, we are talking helping the Republican agenda nationwide. And excusing Bloomberg's massive donations to the Republican Convention ignore the fact that this convention was nothing more than a vehicle to exploit the 9/11 attacks to further the Iraq war and the Republican Agenda. Giving $5 million to help Bush hold a massive PR campaign in NYC while using our own tax money to keep us off our own streets so that the Republicans won't have to see how much we hate them is in no way better than donating to DeLay's corrupt PAC or to individual Republican politicians.
I really find Bloomberg apologists are becoming tedious. Just because he isn't as stupid or as fanatical as Bush doesn't make him acceptable. He is a rich man's mayor and doesn't care much about the average New Yorker. By comparison I have walked with Freddy Ferrer through Manhattan and Brooklyn neighborhoods and seen him interact with regular folks. He is NOT a rich man's politician. He may not be the perfect Democrat, but there is no question that he is better than Bloomberg. Why would any Democrat favor a man who runs roughshod over the First Amendment rights of New Yorkers, threatens to use (misuse? ABUSE?) eminent domain if we don't yield our homes to Bloomberg's rich developer friends, and who donates to the Republican party on a regular basis?