Bloomberg opens fi rst Brooklyn campaign offi ce
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
Former Mayor Michael
Bloomberg set up his fi rst
Brooklyn presidential campaign
offi ce in Boerum Hill
Monday, where his Kings
County staffers are accelerating
his long-shot campaign to
convince Brooklynites to vote
for their former mayor to lead
the country, according to the
head of the local fi eld operations.
“Most people are pretty
familiar with Bloomberg as
mayor, it’s just reactivating
them as registered Democrats
and focusing on people across
the political spectrum,” said
Andrew Holt.
The new fi eld offi ce on
535 Atlantic Ave., between
Third and Fourth avenues, is
one of a handful of outposts
Bloomberg’s campaign has
opened in recent weeks, including
in Manhattan, Long
Island, and Queens, where
staffers and volunteers have
started canvassing, phone
banking, and organizing.
Bloomberg’s campaign
plans to expand its efforts
throughout the borough in
the coming months, and they
are already canvassing as far
south as Bay Ridge, according
to Holt.
“Yes there will be more
Brooklyn offi ces,” he said.
“Defi nitely geographical diversity,
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covering a broad cross-section
across the borough.”
The offi ce will celebrate it’s
“offi cial opening” in the coming
weeks, according to New
York regional spokeswoman
for the Bloomberg campaign
Jennifer Blatus.
By the end of December,
Bloomberg, a multi-billionaire,
had poured more than
$200 million of his own money
into his campaign — far outspending
his competitors —
with $132 million going to
television advertising, $1.5
million for offi ce space, and
$700,000 for rental apartments
for campaign staff, January
fi lings reported in the Times
show.
And despite abstaining
from the Iowa Caucus and the
New Hampshire primary —
and the New York Democratic
primary not being until April
28 — Bloomberg’s massive
cash investment has paid off,
with a recent Quinnipiac poll
putting him at third place nationally,
behind Vermont Senator
Bernie Sanders and former
Vice President Joe Biden,
and Holt claimed that the businessman
will be able to beat
President Donald Trump in
the general election because
of his broad appeal to voters
across the political spectrum.
“Bloomberg hands down
is the best to beat Donald
Trump,” Holt said. “His track
record in New York City, I
think we’ll continue to remind
New Yorkers about it and educate
new voters.”
But one of Bloomberg’s
most controversial policies —
stop-and-frisk, which disproportionately
affected people of
color — came back to bite him
after a 2015 audio clip emerged
on social media where the former
mayor defended the policy,
saying most criminals
were young minority men.
“95% of your murders and
murderers and murder victims
fi t one M.O. You can just
take the description and Xerox
it and pass it out to all the
cops. They are male minorities
15 to 25,” said Bloomberg
in the clip posted on Twitter
by podcaster Benjamin Dixon
Monday.
Under stop-and-frisk, police
temporarily detained,
questioned, and searched civilians
on the street for weapons
and other illegal goods.
The policy overwhelmingly
affected young black and Latino
men, and Mayor Bill de
Blasio reduced the practice
after becoming mayor in 2014,
although stop-and-frisk incidents
spiked by 22 percent in
2019 — the highest number
since 2015, the Post reported.
Holt did not immediately
respond to a follow up about
the stop-and-frisk comments,
but Bloomberg’s campaign
press offi cer reached out with
a statement apologising for
the policy.
“I inherited the police practice
of stop-and-frisk, and as
part of our effort to stop gun
violence it was overused,” the
statement read. “By the time
I left offi ce, I cut it back by 95
percent, but I should’ve done it
faster and sooner. I regret that
and I have apologized.”
Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg opened his fi rst Brooklyn campaign
offi ce on Atlantic Avenue on Feb. 10. Photo by Kevin Duggan
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