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Mayor Michael Bloomberg Changes Course on Term Limits Stance

By DNAinfo Staff on October 25, 2010 2:23pm

Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
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By Jill Colvin

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

CITY HALL — Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who pushed the City Council to give him a third term, plans to vote on Election Day to restore the two-term limit for city officials.

Bloomberg, speaking at a press conference in Brooklyn on Monday, said that he plans to vote "yes" on a ballot question that would restore the old limits. In 2008, the mayor pushed a bill through the City Council that allowed him to seek a third term.

"I'm voting to restore," he said.

He said that when term limits were changed, the public was told they would have another chance to weigh in. A Charter Revision Commission convened earlier this year recommended putting the term-limits question to voters on the Nov. 2 ballot.

"It's not the bill that I wanted," he said, "but it's better than what we have now."

At a press conference at City Hall on Monday, Ron Lauder, the founder of New Yorkers for Term Limits, revealed a cheeky new ad campaign to push for passage of the measure, which will appear on the back of November ballots.

"Politicians are so scared of bringing back term limits, they hid the question on the back of the ballot," the ad reads.

"Flip over the ballot! Flip off politicians."

Henry Stern, the former parks commissioner, said that the difference between two terms and three terms isn't nearly as significant as the fact that referendums were twice ignored.

"What we have here is rare in city government: a case that's built on moral outrage," he said. "The issue is that the people voted against it twice."

Michael Long, chairman of the New York State Conservative Party, predicts the old limit will be restored and that — this time — they'll stick.

"I think the wrath of the citizens prevents them from doing it again," he said. "Three strikes and you're out."

Others, however, are worried that voters won't be able to find the question, which appears on the back side of the ballot in small print.

"I think we need to alert the public," Charter Revision Commission member Anthony Perez Cassino said. "I'm very concerned that people won't turn over the ballot."