New York mayor Michael Bloomberg wants law changed so he can serve a third term

[ThoughtCriminal]

Original Article

The New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has announced he will seek to change the law so he can run for a third term in 2009.

"We may well be on the verge of a meltdown and it's up to us to rise to the occasion," Mr Bloomberg told a news conference.

"So should the city council vote to amend term limits, I plan to ask New Yorkers to look at my record of independent leadership and then decide if I have earned another term."

The mayor's supporters believe that the billionaire businessman has the best chance of leading the city out of its financial crisis.

Mr Bloomberg, who built a highly successful financial information empire, has suggested that he might remain in office for a third term even though New York City officials are currently limited to two four-year terms.

However, such a possibility appeared significantly more likely after Ronald Lauder, the heir to the Estee Lauder cosmetics empire, swung behind the idea of a Bloomberg third term.

Mr Lauder twice paid for ballot referendums limiting local officials to two terms, but he admitted he was persuaded by the need for Mr Bloomberg to remain in office while the US economy faced such severe problems.

He told the New York Post: "To me, Mayor Bloomberg's brilliance in the financial sector, particularly Wall Street, would be invaluable."

Mr Lauder, a former deputy assistant defence secretary and ambassador to Austria during the Reagan administration, spent $4 million paying for referendums in 1993 and 1996.

He said he was worried that New York could revert to the dark days in the 1970s when services were decimated and the city authorities came close to bankruptcy.

"I've lived through that, when we had to bring people in to protect the city," he said. "I don't want to see that happen again."

While Mr Bloomberg's stint as mayor, which is due to end next year, has generally proved popular with New Yorkers, a recent survey found that 56 per cent of them would not want him to serve a third term.

Before the announcement, a pro-Bloomberg roster of the rich and powerful asserted the mayor was uniquely qualified to guide the city through the economic hardship to come.

Thirty elite New Yorkers including David Rockefeller, former secretary of state Henry Kissinger and JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon published an open letter urging the city council to extend the term limits.

[soberbyker]

Years ago Frank Rizzo tried that in Philadelphia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Rizzo

.

[ReefBlue]

There didn't used to be term limits on the NYC Mayor (Koch served 4).

Dinkins got in and got the law passed. He served one term and was beat by Rudy who would have been able to run unopposed for a 3rd term.

Bloomberg won and now he wants to rewrite the rules.


BS.

[gf45acp]

Bloomberg is a true elitist POS.

[MEH]

Bloomberg is a true elitist POS.

Yup, I can't stand him.

[PocketProtector]

Bloomberg is a true elitist POS.

Correction: Bloomberg is a true elitist Narcissistic POS.