News that Mayor Bloomberg spent a staggering $7.5 million in his failed bid to outlaw party primaries invites reflection on his prospects in 2005. The enormous sum the mayor laid out from his personal resources is radically higher than the $2 million or so that had been estimated for his spending on charter reform, and he still got

nowhere. The figure lends weight to a notion that runs counter to received wisdom in town — namely that Mr. Bloomberg’s enormous outlays on the mayoral race had less to do with his victory in 2001 than on the policies he promised.

His victory in 2001 — and it was a famous one — was won on promises that he would refrain from raising taxes and operate a restrained government friendly to business development in the city. It may have been Giuliani-lite, but it was Giuliani. It was not a campaign that led New Yorkers to expect the largest tax increases in their history, a boom in spending in the face of a budget crisis, and a constant hectoring by the government of small businesses in town, combined with a mantra of derision that businesses will have to pay the burden because they don’t have the option of leaving.

Our guess is that when voters went to the polls in 2001, they also were animated by an admiration, which we share, for the mayor’s honesty and integrity. His enormous net worth made it unlikely that he was going to fall prey to the kind of corruption that often afflicts public officialdom. What voters discovered, however, was that although they were spared the burden of participating in the financing of the mayor’s campaign, they were, once the election was over, bereft of any equity in his policy-making process.

Mr. Bloomberg understood what he was doing. He parodied his own attitude in his skit at the annual Inner Circle banquet. At the end of a song-and-dance routine with the cast of “Man of La Mancha,” he rode off stage on a donkey, while he sang that he was going to do what he thought was right and if voters didn’t like it they could “kiss my ass.” The line was met with warm hilarity, though there were some groans at the sardonic nature of the jibe. We, for our part, are less interested in seeing the mayor do what he thinks is right than what he promised to do in the first place.

As the mayor nears the start of the next campaign for the mayoralty, he is fulfilling one promise. That’s the promise to take the reins of the New York City public school system and take responsibility for the results it produces. The mayor scored a stunning victory last year by winning ostensible control of the schools, even if the

price was hefty: a raise for teachers during a fiscal crunch. Now the mayor and his schools chancellor, trustbuster Joel Klein, have the entire city cheering for them in their campaign to secure the control they’ve won in theory. That is, in their campaign to negotiate a reasonable teachers contract.

As it stands, the teachers contract keeps the management of the schools out of the hands of the representatives of voters who want to be able to send their children to city public schools and not pay for private schools or flee to the suburbs. Mr. Bloomberg still has much time to make good on his promises regarding the schools — and to make good on his other promises.

On taxes, the mayor has indicated his willingness to scale back, if not repeal, the 18.5% property tax increase he pushed through a year ago. This would be a masterstroke, especially in the outer boroughs that have been hit the hardest and the sup port of which the mayor so desperately needs. Mr. Bloomberg could also cut taxes on businesses, recognizing that despite what he has said in the past, they do have the choice of leaving New York. As a recent report noted, the number of Fortune 500 firms in New York was down to 39 in 2002, from 42 in 1999, 77 in 1979, and 140 in 1955.

The mayor, as is often noted, is no politician. But he might want to start thinking like one. Looking at poll numbers as low as his, he must conclude that something has gone awry. We have little doubt the city would respond were he to start offering a compelling vision of a rejuvenated New York, a growth agenda for a New York less hamstrung by high taxes and ridiculous reams of regulations. It’s a vision he got across in 2001. In 2005, Mr. Bloomberg will not be able to compete in a contest of who will raise taxes the most and who will do the least to reduce the size of the city’s government. The Democratic candidate will win such a game, hands down, no matter how much the mayor is prepared to spend.