I’m not sure that anyone has told NY Comptroller Bill Thompson yet but his race for mayor is over…effectively. His only prayer (and any other candidate’s only prayer) to defeat the billionaire mayor was to have a unified labor movement behind him. It was the only way–and even that was a big "if"–to balance the unlimited resources the billionaire has, and plans to spend, to win a third term. If you don’t have money, or your bank account is puny compared to your opponent, you can at least hope for labor’s fairly decent–though, not as potent as it once was–voter turnout operation to offset a financial disadvantage.

   Well, yesterday, Thompson’s campaign was officially over:

In the first labor endorsement of the mayor’s race, the union representing 12,000 of the city’s supermarket workers will back Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg for re-election on Thursday, after snubbing him in 2001 and 2005, union leaders said.

   More than a year ago, I looked at where unions might end up if Bloomberg successfully rammed through a change in the term limits that votes had twice approved. So, I can’t say I’m surprised by Local 1500’s decision. And more unions are likely to follow under the survival instinct that dictates that there is little upside to confront someone who is going to spend his way to a third term.

   It’s too bad because, frankly, there is a real debate to be had in the city about the mayor’s main claim to re-election–that somehow he has been a good steward of the economy (I’d like to challenge anyone to find a single–ONE–statement where the great businessman-mayor, during his tenure, says anything about the housing bubble, derivatives and the financial crisis that a number of people did warn about several years ago. You won’t find it. The city "boomed" on the back of the bubble, pure and simple, and there was no great economic development strategy that helped regular people and, in fact, the "build, build, build" mantra excerbated the bubble in the city and has made huge swaths unaffordable to the middle class, not to mention blue-collar workers).

   Thompson may still run (seems like Anthony Weiner has one foot out of the race already) but I would say that his speechwriter can now spend a very relaxing few months drafting the concession speech.