Bloomberg Aides Fret on Post-Election Bonuses
Should bonuses for campaign staff fall after Bloomberg's poor showing?
By DANIEL MACHT
Updated 8:17 AM EST, Sat, Nov 7, 2009
Bonus reform could hit Gracie Mansion.
Mayor Bloomberg's aides – conditioned to expect windfall bonuses for helping achieve bigger margins of victory on Bloomberg's last two reelection campaigns— worry their billionaire boss will only dole out lumps of coal for his meager third term win this go around.
“It’s crossed our minds,” one Bloomberg campaign aide told The New York Times. “How could it not?”
Last Tuesday, Bloomberg was projected to trounce Democratic rival Bill Thompson, according to polls.
Instead, the Republican/Independent lost Brooklyn and the Bronx, and squeaked by Thompson on a 2.4 percentage point margin.
The poor showing was a nearly three-quarters decline from his 2005 margin of victory, according to the Times.
“If they [campaign aides] knew it was going to be by the skin of their teeth, they deserve it for pulling off a victory,” Ken Sherrill, a professor of political science at Hunter College, tells the paper. “If all the public polls were right, they should get stiffed.”
Not so fast.
Bloomberg does hail from Wall Street, after all. Even if his camp were clueless about his vulnerabilities, that doesn’t mean the staffers won't still be handsomely compensated.
It wouldn’t be the first time a lavish cash bonus had nothing to do with performance.
First Published: Nov 7, 2009 7:40 AM EST
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