Michael Bloomberg

Michael Rubens "Mike" Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942), a Republican, is a prominent American businessman, the founder of Bloomberg L.P., and the current Mayor of the City of New York. Although a Republican in a largely socially liberal city, the Mayor has gained blocs of support from people of various political beliefs and causes.

Personal life and business career

Bloomberg was born in Boston, Massachusetts, at St. Elizabeth's Hospital, in a neighborhood known as Brighton, on February 14, 1942. He lived at 100 Brainerd Road, in the Boston neighborhood of Allston, until he was two years' old, when the family moved to Atherton Road, in Brookline, Massachusetts. When he was four, the Jewish-American family moved to Medford, Massachusetts, a Boston suburb. He lived there until after he graduated college. He is an Eagle Scout. He attended Johns Hopkins University, where he joined Phi Kappa Psi, and graduated in 1964 with a B.S. degree in electrical engineering. Later he received his MBA degree from Harvard Business School.

Bloomberg was a general partner at Salomon Brothers, where he headed equity trading, sales and, later, systems development. He made his fortune with his own company, Bloomberg L.P., selling financial information terminals to Wall Street firms; the company also began a radio network (the flagship station is 1130 WBBR-AM in New York City).

Bloomberg is among the world's richest people. He was ranked no. 34 by Forbes magazine in its list of 400 Richest Americans in September 2004. He was ranked no. 94 in the Forbes List of the 500 Richest People in the World in March 2005.

His daughters by former wife, British-born Susan Brown, are Georgina Bloomberg (who has been featured on Born Rich, a documentary film about the children of the extremely wealthy) and Emma Bloomberg. His younger sister, Marjorie Tiven, is Commissioner of the New York City Commission for the United Nations, Consular Corps and Protocol. His mother, Charlotte Bloomberg, is still alive, in her nineties, and reported to be in good health. His current girlfriend is state banking superintendent, Diana Taylor.

He has written an autobiography, Bloomberg by Bloomberg (1997, ISBN 0471155454).

Bloomberg does not reside in Gracie Mansion, the official mayor's mansion, but at his own home elsewhere on the Upper East Side (79th Street between Madison and Fifth avenues). He maintains his home address in the white pages and is known to ride the subway to City Hall every morning, even during periods of heightened terrorist alert against the subway system.

Philanthropy

Forbes and other sources report his net worth at US$5 billion, which, in addition to furthering his political career, has allowed him to engage in substantial philanthropy, including donating over US$200 million to Johns Hopkins University, where he served as the chairman of the board from 1996 to 2002. His charitable contributions were such that he was ranked seventh in the United States in philanthropy. This contrasts with general patterns of the very wealthy, who, as stated in 2 July New York Times article, are less generous than middle class persons.

2001 election

In 2001 the incumbent mayor, Rudy Giuliani, was prevented by term limits from running for re-election. Several well-known New York City politicians aspired to succeed him. Bloomberg, a lifelong member of the Democratic Party, decided to run for mayor as a member of the Republican Party, reportedly to avoid the crowded field in the Democratic primary.

Voting in the primary began on the morning of September 11. Later that day, however, because of the disruption caused by the attacks on the World Trade Center, the voting was canceled and the primary postponed. In the rescheduled primary, Bloomberg defeated Herman Badillo, a former Congressman, to become the Republican nominee. The Democratic primary did not produce a first-round winner. There was a runoff, in which the nomination went to New York City Public Advocate Mark J. Green.

In the general election, Bloomberg had Giuliani's endorsement. He also enjoyed a huge spending advantage. New York City's campaign finance law restricted the contributions a candidate could accept, but Bloomberg exercised his right to opt out of this law, though this also attracted some criticism. He spent some $73 million of his own money on his campaign, outspending Green by five to one. ^* One of the major themes of his campaign was that, with the city's economy suffering from the effects of the attacks, it needed a mayor with business experience.

In addition to being the Republican nominee, Bloomberg had the ballot line of the controversial Independence Party, in which "Social Therapy" leaders Fred Newman and Lenora Fulani exert strong influence. The latter proved to be important, as Bloomberg's votes on that line exceeded his margin of victory over Green. (Under New York's fusion rules, a candidate can run on more than one party's line and cumulate all the votes received on all lines. Green, the Democrat, also had the ballot line of the Working Families Party.) Bloomberg won by 50% to 48%. (See Election results for mayor of New York for complete totals.)

