Bloomberg's Charter School Battle Detailed in E-Mails The city released hundreds of e-mail messages Friday, providing a behind-the-scenes look at one of the major battles of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's administration, the 2010 campaign to expand charter schools, or, as one dramatic e-mail put it, the "fight of our life." The e-mails, released in response to a Freedom of Information request by the city's teachers" union, detail the central role that Joel I. Klein, who was then the schools chancellor, took in the effort, including constant contact with charter school advocates and lobbyists for the city. They were then fighting to raise the statewide cap on charter schools to at least 400 from 200 and communicated regularly about their struggles to herd state lawmakers to their side and their exasperation with the union. The mayor and Mr. Klein supported charter schools, which are privately run with public money, as a way to offer parents in poor neighborhoods alternatives to underperforming schools. But teachers" unions say charter schools, which are typically nonunionized, do not outperform regular schools and simply take space and resources from them. "We need to mobilize," Mr. Klein wrote on the night of Jan. 18 to James Merriman, head of the New York City Charter School Center. Every time we keep our powder dry, we shoot ourselves. At one point, a member of the mayor's legislative affairs staff e-mailed to say he was searching for someone to write an op-ed article supporting the mayor's charter school stance and was hoping to recruit the Rev. A. R. Bernard, an influential pastor in Brooklyn. On Friday, Mr. Bernard said that he wrote the article, which appeared in The New York Post, with city officials" input. The e-mails show that in February 2010, Mr. Klein and several charter school advocates participated in a phone call with the board members of the Robin Hood Foundation, a nonprofit group that fights poverty. The first attempt by charter advocates to get the State Legislature raise the charter cap had failed miserably, and the main advocacy group pushing for the higher cap, Education Reform Now, needed money for a second attempt, which was ultimately successful. Jessica Scaperotti, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education, said Mr. Klein did not ask the board members for money. "He was strictly talking about the charter school landscape and the political environment," she said. But one of the callers on the line with Mr. Klein in 2010 said Friday that the chancellor did ask the Robin Hood board to commit more funding to Education Reform Now, rather than start its own lobbying organization. Mr. Klein told them "their philanthropy was going to amount to minuscule results unless they stepped it up," said the caller, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Attempts to reach Mr. Klein through News Corporation, where he is now a top executive, were unsuccessful on Friday. Though Ms. Scaperotti said Mr. Klein did not fund-raise on the call, it is not clear whether any rule prohibited him from doing so. After everyone on the call had hung up, the rapid e-mailing resumed. "You were terrific," Mr. Klein wrote to Bradley Tusk, a consultant for Education Reform Now. Perfect pitch, perfect message. "Who's the heavy breather on the call?" wrote a participant, whose name was redacted. Normally, I'd ask them to mute their phone but I don't want to alienate any donors. "Some overweight billionaire," Mr. Klein replied.