City likes anybody but Mike

New York Daily News ^ | November 26, 2003 | DAVID SALTONSTALL

[sarcasm]

New York voters have decided who they want to be their next mayor - someone else.

In a stinging rebuke to Mayor Bloomberg, nearly two-thirds of city voters, or 62%, said in a new poll yesterday they would rather have almost anyone but Bloomberg in City Hall.

That includes two likely Democratic contenders, former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer and City Council Speaker Gifford Miller (D-Manhattan), both of whom would thump Bloomberg, a Republican, if the election were today, according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll.

Ferrer would crush the mayor, 51% to 33%, while Miller would edge him 41% to 33% in head-to-head matchups. Both men said yesterday they had yet to decide whether to run.

Even among Bloomberg's fellow Republicans, 47% said they would opt for "someone else" over Bloomberg, compared with 36% who would keep him.

The bad political news comes as Bloomberg's job approval rating, which had edged as high as 42% in October after a summer in the basement, dipped again to 37%.

"There's not much for Mayor Bloomberg to be thankful for this holiday season," said Quinnipiac pollster Maurice Carroll.

Bloomberg spokesman Ed Skyler responded, "We don't worry about polls taken two years before an election. The mayor is focused on his major goals: continuing to bring crime down, creating jobs, fixing the schools and building housing."

The mayor could still right his sinking ship, experts say - provided he starts working now on shoring up his support.

Bloomberg needs to trumpet his accomplishments - such as the city's continuing drop in crime, or balancing the city's budget without major service cuts - while challenging the notion that Ferrer, Miller or anyone else could do a better job.

"There hasn't really been a comparative argument yet between Bloomberg and these other guys, and that may change things," said consultant Hank Sheinkopf.

But if anyone's getting credit for the city's drop in crime, it's Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, whose approval rating is at 69% - by far the highest mark for any city official.

The billionaire mayor also needs to convince working-class voters he feels their pain - while making good on his pledge to try to cut property, income and sales taxes raised last year to balance the budget.

"He needs to recapture those folks who created his base the first time - Staten Islanders, people in Middle Village, Queens, in southwest Brooklyn," said Republican City Council Leader James Oddo, ticking off blue-collar areas where Bloomberg could make inroads.

He just shouldn't expect to eat Thanksgiving dinner there. The poll found nearly two-thirds of city voters, or 61%, would say thanks but no thanks to a holiday meal with Hizzoner.

"Well, that's good because I have plans with my family on Thursday," the mayor quipped, adding he doesn't have room to invite the one-third of respondents who would gladly break bread with him tomorrow.

[.45MAN]

You can't take a multimillionaire put him in office and think that he is going to care about anyone but himself.

[Age of Reason]

I think the real problem here is a guy who because he made a lot of money, thought he could do anything.

Thirsting for more attention than he was getting as a billionaire, he decided to get himself elected mayor.

Once elected, he expected to dazzle the world with his imaginary talents.

Well, that's how it looks to me.

History furnishes many examples, often of more minor characters, who because they did one thing right thought they could do anything better than the experts.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Another great NY Post cover photo, of this phony(he's no Republican):