NYC-WTC_000230728

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document Bloomberg: Green's a etty detender of Stalin Dem camp dismisses charge as desperate act By MICHAEL SAUL and JOEL SIEGEL DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Mayoral candidate Michael Bloomberg is shifting tactics, going on the at ack by branding Mark Green as anti-cop, anti-business and — in an unex pected throwback to the 1950s — a defender of Soviet dictator Joseph Sta CITY_21MC100_ 011831521 SUSAN WATTS DAILY NEWS DOING BUSINESS: Democratlc mayoral candidațe Mark Green at Bloomberg's offensive began when the Dem- ocratic Party united behind Green, and it reached new heights yesterday, when a top Bloomberg aide shadowed the public advocate at a forum and repeatedly trashed him after- ward. "He once tried to denigrate Ronald Reagan by praising Joseph Stalin," aide Bill Cunning- ham told reporters. Green aide Joe DePlasco called the attacks a • sign of desperation, adding, "This is complete crap and they know it." Bloomberg's shift comes as the campaign's dynamics are working against him. The elec- tion is in two weeks, and voters' with anthrax, Afghanistan an Preoccupation Yankees makes it hard for him to grab their attention and overcome Green's double-digit lead in the polls. Trading barbis And any lift Mayor Giuliani could provide does not seem immninent. Asked when he will endorse the media mogul, Giuliani said yester- day, "Obviously, not right now.... That is not at the center of what I am doing every day." The focus of Bloomberg's offensive is to ques- tion Green's move to the political center and paint him as a pol who will say anything to win. "Mark is a very liberal, leftist kind of guy." the GOP candidate said yesterday. "He has never been pro-business, and he has never been pro-law enforcement, and the record shows that and he may be trying to reinvent himself to something he isn't." Cunningham trashed Green after the public advocate spoke to 300 business and civic lead. ers at a Crain's New York breakfast. Cunning- ham cited a passage from Green's 1982 book, "Winning Back America," that he said "applaud. Green wrote that then-President Reagan har a tendency to "rewrite history" for political pur poses. "Reagan said he knew of 'no leader o the Soviet Union since the revolution' whos aim was not world revolution, a view which ig nores a Soviet leader named Joseph Stalir who pushed for 'socialism in one country' ir stead of Leon Trotsky's approach of "worl revolution.'" Green responded yesterday, "I have no merr ory of writing thai, and it is inrelevant." "What is more interesting is that Bloomberg this week said he has more exper ence in dealing with government than anyon in the whole world. Now that's a quote he sai Jast week, not 30 years ago, and 1 think it show that he is funny," Green said. Also yesterday, Bloomberg opposed legali: ing casinos in the city while Green said t would "take a fresh look at it" because tt World Trade Center crisis will punch a 54 bi lion to $6 billion hole in the next city budget. "There are some moral questions," he sai. But "it generates revenue, and we neęd it mor than ever." Beneficlary backs Bloomy The good-government group Citizens Unic announced its endorsement of Bloomberg, cz minating a contentious process that resulted at least one board member resigning in prote: Citizens Union Executive Director Linı Davidoff confirmed the resignation, saying tl group regretted it. But she countered, Idor believe that anyone on the board thought o procedure was anything but careful, thorouj and completely nonpartisan." Since 1994, Bloomberg's financial data cor pany has given $85,000 to Citizens Union ar the Citizens Union Foundation — includi: *75 nnn laet waar NYC-WTC_000230728 DAILY NEWS, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2001