So much for Mayor Bloomberg's pledge of "staying out of the primary!"
The Bloomberg campaign couldn't help but predict low voter turnout today and the ultimate defeat for Democratic mayoral frontrunner Bill Thompson.
Mayor Mike's spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker sent a statement saying "Since 1973, no Democrat has ever become Mayor when overall Democratic turnout was less than 575,000 in the primary."
Some political analysts have predicted record low Democratic turnout in the city today. NBCNewYork has full coverage of the ongoing races.
"It's clear the Bloomberg campaign wants to keep their foot on Bill Thompson's throat," Democratic analyst Dan Gerstein tells NBCNewYork.com.
The Bloomberg campaign's prediction today seems to contradict the Mayor's promise yesterday that he would "stay out of the primary competitions." In fact, Bloomberg all but pretends there's no campaign underway, despite his massive spending and non stop campaign missives on Thompson's "failed record" and grim prospects.
Political insiders say when you're running a multimillion dollar campaign and you have a lot of really smart, aggressive staff and consultants it's tough to resist the urge to stay totally silent on one of the big milestone days of the campaign. Gerstein draws a baseball analogy: "It's sort of like a baseball team that even though they're leading 5-0 they're still taking the extra base whenever they can. They don't want to take any risk of letting another team back in the game."
Tonight, Bloomberg hosts an enormous "victory-style" bash at Pier 94, even though he's not on the ballot in any of today's contests. Bill Thompson tells NBCNewYork.com it proves Bloomberg views his campaign as "a serious challenge."
