Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Paying a Mayor's Ransom

About $36 million a percentage point, right?

"Bloomberg campaign for mayor cost $109m" by Sara Kugler Frazier, Associated Press | July 16, 2010

NEW YORK — All the bills are paid in the most expensive self-financed bid for office in US history — New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s campaign for a third term — and they total $109.2 million.

The billionaire mayor, who outspent his Democratic opponent by more than 11 times....

And only won by three points.

Bloomberg, who founded the financial information company that bears his name, has a fortune estimated by Forbes magazine at $18 billion. He is ranked as the wealthiest person in New York City and the 23rd richest in the world.

He did not take donations or public money and was permitted to spend freely on his campaign.

Dave Levinthal at the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks money in politics, said the mayor’s spending total is “a remarkable number.’’

“This simply has not happened at any level of government,’’ he added.

Bloomberg’s reign at the top may be short-lived: In California, former eBay chief Meg Whitman has spent $90 million of her own money on her Republican campaign for governor and says she is willing to spend $150 million.

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Here is where $1 million went:

"GOP operative accused of stealing $1m" by Associated Press | June 15, 2010

NEW YORK — A Republican operative was indicted yesterday on charges that he exploited his political reputation to swindle $1.1 million from Mayor Michael Bloomberg, prosecutors said.

John Haggerty duped Bloomberg and his political advisers into giving the money to the state Independence Party to help with ballot security during the mayor’s campaign for a third term, said District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr.

Haggerty then laundered the money and used it for personal expenses in the months after the election, including the purchase of a house, Vance said....

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Related: Former NYC inspector sentenced for bribery

I love politics, don't you?