NY mayor seeks to warm up cold image at event with women voters, is praised by Whoopi Goldberg

NYC mayor seeks to soften image at women’s event

NEW YORK — Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who’s sometimes perceived as cold and unfriendly, sought to warm up his image at an event with women voters on Monday.

Bloomberg, a divorced billionaire who has two grown daughters, sat on a stage bathed in purple light next to a bouquet of flowers and took questions from the invited audience. He sought to emphasize his family side, starting with an introduction from his 30-year-old daughter, Emma.

“He loves this city, and no one will work harder for us and achieve more for us,” she said.

The 67-year-old mayor also made sure to mention that he had just spoken with his 100-year-old mother on the phone as he headed to the event. He joked that she doesn’t work in his administration because “she’s got too many other things to do.”

Bloomberg, who founded the Bloomberg LP financial information company and was ranked by Forbes magazine as the richest person in the city, took audience questions for about 20 minutes in a discussion moderated by Whoopi Goldberg, who elicited cheers when she praised him for “trying to get the city where she should be.”

A spokeswoman for William Thompson Jr., the Democratic front-runner in the mayoral race, blasted Bloomberg for holding an event with an invited audience, calling it a “refusal to have a conversation with voters.”

“An event comprised of preselected supporters isn’t a town hall meeting, it’s a pep rally,” Thompson spokeswoman Anne Fenton said.

The Bloomberg campaign, which just released new television ads featuring testimonials from prominent women supporters focusing on issues such as reproductive health access, domestic abuse and schools, insisted the event was not invite-only. Invited people were allowed to bring guests, spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker said.

Bloomberg, an independent, has significant advantages in the mayoral race: He has consistently high approval ratings and can spend as much of his money as he wants on his campaign. Thompson relies on donations and public matching funds to finance his bid.

But Bloomberg continues to battle an image problem, and polls often show that voters find him to be distant and stony.

The most recent, a Quinnipiac University survey in March, found 30 percent of voters view Bloomberg as warm and friendly while 55 percent say he’s cold and businesslike.

Last month, Bloomberg was criticized after he glared and called a reporter a “disgrace” for asking a question he didn’t like. He later said he wanted to forget the episode and move on.

Weeks before that, Bloomberg, who is known for having zero tolerance for ringing phones and buzzing BlackBerrys, halted a news conference for more than 90 seconds to single out a disabled blogger whose tape recorder inadvertently began playing out loud.

“Turn it off,” Bloomberg snapped.

The blogger, Michael Harris, wears hearing aids and uses a wheelchair and couldn’t hear the recorder or reach it at first. He said later the mayor had humiliated and embarrassed him.