NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mayor Michael Bloomberg won the right to seek re-election as New York's City Council voted on Thursday to extend the two-term limit for elected officials as the city grapples with the global financial crisis.
Bloomberg, a former Wall Street trader and self-made billionaire who was elected in 2001 and in 2005, wants to run again on grounds that his financial experience will be valuable in guiding the city through lean fiscal times ahead.
The 51-member council voted 29-22 to approve the measure. About two-thirds of the council would have been forced out of office under the two-term limit, but they can now run for a third term in the November 2009 election.
Bloomberg welcomed the decision as the "the right choice."
"Those of us who work on both sides of City Hall must now move forward with the important decisions that face us, particularly finding ways to soften the fallout from the economic downturn and balancing our budget as revenues decline," Bloomberg said in a statement.
"We have a lot of work to do together to get New York through these tough times," said Bloomberg, a longtime Democrat who was elected mayor as a Republican but is now an independent.
In 1993 and 1996, New Yorkers voted to limit the mayor and other city officials to two four-year terms. A Quinnipiac University poll on Tuesday found 89 percent of voters say a referendum, not a council vote, should decide the issue.
Council Speaker Christine Quinn told the council that New Yorkers could express any disagreement with the council's decision at next year's election by not voting for Bloomberg or other members seeking a third term.
"In a time like this what you need is New Yorkers to have the opportunity to have consistent leadership," she said.
LEGAL CHALLENGE
A court challenge by two council members -- represented by Randy Mastro, who served as deputy mayor under Bloomberg's predecessor, Rudy Giuliani -- failed on Wednesday to stop the vote. Bloomberg and Quinn rejected holding a referendum on the issue and an amendment proposed on Thursday calling for a referendum was not passed by the council.
Ten New York taxpayers immediately sued the council, Bloomberg and individual council members in Manhattan federal court, saying their civil right to vote in a referendum on the issue was violated by the council's action on term limits.
Several council members also pledged to challenge the term limit extension in court.
Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner has pledged to run against Bloomberg in the 2009 election and said the term limit extension was "a sad day for New York's democracy."
"Everyone can see that this is a back-room, insider deal that takes away New Yorkers' right to vote. I don't believe it will be forgotten," Weiner told reporters after the vote.
Comptroller Bill Thompson, also a candidate for mayor in 2009, called the vote "an affront to New Yorkers."
"I am saddened that our mayor and majority of city council members have put individuals before principles. Today our government chose to empower itself rather than the people it serves," he said in a statement.
Giuliani sought to stay on as mayor when his second term was ending in 2001 after the September 11 attacks. But his proposal proved unpopular and he backed down.
Even if I lived in NYC and supported Bloomberg before, I don't think there is any way I would be able to support him or anyone else who directly benefits from this.
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A bad sign of things to come, perhaps. People seeking "strong" and steady leadership during a time of crisis. If history is any guide, this is just the first of many such examples.
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver
"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.
I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
Not if he gets beat. Even if he was going to win in a landslide (which wasn't certain) they'll be a significant backlash over the fact that the issue was decided by the council and not by referendum. That will hurt him in the race to come.
I believe this point was made elsewhere but I will repeat it here. Where not the two term limits set in place by the voters? And thus the Council has over-turned the will of the voters here by over-turning this term limit issue?
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Mr Bean wrote:I believe this point was made elsewhere but I will repeat it here. Where not the two term limits set in place by the voters? And thus the Council has over-turned the will of the voters here by over-turning this term limit issue?
On Olbermann last night there was talk of this maybe not even being legal considering they were put in place by voters.
We pissing our pants yet?
-Negan
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salm wrote:I think it would be best if term extensions could only be introduced for the next person in power. Never for oneself.
Still prone to abuse. Doesn't that sound like the sort of thing that a political puppet would be able to enact for the benefit of their keeper, a la Medvedev and Putin?
Mr Bean wrote:I believe this point was made elsewhere but I will repeat it here. Where not the two term limits set in place by the voters? And thus the Council has over-turned the will of the voters here by over-turning this term limit issue?
Bloomberg's done a very good job, without pissing everyone off like Guiliani did, but I really don't think this is gonna fly with the voters in the long run.
"I'm sorry, you seem to be under the mistaken impression that your inability to use the brain evolution granted you is any of my fucking concern."
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If the electorate had more common sense they wouldn't be constantly reelecting the same bunch of idiots who helped create messes in the first place (like the congresspeople who voted for financial deregulation), then term limits wouldn't even be an issue. Guess that would be expecting too much...
salm wrote:I think it would be best if term extensions could only be introduced for the next person in power. Never for oneself.
Still prone to abuse. Doesn't that sound like the sort of thing that a political puppet would be able to enact for the benefit of their keeper, a la Medvedev and Putin?
Yes, but it´s harder to abuse. And making it totally rigid is stupid, too. If, for some reason, it makes sense to change something and it´s absolutely impossible to do so you have a problem as well. You allways see this in discussions when people use the US constitution as absolute proof for something being right.
[quote="montypython"]If the electorate had more common sense they wouldn't be constantly reelecting the same bunch of idiots who helped create messes in the first place (like the congresspeople who voted for financial deregulation), then term limits wouldn't even be an issue. Guess that would be expecting too much...[/quote]
But Bloomberg has actually done a decent job up to this point, and was reasonably popular. If there was no term limit, he most likely would have won again, but this whole flap will hurt him. The point is, though, that he wasn't a terrible mayor by any stretch.
Mr Bean wrote:I believe this point was made elsewhere but I will repeat it here. Where not the two term limits set in place by the voters? And thus the Council has over-turned the will of the voters here by over-turning this term limit issue?
Yes, damn these activist councils!
Yes the council, who were themselves going to be forced out by the term-limits, voted to extend to themselves the right to keep their positions. Certianly it doesn't smack of backroom dealing for politicians to benefit themselves to the exclusion of the will of the populace.
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-Kingdom of Heaven
