New York City – Testy Mike’s Questionable Behavior

New York City – Mayor Bloomberg is spending millions of dollars to win a third term, and he appears to believe that buys him the right to campaign without answering questions about it.

The latest incident came this week when the 67-year-old billionaire was so irritated by a question that he glared at the reporter who asked it and said, “You’re a disgrace,” as he left the podium.

Days earlier, his security detail tussled with a TV reporter who chased after the mayor at a campaign event where he’d walked away without taking questions.

Bloomberg holds regular media “availabilities” if he has a scheduled announcement. He takes questions on a range of topics but is known to bristle when anyone asks about the campaign.

The mayor, a Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-independent, is running for a third four-year term. He occasionally fields questions at campaign events, but often leaves without saying anything beyond his prepared remarks.

Campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson noted that the mayor has held more than two dozen news conferences in the past month, answering hundreds of questions about important city issues, reflecting his “focus on governing and running the city.”

The campaign-related question that raised his hackles came after Bloomberg, who founded the multibillion-dollar financial-information company that bears his name, had been discussing signs that the economy was doing better.

New York Observer reporter Azi Paybarah asked whether the improving economy undermines Bloomberg’s rationale for changing a term-limits law last fall.

The law had limited officeholders to two consecutive terms, but Bloomberg wanted it changed so he could run again, arguing that his financial experience was crucial to getting the city through the economic meltdown. The fiscal crisis was near its worst point when the debate over term limits took place in October.

“If you have a serious question about the economy I’d be happy to answer it,” Bloomberg snapped at Paybarah. After concluding the event, the mayor called Paybarah a “disgrace” as he walked away. He later apologized through his spokesman when stories began to circulate.

The mayor is also easily rattled by reporters, even when they’re not asking questions about his third-term bid.

Last month he halted a news conference for more than 90 seconds to single out a disabled blogger whose tape recorder accidentally began playing out loud. The blogger wears hearing aids and uses a wheelchair, and could not hear the recorder or reach it at first.

Bloomberg’s typical response to election-related questions is more restrained than his “disgrace” retort this week. He usually tells reporters to “ask the campaign.” For a long time, he would say that, but also deny there even was a campaign.

Like in February, when a reporter asked whether he would consider capping his spending to level the playing field for his opponents, who rely on donations and public-matching dollars. After dismissing the idea as “one of the most ridiculous things” he’d ever heard, Bloomberg told the reporter to “talk to the campaign.”

“But you’re the candidate,” the reporter said.

“Yeah, I am. You have to talk to the campaign. We’re not talking about the campaign. There is no campaign at the moment,” he said. But his team of high-powered, well-paid consultants had already moved into its Midtown headquarters.

Bloomberg has spent more than $2 million on consultants so far and more than $8 million on advertising, for a total of more than $18 million in 2009. When asked this week whether he would commit to debating his opponents this year, he again told the reporter to “talk to the campaign.”

Another reporter asked why he always responds that way. Isn’t the decision ultimately yours, she asked.

The mayor answered that he has a team of paid consultants and isn’t “smart enough” to make decisions without checking with them.