Here’s something that didn’t get much notice: Michael Bloomberg attended a fund-raiser for Sara Gonzalez, a councilwoman from Brookln who voted to extend term-limits.
The event, which took place on April 27 in her district, is the latest personal gesture of support by Bloomberg for members of the City Council who voted for his term-limits extension last year. Bloomberg also threw a fund-raiser for James Sanders, and attended one for Peter Vallone Jr.
An aide said it was the organizer of the fund-raiser who invited the mayor, not Gonzalez herself. Bloomberg, according to this aide, was in the neighborhood filming a campaign commercial and decided to stop by.
Not surprisingly, David Galarza, who is challenging Gonzales, sees this as an opportunity. He emailed me to say, “Now we know what Sara Gonzalez got in return for her term limits extension vote. Mayor Bloomberg has turned City Hall into a 99 Cent store. Council Members are flying off the shelves and into his pockets.”
Gonzalez’s spokesman, Michael Schweinburg, told me, “She certainly didn’t do this because of Bloomberg.”
Gonzalez, it should be noted, is not term-limited this year, and would have been one of the most senior members of the Council if the extension was not passed. (There was talk, albeit by her aides, that she might run for speaker.)
