6 of 7 Bronx Council Members Vote for For Bloomberg As Term Limits Extenstion Passes

The headline pretty much says it all. The City Council, with strong support from the Bronx delegates, essentially voted to keep Mayor Michael Bloomberg in office for another four years. (Of course, there will be the whole formality of an actual election next year, but let's be honest here.)

Annabel Palma was the one voice of opposition from the borough. James Vacca, who earlier joined Palma as a "no" vote, flipped sometime in the last 48 hours. And fence-sitters Helen Foster and Maria del Carmen Arroyo sided with Bloomberg in the end. Larry Seabrook, Maria Baez, Joel Rivera and Oliver Koppell all voted for the opportunity to keep their jobs for another four years as well.

It will be interesting to see the fallout from this. Bloomberg, who will spend whatever it takes to win re-election, will almost undoubtedly remain in power (though his image as a reformer and non-traditional political outsider will take a big hit). But what about the Council members who sided with him.

Joel Rivera is probably challenge-proof. (Not sure about Vacca, Seabrook, Arroyo and Foster)

But Maria Baez, who's been under fire all year for everything from her terrible attendance record to extravagant cell phone bills, will face one if not two or three tough challengers.

And Oliver Koppell, who didnt' do himself any favors by siding with Jose Rivera (and not the Ben Franklin Club) in the Bronx Democratic Party battle, steps back into a race featuring a handful of well-funded challengers. (Although the number of challengers just dropped by one as Jamin Sewell, his counsel for the past four years and a candidate for his boss' formerly term-limited job, just sent out a press release saying he would drop his campaign in deference to Koppell.)

In any case, stay close because this will take a while to sort out.

Four More Years! Koppell Likes the Idea.

Oliver Koppell, one of 35 Council members who will be otherwise employed on Jan. 1, 2010 thanks to term limits, brushed off rumors that he’s going to introduce a bill to extend term limits, according to the Daily News. The law now restricts citywide elected officials, borough presidents and Council members to two four-year terms. But lately there’s been talk, mostly fueled by some New Yorkers’ desire to see Mayor Bloomberg continue in office, about efforts to extend the limits by one more four-year term.

Koppell told the Daily News that he did request that the Council bill-drafting division come up with a bill extending term limits two years ago but that it never went anywhere. But it’s clear that Koppell is a supporter of adding on another term and he thinks voters would go for it if they knew it meant four more years of Bloomberg.

"He's quite popular, and I think people should have the chance to vote for him," Koppell said.

(Somehow, we have the feeling that Anthony Wiener, Christine Quinn and Bill Thompson would beg to differ.)

Extending term limits would upend what is already proving to be a lively race to replace Koppell (not to mention similar efforts in 34 other Council districts). There are now five candidates (including Koppell staffer Jamin Sewell) all from Riverdale, in the mix, and there may be more. They’ve already held fundraisers, launched Web sites, and hit the streets.

We saw a crew of Ari Hoffnung supporters outside the C-Town on Sedgwick Avenue last week. They were wearing orange t-shirts emblazoned with the question, “Got Parking?” and asking passersby to sign a petition calling on Mayor Bloomberg to reduce the number of alternate-side parking days.

All this campaign activity is a year out from next year’s election.

But it will be for naught if the Council succeeds in extending term limits.

Stay tuned.