Bloomberg declined the mayor's salary, accepting remuneration of $1.00 annually. He is considered a liberal Republican, who is pro-choice, in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage and an advocate for stricter gun control laws.

Policies

Managerial style

In sharp contrast to the tight central control and preference for the appointment of political appointees favored by the previous Giuliani administration, Bloomberg has chosen to apply a statistical results-based approach to city management, appointing city commissioners based on expertise and only loosely overseeing their policies. In addition, breaking with 190 years of tradition, Bloomberg implemented a "bullpen" open office plan, seating dozens of aides and managerial staff in a large chamber, reminiscent of a Wall St. trading floor - this was designed to promote accountability and accessibility.

On January 30, 2006, Bloomberg fired Edward Greenwood IX, employed as an assistant in the city's lobbying office in Albany, after finding him playing solitaire on a computer in his office. "The workplace is not an appropriate place for games," Bloomberg said. "It's a place where you've got to do the job that you're getting paid for." ^* (See also: Austin M. Allran and ^*.)

Criticisms of Bloomberg

Bloomberg's controversies include:

Opting out of New York City's campaign finance law for the 2009 Mayoral election and outspending Democratic candidate Fernando Ferrer 10:1.
Opting out of New York City's campaign finance law for the 2005 Mayoral election and outspending Democratic candidate Mark J. Green 5:1.
Instituted a policy of harassment and zealous ticketing of innocent citizens on trumped up charges to raise money to cover the deficit, including ticketing a pregnant woman sitting on a milk crate.
Using a court maneuver to prevent his only Republican opponent, Tom Ognibene from running.
Opposition to gun rights.
Discriminates against people accused of "gun crimes" by creating a separate court and judges to "deal" with them.
Challenging a Manhattan judge's ruling that gay couples have the right to marry under the state's Constitution.
Banning smoking indoors.
Switching political parties in 2001 to avoid a crowded Democratic ticket.
Trying to strongarm NYC into hosting the 2012 Olympic Games and into building an unwanted West Side football stadium by spending taxpayer money to promote the two projects.
A bungled high-profile deal with the beverage giant Snapple.
Banning cell phones inside city schools.

Education

His mayoralty coincides with an increase in the mayor's authority over and accountability for the city's public schools. From 1968 through 2000, the schools were run by 25 local school boards who were elected, and overall management was the responsibility of a Board of Education composed by 7 members, two of which were appointed by the mayor. The local boards and Board of Education were abolished and replaced with a mayoral agency, the Department of Education. To head this department, he appointed Joel Klein as Chancellor, and based him out of the Tweed Courthouse near City Hall. During their time in office test scores rose and they have obtained a higher percentage of funding from the state budget. Bloomberg opposes social promotion, and favors after-school and summer school programs to help schoolchildren catch up rather than allowing them to advance to the next grade level unprepared. Despite often tense relations with teachers' unions, he avoided a teacher strike by concluding a contract negotiation in which teachers received an average raise of 15% in exchange for givebacks and productivity increases. ^*

Cell phones in classrooms

His mayoralty strengthened a cellphone ban in schools that had its roots dating to a 1988 school system ban on pagers. Administration representatives have noted that students are distracted in class by cellphones and use them inappropriately, such as sending and receiving text messages, taking photographs, surfing the Internet, and playing video games. This is consistent with bans on cellphones in Detroit and Philadelphia. Use of metal detectors, used in the course of enforcing detection of prohibited cellphones yielded 36 weapons, mainly knives and razor blades. ^*

Social policy

Bloomberg claims to support the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York. However, he appealed a decision finding the limiting of same-sex marriage unconstitutional. In his justification he said: "My personal opinion is that anybody should be allowed to marry anybody. I don't happen to think we should put restrictions on who you should marry.... What the city doesn't want to have happen is people getting a marriage license and then six months, or one year later, or two years later, finding out it's meaningless." ^* Bloomberg neglects to include the rights of polygamy, polyandry, polyamory, and the right to opt out of common-law marriage or cohabitate freely, while he claims his personal opinion is that "anybody should be allowed to marry anybody."

He supported extending the city's smoking ban to all commercial establishments, removing the last indoor public areas where one could smoke in the city: bars and nightclubs. The smoking ban took effect in March 2003 and is still being enforced as of 2006. Though it was predictably greeted with anger from some smokers, who claimed that businesses will lose revenue, there has been no data showing loss of income, and some businesses have reported increase in revenue. Other smokers used the opportunity to quit, and the city reported a spike in their free smoking-cessation program. In addition, Bloomberg's smoking ban is considered trend-setting, as across America and Europe and other regions of the world, smoking bans are now becoming standard.

