What a clown. From the NY Times:
Asked what was racist about the campaign, Mr. Bloomberg said: “I mean he’s making an appeal using his family to gain support. I think it’s pretty obvious to anyone watching what he’s been doing.”
A spokesman for Mr. de Blasio had no immediate response to the mayor’s statements but said that Mr. de Blasio would address them at a public appearance in Brooklyn on Saturday afternoon.
Mr. Bloomberg added that he did not think that Mr. de Blasio was a racist. But he said, “It’s comparable to me pointing out that I’m Jewish in attracting the Jewish vote.”
Bloomberg's own electoral record is no paean to diversity. In 2009 - running against Bill Thompson, a gentleman from Brooklyn who happens to be African-American, he played a couple race cards. First he did nothing to distance himself from Rudy Giuliani's dog-whistling endorsement. And, perhaps fearing a tight race, he hired a "ballot security" specialist only to sue the consultant for fraud when the consultant did little or no work.
When endorsing Bloomberg in 2009 NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani claimed that electing Bloomberg's opponent could turn NYC into another Detroit:
"We all know that cities have gone through great boom times and then turned around and collapsed. Take a look at Detroit," he said. "It went from a great city with lots of good-paying jobs to a city that's basically holding on for dear life. All of our gains are always in danger of being turned around.
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Read more (from the NY Daily News).
And in that election Bloomberg funded a Republican consultant with a record as a vote suppressor. The Nation's blog story is here. Bloomberg's campaign they hired John Hagerty to ensure "ballot security". Bloomberg even attempted to hide the fee as a donation to the astroturf "Independence Party".
"Ballot security" operations have a long and sometimes tainted history. At best, they are designed to uncover potential fraud by challenging suspect voters. But, quite often, civil rights historians say, ballot security is a euphemism for voter suppression, particularly within minority and low-income populations. Tactics include in-your-face ID checks, aggressive challenges of voter registration and invasive demands for proof of residency or address.
Hopefully this will just put de Blasio over the top. Maybe Bloomberg just doesn't get that pictures of 'mixed-race' adults - like Barrack Obama - are as American as apple pie.
GOTV, NYC