$102 Million (And Counting*)

If “[i]t costs a lot of money to get a message out and I’m trying to show what we’ve done and tell people,” then he shouldn’t have to be shy about releasing those final numbers. So of course you do that on one of the slowest news dump days of the year — the Friday after Thanksgiving:

To eke out an election victory over the city’s low-key comptroller, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg spent $102 million of his own fortune — or about $174 per vote — according to data released Friday, making his bid for a third term the most expensive campaign in the city’s history.

. . .

Throughout the campaign, the mayor’s aides sought to project an air of inevitability, but data released on Friday revealed just how anxious they had become in the final weeks.

From Oct. 20 to Nov. 26, his campaign burned through $18.6 million, much of it on last-minute television and radio advertising.

The Daily News notes what $18.7 million can buy:

That outlay would cover first-semester tuition for about 8,000 students at Borough of Manhattan Community College (or for 319 freshmen at Bloomberg’s alma mater, Johns Hopkins).

The reports show visits to some upscale joints, but pizza and Dunkin’ Donuts fare were definitely Team Bloomberg staples.

The total paid to pizza places during that period was more than $17,000 — enough to pay a minimum-wage worker for 310 days or buy 5,556 gallons of milk.

. . .

The mayor “is one of the world’s leading philanthropists and is honored to have assisted organizations in need here [and] around the nation and the globe,” said spokesman Howard Wolfson.

Baruch College Prof. Doug Muzzio jokingly said that with all the money being thrown around, the City Council — which altered the term-limits law to let Bloomberg run a third time — “should pass legislation to force this guy to run every year. We could solve the recession,” he kidded.

*On account of the mayor still has to pay out bonuses to campaign staffers — since under Bloomberg, campaigns are treated like flush years at Goldman Sachs — in 2005, these totaled more than $1.5 million.

See also: Bloomberg For Mayor 2009.