Immigration

He is a supporter of immigration reform to secure the rights of illegal aliens, who comprise a large part of the population of New York City. He argues that deportation breaks up families and scares illegal aliens away from cooperating with law enforcement or accessing vital social services; as such, he supports proposals like those put forth by U.S. Senators Ted Kennedy and John McCain, which would normalize the status of otherwise law-abiding illegal aliens already present.

Illegal immigration

Bloomberg said in July 2006 that New York City's and the nation's economy depend upon illegal immigrants. There are an estimated half million illegal immigrants in New York City. He said that both would collapse with the deporting of illegal immigrants: "Although they broke the law by illegally crossing our borders ... our city's economy would be a shell of itself had they not, and it would collapse if they were deported," he said. "The same holds true for the nation." No army "can stop hundreds of thousands of people each year." Page provided the half million illegal immigrant figure. 11 July 2006, Clarence Page, Baltimore Sun; 5 July, 2006; K. Hefling, Associated Press; 5 July 2006, K. Hefling, Ottawa Recorder.

Crime and security

Under his term, the reduction of crime that started under Mayor David Dinkins (has continued ([http://www.nycvisit.com/content/index.cfm?pagePkey=1091). Bloomberg's approach to the issue has been more low-key than that of Giuliani, who was often criticized by advocates for the homeless and civil rights groups.

Since 2003, Bloomberg has become increasingly assertive in demanding that federal homeland security funds be distributed to municipalities based on risk and population rather than any other measure.

Gun Control

Bloomberg is a strong advocate of gun control and made it a major issue of his administration in his second inaugural address. Most of the beneficiaries of his donations to Congressional candidates have been opponents of gun control. Those incumbent Congressmen have had high ratings from interest groups (e.g., NRA, GOA) which oppose gun control "New York Times", 14 May 2006.

Bloomberg has stated on numerous occasions that "No one in New York City needs to have a handgun". Bloomberg said, "I don't know why people carry guns. Guns kill people..." Republic, 8/13/03, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/963687/posts. Gun rights activists and many human rights and civil rights leaders view his position as nothing more than establishment elitism.

2005 election

Bloomberg was re-elected mayor in November 2005 by a margin of 20%, the widest margin ever for a Republican mayor of New York (Bloomberg 58.5%, Fernando Ferrer 38.7%). ^*

Bloomberg had spent over $66 million on his campaign by late October 2005, and was projected to exceed the record of $74 million he spent on the previous election. He chose not to use public campaign funds and therefore his campaign was not subject to the restrictions imposed on candidates who accept such funding.

In late 2004 or early 2005, he gave the Independence Party $250,000 to fund a phone bank seeking to recruit volunteers for his re-election campaign. ^*

Former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer won the Democratic nomination to oppose Bloomberg in the general election; there was no opposition in the Republican primary, as Bloomberg's campaign successfully sued to keep Thomas Ognibene off of the ballot. Ognibene, who ultimately ran on the Conservative Party ticket, accuses Bloomberg of betraying Republican Party ideals.

Bloomberg was the most prominent Republican to oppose the successful confirmation of John Roberts as Chief Justice of the United States. ^* Though a Republican, Bloomberg is a staunch supporter of abortion rights and did not believe that Roberts was committed to maintaining Roe v. Wade.

Besides Republican support, Bloomberg had obtained the endorsements of several prominent Democrats: former Mayor Ed Koch (who in recent years has supported many Republicans, including George W. Bush), former governor Hugh Carey, former City Council Speaker Peter Vallone, his son, Councilman Peter Vallone, Jr., former Congressman Floyd Flake (who had previously endorsed Bloomberg in 2001), and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. ^*

Bloomberg's term as mayor ends on December 31, 2009. He is barred by term limits from running again. The election means that the Republicans have held onto the mayor's office for four consecutive elections, or 16 years. Bloomberg joins Rudy Giuliani and Fiorello LaGuardia as re-elected Republican mayors in this mostly Democratic city. (John Lindsay was also elected mayor of New York twice while a registered Republican; however, Lindsay did not receive the Republican Party nomination during his campaign for re-election, and he switched to the Democratic Party during his second term.)

One of Bloomberg's top aides, Kevin Sheekey, has indicated that Bloomberg is considering running for President in 2008 as an Independent or a Democrat.^*

Bloomberg has pledged his support to the LGBT community to support marriage equality.

Notes

External links

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