There are few better days to release news you’d like to bury than the day after Thanksgiving. Mayor Bloomberg knows that and it explains why his campaign released data Friday showing that he spent $102 million of his own money to win a third term as New York’s mayor. The total is $17 million more than the record-breaking $85 million he spent in 2005, but it doesn’t include the typically robust bonuses he doles out to campaign workers. So it’s still growing!
Bill Thompson’s campaign hasn’t yet released the total it spent, but the number is expected to be in the neighborhood of $10 million. Supporters of campaign finance reform have already pounced on the Bloomberg numbers, calling them “beyond embarrassing.” Howard Wolfson, the mayor’s campaign spokesman, had a response that’s pretty hard to argue: “Losing is embarrassing.”
