In the past, Mayor Bloomberg has waged war against the city’s political culture. After being registered as, alternately, both a Democrat and Republican, Bloomberg gave up all party affiliations in 2007. He even backed an initiative to eliminate party primaries in 2003. So now it’s pretty much awkward for everyone that he’s returning to the parties he’s spurned, hat in hand, and asking for help. According to the Times, he’s sent emissaries to the Independence, Working Families, and Republican Parties to try to get his name on their section of the ballot. If not, he’ll be banished to “election Siberia,” a place on the far right of the giant city ballots normally saved for the Marijuana Reform Party. Republicans are mad that he abandoned them last year and are eager for him to apologize. Independent Party leaders dislike him because he stuck his head into some internal party squabbling — and ended up backing the losing side. The Working Families Party is just angry because he wants a third term in the first place.
So what’s the solution? Big donations to party coffers to soothe bruised egos, of course. If only Bloomberg had billions and billions of dollars at his disposal …
