Mayor Bloomberg Quits the G.O.P. – The Caucus – Politics – New York Times Blog
Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced tonight that he is quitting the Republican party and changing his affiliation to independent.
The announcement came after Mr. Bloomberg gave a speech denouncing partisan gridlock in Washington, stirring renewed speculation that he is preparing to run as an independent or third-party candidate in 2008.
“I have filed papers with the New York City Board of Elections to change my status as a voter and register as unaffiliated with any political party,” he said in a statement issued while he was in California delivering political speeches.
Didn’t he already quit the Democratic Party to join the Republcans? 😳
Hope he’s enjoyed his 6 years as a member. Maybe next time, they should nominate Herman Badillo for mayor, and those schools can finally be fixed.
Good for him. Boith parties are FUBAR.
Yup. He left the incompetents for the outright crooks. And now he’s leaving the crooks.
Most New Yorkers I know admit to voting for him – and would, again. Which is why I imagine he’ll run as an Independent for whatever he does next.
Not a bad designation, nowadays.
Perhaps he should run with Ross Perot. The could call their party, The B Party… where “B” stands for Billionaire. Their slogan? “We feel your pain.”
And the clown car gets bigger.
#6, Wouldn’t that be a clown limo? 🙂
Wow, that’s wonderful news.
‘Republican plutocrat transforms self totally, becomes independent plutocrat.’ Campaign slogan: “At Least I’m Not Rudy.”
A man of the people, fo’ sho’.
Right now I only have fault with the Democrats because they refused to go to war with Bush to stop Bush War 2.
On the other hand I wonder what Gonzales would be up to with out the oversight. Also, the republican party (well anyone who thinks Bush is doing a good job) has clearly gone batshit insane. So in spite of their failings I am Happy (ier) with the Dems in charge for now.
I like Bloomberg. He runs the city well, he put his money where his mouth is by investing in the city, and I believe he genuinely cares. He’s a true New Yorker, and at least he earned his billions legitimately.
At least there is one (albeit unannounced) candidate who isn’t in denial about what Republicans or for that matter Democrats stand for. Good for him!!
Except he may be in denial about how American public views our political parties and how Washington politics works.
I for one will vote for the most qualified candidate and not the party. Of course, I do have the concern how he will be able to marshal political support from members of other parties (the not invented here syndrome) as a member of a small to no-existent party.
Judging by the comments above, there are allot of bandwagon politicos, here in DU.
I’d love to hear his plans for energy and climate change!! He might be the best candidate in the bunch by far. His plans for NYC are truly phenomenal. For anyone unaware of what he is at least trying very hard to accomplish, check out the information about PlaNYC.
Previously, my biggest complaints about him were that he bought the mayorship and aligned himself with the Republican Party. If he breaks the tie to the Republicans, my complaint about buying office will pale by comparison with complaints about lack of action on climate change from the leading contenders.
He would likely get my vote … unless maybe Gore tries again.
#4 – god,
I never thought I’d find myself agreeing with god but … yup. As a New Yorker, I concur.
#8 – pedro,
I can’t say anything about his national odds, but he’s got much better odds with the New York City crowd than El Duce.
#11 – smartalix,
Well said. Though, I confess, I haven’t checked too much on the details of his business practices. I suspect we’ll hear plenty if he runs. I’d bet they’re on par with the better billionaire crowd, i.e. moderately scummy, but within reason.
#12 – noname,
I too will vote for the most qualified. So far, that has gone back and forth mostly landing in Hillary’s court for me. I think Bloomberg will be better than the rest. I just want to hear his environmental plans.
#11, #13
It’s one thing to run a city, another to run a country. Do you know where he stands on international issues, such as the conflict in the Mid East?
I love it – he’ll pretend to be whatever you want him to be in order to get elected.
Says a lot about him.
#15 – malren,
What makes you say that? He hasn’t done so on any other issue to date. Though he has changed parties, he has not changed his stance on issues. Which is more important to you? Issues or labels?
#14 – I think as long as his mansion is clean, he doesn’t really give a shit about Abdel.
So we’ll have 3 New Yorkers running for President in 2008? Can Jack Kemp, Mario CUomo, and George Pataki join in?
As president he can’t ban smoking much more than it already is. However, he could also declare war on trans-fats.
#17
I believe he does:
But you’re probably right, he might not give a shit about some people.
Seriously, is anybody getting tired of all these sanctimonious, rich Fu**s who want to be in office or are? Isn’t there something drastically wrong with a political system that is peopled by nothing but millionaires and zillionaires. The vast majority of these sh**heads have no concept of what the average American life is like.
And now comes along everyones favorite queer billionaire mayor who set on buying the highest office in the land. How many hundreds of millions did he say he was willing to spend?
And dont get me started on the total amount of monies spent on getting someone in the Oval Offive, Its criminal. “Sigh” OK my rant is done. 🙁
Ooops one more thing. Nepotism, isnt anyone getting tired of that crap in our political system also.
