Mayor Michael Bloomberg doesn't know who the GOP candidates for citywide election are, but he says they've got no chance at winning – an interesting comment from the guy who, ahem, is running for mayor on the Republican line.
"They have no chance whatsoever … whoever they are," the mayor said at a press conference today.
Suffice it to say, Bloomie's probably not making any new friends in the GOP. Last week he said he didn't even know the names of the Republicans running for citywide offices, reports the Daily News.
The New York GOP probably won't be happy about Bloomberg's latest comments, considering his name is at the top of their ballot in November. But perhaps the mayor may be deliberately saying things that annoy the GOP in order to court the city's Democratic voters, who outnumber Republicans by more than three to one.
Bloomberg made the comments today at a press conference on each city agency's annual performance data. Overall, the management report was glowing for Mayor Mike. There's less crime, fire deaths are at an all time low, police response times are solid and student performance show marked improvement.
The mayor's challenger in the general election, Bill Thompson, has accused Bloomberg of inflating student grades by making tests easier to pass. The former city comptroller has also attacked the mayor on his administration's assessment of crime stats, saying they're higher than the ones that Bloomberg puts forward.
"You can't get rid of a body," Bloomberg said in response to a question about Thompson disputing his numbers. "It's very hard … I can't tell you someone isn't screwing around with data in a school or a precinct. Of course they are."
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Overall, Bloomberg says the numbers don't lie.
Bloomberg also appears to be the fountain of youth. New Yorkers have been living longer since he took office, the report showed.
There were a few problem areas in the report, however. A record number of families are in homeless shelters and there's been an increasing number of repeat criminal offenders. Transmission of syphilis and AIDS is also on the rise.
