By Ben Smith 5/31/04 12:00am

A Deputy Mayor Hits Culturati On Giff Giving

A top aide to Mayor Michael Bloomberg has accused arts executives who depend on city funding of political disloyalty because they gave money to one of the Mayor’s would-be opponents, City Council Speaker Gifford Miller, The Observer_ has learned.

According to three sources, Deputy Mayor Patricia Harris rebuked the arts and cultural executives in recent Read More

By Ben Smith 4/05/04 12:00am

Generation Giff Starts Planning Miller Mayoralty

From a perch 30 floors above City Hall, a small group of thirtysomethings is plotting to take over the city.

The chief of the Ferris Bueller brigade is City Council Speaker Gifford Miller, 34, who has quietly created what one staffer labeled a “war room” atop an office building across Broadway from City Hall. The Read More

By Greg Sargent 6/02/03 12:00am

Wily Cunnigham Hatches a Plot to Salvage Mike

As he seeks to resuscitate the political fortunes of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, William Cunningham, the Mayor’s communications director, has been thinking a lot about another of his bosses, Hugh Carey-whose political career was nearly destroyed by a fiscal crisis a generation ago.

Mr. Cunningham worked for the formerGovernor throughoutthe 1970′s,aperiod when dire economic times came Read More

By Greg Sargent 5/19/03 12:00am

Ferrer Blasts Mike’s Mettle In ’05 Prelude

Only a year ago, few New York Democrats would have relished the thought of challenging Michael Bloomberg in the 2005 Mayoral election.

Although he was elected by the slimmest margin in city history, Mr. Bloomberg seemed to have hit upon a winning formula, garnering extensive praise as a post-partisan Mayor who got the city’s Read More

By Terry Golway 4/14/03 12:00am

Mayor Won’t Gamble On Video Lotteries

In other news ….

If hard times and trying circumstances reveal character, then there is much to recommend Mayor Bloomberg in these days of fiscal peril. Faced with budget deficits and fiscal projections that have inspired memories of the city’s brush with bankruptcy in the 1970′s, the Mayor is resisting an easy, politically painless Read More

By Greg Sargent 12/23/02 12:00am

Mayor Mike Needs One Crisp Story

Michael Bloomberg is a Mayor in search of a narrative.

In the year that has passed since he took office, Mr. Bloomberg has managed, against very long odds, to gain direct control of the schools, ban smoking in bars and restaurants, unveil an ambitious plan to redevelop lower Manhattan and maintain the city’s reductionin crime. Read More