What I’m tired/scared of is the pretty consistent track record of change to the system coming from candidates from outside the system. Not enough change sure, but the only change we get.
You know, presidents are elected to represent ALL of America–not their party, not what got them nominated. We really do need more “triangulation” a la Bill Clinton rather than the “Dictator for his term” a la BushCo.
Fun/alarming/sad to watch the pundits turn representational democracy into a smear word.
I think this means Al Gore is planning to run after all. Bloomie would have almost no shot at winning himself, but he’d be an ideal running mate for Al, even on a mixed Dem ticket. Or Gore might be planning to do an end run around the Dem primary fight by running as an independent himself. Either way, I think Mikey unshackeling himself from the Wing-Nuts early is step one. Gore’s profile after the Nobel announcement/possible win will determine whether there will be a step two. And how punched-out, financialy drained, and/or scandal-plagued the Clinton/Obama/Edwards trioca will be by the end of the year will determine the final step.
Good news.
I’d have to look it up but I think one commenter is right in that he was a Democrat before.
Regardless, policy-wise I think you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference between the two parties.
The Republicans lost because they failed at being Republicans. Their analysis of the situation: We need to be more like the Democrats! (they completely missed it and their based is floundering out there looking for anyone that will remotely represent them).
The Republicans, in addition to losing their base (and not getting it back anytime soon because they just don’t get it) will never get the majority of the Democrat vote simply because of marketing (and the Republicans do the same thing, too).
The stupid part of all of this is that your average Democrat out there, if they can get away from the ‘I’m a Democrat (only)’ notion, really do have a decent choice in their representatives between the Dems and the Reps (this is policy-wise). I don’t think most of them will recognize that and stick to ‘their brand’.
The conservatives out there really have no one representing them at this moment. No one is coming up that is really a good candidate for them except maybe Fred Thompson. Other that that, what we have out there is Dems and RINOs. Everyone else is too afraid to say what they actually believe for fear of name-calling (doesn’t sound like a leader to me – sounds like a coward).
#24 – Brad Bishop,
Yes. Bloomberg was a registered Democrat most of his life then switched to Republican to run for mayor. If you look at his record though, instead of what label he’s wearing this week, he’s doing an excellent job and genuinely is not taking either party line on the issues. He’s taking them one by one and deciding each on its merits. Interesting plan. I’d like to see more people do that. Actually, the Governator is doing that as well.
#14 – Jägermeister,
I tried to find out about his middle east policy and came up with nothing. I would say this though. He is taking a strong stand on energy and the environment here in New York. Imagine that he takes that plan national. As the largest oil importer in the world (hint US) dramatically reduces oil use, the middle east can, as one author put it, slip back into the political obscurity it so richly deserves. And, oh yeah, reducing oil use world wide to the point where it is of far less value will also cut funding of terrorism at the knees.
Yah
Here is the dream ticket. Blloomberg for President, and me for Vice president. With my charisma and Bloomy’s bucks we will be a shoo-in. Then its hydrogen powered Hummers, and solar power for everyone. By the way I look real good in black for all of those state funerals. Se trhe recent cover of Time for our upcoming campaign poster.
Why do you think his first stop after declaring himself unafiliated is Caulifornia to finalize the details?
Once we are elected we can start the process to amend the constitution about only native born U.S.citizerns allowed to become president. That is so unfair. Aren’t we all immigrants somewheare in our ancestry. If Bloomy kicks before the constituion is amended then my good friend Nancy get her shot and I stay Vice President.
Once Bloomy’s eight years are up then its my turn. By then everyone will have forgotten about “Jingle All the Way”
I’ll Be Back
A Bloomberg-Lieberman ticket would be cool. 🙂
#26 – Governator Wannabe,
That is so unfair. Aren’t we all immigrants somewhere in our ancestry?
Yes. We’re all African.
13,
Well, his recently-completed HQ building is a pretty elaborate demonstration in and of itself. The 54-story complex consists of a condominium tower on a 9-story base of offices, with an 8-story office/retail wing. It’s quite an impressive building.
As for his billions, Bloomberg Media operates in the spotlight almost by definition. If there were any shady dealings his competition would be all over it, doubly so because he’s the mayor.
He runs the city like he doesn’t need the job (which he doesn’t) and sticks to his principles, which precipitated the departure from both parties. He even rides the subway (and no amount of security can protect you from the experience itself).
I like this if it gives us a viable third party candidate. The two party system is killing our ability to even have a marginally competent government. When the two parties realize that they can lose vote to an alternative party then they will move off the partisan politics and maybe learn how to represent all people and not special interests…………… yea I know it’s a pipe dream.
What’s his rationale for running? The only reason people have to vote for him is that he’s independent and rich. Maybe if he ran on an anti-immigrant platform, or anti-war, or anti-affirmative action, or something else where the other parties candidates agree.