Rethinking term limits

Should New York let its mayor, Michael Bloomberg, seek a third term?

New York City’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, is “heeding the call to seek a third term,” said the New York Daily News in an editorial, and we say: “Go for it, Mike.” City voters approved a two-term limit in 1993 and 1996, but that was to “rid the City Council of slugs who hung around for decades.” They’re gone, and a city getting walloped by Wall Street’s crisis needs Bloomberg’s “extraordinary management skills” more than “arbitrary” term limits.

Even Bloomberg is against his own “blatant power grab,” said Dan Janison in Newsday. Or at least he was in 2005, when he said changing term-limit laws would be “an absolute disgrace.” The billionaire mayor who “crows he’s different from those typical politicians” is now "changing the limit to three terms—without a public vote." He's different, alright—most politicians can’t afford to buy changes to the city charter.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us