Although Not Running, Bloomberg Is Big Winner in Midterm Elections

Mayor Bloomberg may not have been up for re-election but he’s had a very good week, as nearly all the candidates he backed swept into office.Of the seven congressional and gubernatorial candidates throughout the country that he threw his weight behind, six won their elections, leading some to wonder what Mr. Bloomberg stands to get in return for his support.“If I wanted to hire somebody as a handicapper to choose winners in prize fights or horseracing, I’d hire Bloomberg,” a Democratic campaign consultant, Norman Adler, said yesterday. “He has created relationships, and now the question is what does he want to do with them?”Bloomberg’s winners — Senator Lieberman, Rep. Christopher Shays, and Governor Rell of Connecticut; governors Schwarzenegger of California and Blagojevich of Illinois; and Senator-elect McCaskill of Missouri — could play an important role for Mr. Bloomberg on several fronts.For one, most of them are moderate centrists who could give Mr. Bloomberg the start of a national network of like-minded backers if he chooses to run as a third party candidate in 2008.The mayor has repeatedly denied aspirations to run for president, but the centrist movement he has boosted got a shot in the arm earlier this week when moderate Democrats from around the country won their races and yesterday when President Bush vowed to work with the new leadership. And, if Mr. Bloomberg changes his mind about running, as candidates have a tendency of doing, he could be in a position to overcome the historical odds and run as a credible independent.Yesterday, when asked whether Tuesday’s election results would clear the way for an independent candidate in 2008, Mr. Bloomberg said “party matters less” than progress on issues.“I think that the voters have clearly spoken,” he said. “They want a middle of the road administration.”He also said that with Democrats from the New York delegation now poised to take leadership roles in Congress, they would have a better “opportunity to bring home the bacon for New York City.”On the policy front, Mr. Bloomberg will undoubtedly have a good friend in Mr. Lieberman, who is in line to take over as chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee if the Democrats win the Senate. While Ms. McCaskill will be a freshman senator, she could partner with Mr. Bloomberg on supporting embryonic stem cell research — an issue that both have advocated for.The coalition the mayor backed in the mid-term elections adds to the network he’s created through his national gun control initiative.A political consultant, Joseph Mercurio, predicted the mayor would continue expanding his network on the national level and emerge as a leader in the state Republican Party, through which he helped to get GOP candidates elected to the state Senate. Mr. Mercurio said, however, that unless each major party puts up candidates with extremist political views, Mr. Bloomberg probably wouldn’t run.Mr. Bloomberg is not the only New York politician who won this week despite not running in an election. Mayor Giuliani stumped for Republican candidates all over the country, and he’ll likely get support from them if he runs for president. Although his candidates did not all win, he scored his own crucial political points for serving as a major party resource.

Although Not Running, Bloomberg Is Big Winner in Midterm Elections

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