Bloomberg’s Campaign Ads Roll Out Over Next 10 Days

Mayor Bloomberg’s first re-election campaign ads hit the airwaves yesterday morning: $1 million worth of 30-second and 60-second spots aimed at defining the mayor in the next 10 days before his opponents have a chance to.“Estimados amigos,” Mr. Bloomberg begins in his Boston-accented Spanish. “Hace 4 anos, tuve el gran honor de ser elegido su alcalde.” (“Dear Friends, four years ago, I had the great honor of being elected your mayor,” the ad begins.) In the ad, the mayor says that if voters stick with him “the best is yet to come.”Mr. Bloomberg’s first spots, which focus on his record on crime and education, are airing a month earlier in this campaign than in the 2001 race.“This is less about the Hispanic vote than it is an inoculation against those who say he is aloof,” a political consultant who generally works with Democrats, Hank Sheinkopf, said. “Will he get some Hispanic votes? Sure. Will he get a majority? Probably not. But now no one can say that he doesn’t talk to all New Yorkers.”This week’s television spots also are also intended to add momentum to recent weeks of mostly good news for the mayor.A Quinnipiac University poll released last week showed him for the first time pulling ahead of the Democratic front-runner, Fernando Ferrer, who is the only Hispanic candidate for mayor.Among those lines, Bloomberg campaign officials are quick to say the mayor is the first candidate in the city or the state to launch ads in Spanish before airing English-language ones. The English spots begin airing today.“Usually a candidate secures his base, then targets the undecideds, but because Bloomberg has an infinite number of resources, the laws of the political universe don’t apply,” a Baruch College professor or political science, Douglas Muzzio, said. “This is clearly a direct shot at Ferrer.”In 2001, Mr. Bloomberg reported spending $74 million on his mayoral campaign. This year, he has already spent more than $10 million, and analysts expect he’ll spend as much as $100 million on this race.On Monday, Mr. Bloomberg defended his campaign spending.“I’m going to reach out to everybody in this city, and if it takes spending the money I’ve made to get that message out and to tell people why we’ve got to keep progress going forward in the city, I’m going to do that,” he said. “I can’t think of a better way to spend my money. I’m not spending it on myself.”Mr. Bloomberg also plans to get the message out by opening a campaign office in Staten Island next week to coordinate volunteers in a borough that was vital to his election in 2001. Mr. Bloomberg took 78% of the vote in the smallest borough as he beat the Democratic nominee, Mark Green.The Staten Island office will help the mayor gather the 7,500 Republicans’ petition signatures he’ll need citywide to get on the ballot in the September primary.

Bloomberg’s Campaign Ads Roll Out Over Next 10 Days

Bloomberg’s Campaign Ads Roll Out Over Next 10 Days

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