As classical music plays in the background, a man and woman dressed for a black tie cocktail party haughtily describe their life since Michael R. Bloomberg became mayor. “Can you believe Michael Bloomberg pulled off four more years?” the man asks. “That’s good for us,” the woman coos. “Since Michael’s been mayor, we’ve gotten four times richer, just like he has.”þþThe satirical scene is the centerpiece of a hard-hitting, $500,000 political attack on Mr. Bloomberg, to be unleashed on Wednesday by a union that has endorsed his Democratic rival, William C. Thompson Jr. þþThe advertising campaign, which will feature a Web site, a radio ad and a series of guerrilla-style political protests, represents a new front in the campaign to defeat Mr. Bloomberg.þþSo far, Mr. Thompson has relied on his own slim fund-raising to battle the mayor, who has outspent him by a rate of 16 to 1. But the new ads will be paid for by Local 1180 of the Communications Workers of America, which is acting independently of Mr. Thompson’s campaign. The union is exploiting that independence to employ a much harsher, mocking tone than Mr. Thompson has in his advertising, using unflattering close-up photos of the mayor and staging theatrical stunts. þþThe local’s budget for its campaign dwarfs the $325,000 that Mr. Thompson has spent on TV ads and mailings, but it is not clear what impact the attacks will have; Mr. Bloomberg has already spent about $65 million on his own campaign.þþOn Tuesday, the union will hire a stretch limousine to drive to City Hall, where union members will hand out fake $1 billion bills labeled “Bloomberg Bucks.” The mayor is featured on each bill — a king’s crown atop his head — beside a quotation in which he calls an early effort to change the city’s term limits “disgraceful.”þþThe radio ad mocks the mayor’s use of a helicopter to travel to a recent U2 concert in New Jersey. “He takes a helicopter to play golf,” says an incredulous narrator. Arthur Cheliotes, the president of Local 1180, said that the ads were intended to portray Mr. Bloomberg as an out-of-touch billionaire who raised taxes and fees on middle-class New Yorkers, squeezing them out of the city while the city’s elite skated by largely untouched. þþMr. Cheliotes said the union was especially angry with the mayor for proposing cuts to its health care benefits last year, something members considered to be a pay cut. “I don’t think he understands the struggles of my members, who are trying to survive in this city, trying to send their kids to school, trying to stay in their homes,” he said. þþLocal 1180 represents about 8,000 workers, most of them government employees in administrative roles. Mr. Cheliotes said the average annual salary of the members is about $45,000. þþA spokesman for the Bloomberg campaign, Howard Wolfson, said, “It’s not surprising that Bill Thompson’s special-interest friends are attempting to curry favor with him by attacking the mayor.”þþOne of the new ads, called “Ugly Side,” begins: “Michael Bloomberg just doesn’t get it. When New Yorkers wanted our fair share from the real estate boom, Michael Bloomberg let his friends keep the wealth.”þþThe campaign’s slogan is “NYC is not for sale,” a reference to the mayor’s campaign spending. The ads are the brainchild of the political consultant Scott Levenson of the Advance Group, who created a similar ad in 2003 for the same union, featuring rich people at a cocktail party. That commercial, also aimed at Mr. Bloomberg during a round of budget talks, suggested that New York’s wealthy could afford to pay more taxes to help minimize layoffs and service cuts. þþThe 2003 ad concluded, much as today’s does, that “in Mike Bloomberg’s New York, some people are just out of touch.”þþ
Source: NY Times
