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Posted on 01/15/2003 6:29:54 AM PST by jjm2111
Two Republican City Council members stalked out after the salad at a Gracie Mansion dinner with Mayor Bloomberg, deepening the rift between the mayor and the city GOP. The two Staten Islanders were piqued by the Republican mayor’s promise to support — in any way he could — Democrats who voted for an 18.5% property tax hike in November. Mr. Bloomberg called it a “courageous” vote, suggesting the three Republicans and three Democrats who dissented are cowards.
“I didn’t take to what the mayor was saying, and I decided it was time to go back to Staten Island,” Mr. Oddo said of the Monday night dinner. “When I invite folks over to my place, generally I try not to insult them.”
Mr. Bloomberg wasn’t specific about the kind of support he would offer, but council members said he has offered both his presence on the campaign trail and his substantial fundraising weight to members who bucked their constituents to support his initiatives.
It’s “only fair,” he told the group, which included most of the 51 members of the council.
Mr. Oddo and Mr. Lanza missed a super-sized, city-sponsored dinner of brisket on mashed potatoes, followed by big brownies with vanilla ice cream.
“I give the dinner four stars,” said Council Member David Yassky of Brooklyn. “It was the biggest brownie I’ve ever seen.”
The dinner debacle is the latest installment of a developing feud between the Republican mayor, a Democrat until 2001, and city Republicans. A $250,000 gift to the Republican National Committee and a pledge not to raise taxes bolstered his party support, but last November Mr. Bloomberg pushed through the tax increase anyway.
Mr. Bloomberg’s tax hike infuriated party conservatives and has turned him into a punching bag for conservative commentators; last week, for example, a National Review columnist labeled his mayoralty an “accelerating catastrophe.”
Despite the mayor’s success on some traditionally Republican fronts, like shutting down the Board of Education, keeping crime down, and keeping the welfare rolls falling, the property tax hike put Mr. Oddo and his colleagues into open revolt.
The Republican council members not only refused to vote for it, but also hung tea bags from their microphones during the vote in a reference to the revolutionary Boston Tea Party.
A spokesman for the mayor declined to comment on the details of the dinner.
But other attendees said that if the mayor hadn’t made his feelings clear enough in his speech, an after-dinner skit by a trio of Broadway actors brought the point home.
The actors played a “districting commission” that is redrawing the council district boundaries. One skit revolved around a projected map in which the districts of the members who opposed the tax increase — the Republicans Mr. Oddo, Mr. Lanza, and Dennis Gallagher, and Democrats Tony Avella, Allan Jennings, and James Davis — had been removed.
One of the dissenters, Mr. Davis, didn’t take the mayor’s words so hard.
“It was classy, it was gracious, he was a wonderful host,” Mr. Davis said. “He did make it clear that anyone who has been a friend of his, he would do all that was in his power to get them elected.”
The mayor’s words left members wondering whether they’d been promised campaign money, public support, or city programs for their districts.
Mr. Bloomberg endorsed Democrat Guillermo Linares in a failed State Senate bid. He has also offered to raise money for Democrats who support him on moves like raising taxes and banning smoking in all workplaces.
Mr. Avella said he wasn’t worried about the mayor’s wrath.
“If the mayor’s opposing me that’s probably a good thing. My popularity’s probably better than his,” he said.
The after-dinner skit included comic shots at most of the members of the council. Mr. Jennings saw his district re-drawn in the shape of a hand with a raised middle finger, a reference to his clash with council chief of staff Forrest Taylor.
The skit poked fun at the ambitions of Melinda Katz of Queens and Bill DeBlasio of Brooklyn, each of whom appears to be angling for the speakers’ seat after Gifford Miller vacates it in 2005.
Charles Barron of Brooklyn, who drew derision for inviting the isolated president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, for a visit, saw his district redrawn in the shape of the African country.
Most of the council members seemed to take the joshing in stride.
“They made fun of my Cuban heritage, which I found in good taste,” said “Senor” David Weprin of Queens.
But others suggested the mayor’s political inexperience may give him a tin ear.
“This was a social setting, this was not a political forum, and I was uncomfortable,” Mr. Oddo said.
Bloomberg switched parties out of political expedience. He cuts the fire and police departments while the city pays landlords $3000 a month to house homeless people in $500 a month apartments. He raises property taxes 18.5% when 40% of the city's budged is spent on social services.
The odious city councilman, Charles Barron (D-Brookyln), once said that he would like to slap White people for his mental health. Perhaps Barron could slap Bloomberg and do us all a favor.
Good for him and the other one who left. Not THAT'S courage.
Not=Now
I didn't realize he had been there long enough to have any real effect on these...
Many FReepers dislike Rudy for his pro-gay and pro-abortion stances. However, I'd take Rudy over Bloomberg any day of the week.
No kidding. If I were a Republican in New York, the last person I'd want endorsing me is Bloomberg.
Mashed potatoes are a side, not an underlayment. I'd walk out, too.
Democrats are dumb. Don't expect them to be logical. They never are.
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