7/31
In a 90 minute interview with reporters and
editors of the New York Times, Peter Vallone,
Speaker of the City Council, repeatedly and
earnestly presented himself as the unrecognized
architect of many improvements in city life
often credited to Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani
in the last eight years, including the drop
in crime, fiscal stability, and other changes
that turned around the perception of the city.
He said he should be elected mayor because
he could assure stability in City Hall and
protect advances New York had made over the
past decade. distinguished himself from his
three major Democratic opponents by declaring
that he would oppose any tax increases in
the next eight years, and would push for further
tax cuts, no matter what happened to the budget
or the economy. He said that in the event
of a economic downturn he would exempt only
the Parks Department from spending cuts. He
said the Police Department and school system
might be subject to reductions. The Speaker
argued that eliminating the Board of Education
would be the most effective thing New York
could do to revive the public school system.
(NY
Times) Excerpts from interview (NY
Times)
Former Mayor Ed Koch endorsed Adolfo Carrion
for Bronx borough president. (Daily
News)
Jerry Skurnick is the man whom most politicians
in New York City call on to help them figure
out who the voters are, where they are, and
how to pique their interest. He is, after
all, the master of the lists: the names of
potential voters for every neighborhood block
in the city, tweaked and manipulated to help
his politically ambitious customers focus
their mass mailings and phone banks. (NY
Times)
7/30
Veteran City Councilman Sheldon Leffler,
who hopes to become Queens borough president,
grabs an inch-thick sheaf of paper and thrusts
it at a visitor. The pages summarize the 42
City Council measures on which he was the
prime sponsor and 102 bills on which he was
one of several prime sponsors. "I submit to
you, with conviction, that nobody [else] can
give to you a list of 42 serious, specific
laws that they are the prime sponsor of,"
Leffler said. The laws include some big ones:
the 1989 law that established mandatory recycling
in the city, a measure requiring city vehicles
to use alternative fuels, laws regulating
asbestos and banning the posting of political
signs. In his nearly 24 years on the council,
the Democrat from Glen Oaks has made his presence
felt, especially on environmental and public
safety issues. Along the way, he's often taken
unpopular stands, infuriating leaders of his
party and the unions that are their traditional
allies, as well as a succession of police
and fire commissioners. Phi Beta Kappa at
Princeton, cum laude at Harvard Law School,
master's degree in taxation from New York
University Law School, he is viewed as an
intellectual on the City Council. (Newsday)
Michael Bloomberg outlined a plan for the
city's public parks, beaches and pools, including
a proposal to recruit lifeguards from South
America, though he said he was not sure how
he would pay for the recruitment program.
Peter Vallone held a press conference to discuss
the 62 people who were dragged by subway cars
last year. Mark Green released a report urging
private companies to help build 10 new small
schools. Fernando Ferrer touted his proposal
for city legislation to ban racial profiling.
(NY
Times)
From the Lord's Prayer as acceptable for
Jews to taxis as a form of mass transit, Michael
Bloomberg seems to have taken to the campaign
trail with a simple maxim in mind: I am successful
and what works for me should work for you.
When it does not, Mr. Bloomberg has appeared
genuinely mystified. (NY
Times)
7/29
For seven years, Mark Green has held an elected
position that nearly wasn't: a job created
over the objection of those who thought it
superfluous and ceremonial, all podium and
no power. As the city's first public advocate,
Green says he has been an energetic and effective
voice challenging the Republican administration.
Arguing that he's made the most of the post,
his supporters cite at a moment's notice his
mix of 244 investigations completed, lawsuits
filed and legislation proposed or enacted,
his more than 100,000 constituent complaints
handled (with varying success), and 70 community
meetings held throughout the city. His rivals
paint him as a sound-bite artist hyping an
office with little of the responsibility carried
by the mayor, comptroller or City Council,
and no need to show results. (Newsday)
Peter Vallone is pursuing the so-called outer-
borough white ethnics. They are mostly Irish
and Italians, but also Greeks, Poles, Albanians
and so on, who, according to the calculations
of his aides, represent up to 20 percent of
the Democratic electorate, and who went for
Giuliani eight years ago. Vallone, 66, is
also in pursuit of the elderly vote. (NY
Times)
Why is media mogul Michael Bloomberg, who
has spent more than $8 million on his self-financed
campaign and has hired some of the best people
in the business, getting into hot water over
almost everything he says? Sources say Bloomberg's
notable off-the-cuff moments occur because
his campaign runs like his company - no titles,
no official campaign manager and no one calling
the final shots except Bloomberg, the one
with the least political experience. (NY
Post)
Trash has become the centerpiece of Flushing's
highly contested City Council race, with many
of the 10 candidates in district 20 vowing
to clean up the crowded, littered sidewalks
and streets of downtown. (Newsday)
7/28
In a 90-minute interview with reporters and
editors of the NY Times, Herman Badillo said
there would be only stylistic differences
between a Badillo and a Giuliani administration.
He said his first priority would be public
safety, closely followed by education, health
and housing issues. He said he would keep
at least two of Mr. Giuliani's commissioners,
Police Commissioner Bernard B. Kerik and Nicholas
Scoppetta, the commissioner of the Administration
for Children's Services. But he would ask
for the resignation of Schools Chancellor
Harold Levy, whom he accused of failing to
enforce uniform standards for all public school
children. He would change the police force's
racial composition, which he identified as
"the root cause of the tension" between the
predominantly white force and many New Yorkers,
especially Latinos and blacks. And he would
require schoolchildren to take standardized
tests beginning in first grade to make sure
they can read and write. (NY
Times) Excerpts of interview. (NY
Times)
In a setback to Peter Vallone's campaign
alliance with District Council 37, the city's
huge municipal union, Veronica Montgomery-Costa,
president of Local 372, the union's largest
local, announced yesterday that her 28,000
members were moving to buck District Council
37 and back the candidacy of Fernando Ferrer.
(NY Times)
A bitter political fight in district 40
in Central Brooklyn became an actual shoving
match between the feisty mother-in-law of
candidate Jean Vernet and the volunteers for
the only other Haitian-American in the race,
Lola Poisson, causing a commotion that brought
police to the scene. The two candidates are
among 11 West Indians vying for Una Clarke's
City Council seat. (Daily
News)
7/27
In a 90-minute interview with reporters and
editors of the New York Times, Bronx Borough
President Fernando Ferrer said he is waging
a mayoral campaign to revive what he says
is a tradition of activist government abandoned
by Rudolph W. Giuliani and bolster "the other
New York" left out of the city's economic
boom. If elected mayor, he would raise teacher
pay by 30 percent, oversee the construction
of 150,000 units of housing and ban the practice
of racial profiling by the police. He said
that he hoped to pay for most of his new programs
with taxes already collected and requests
for more state aid, and by weeding out fraud
and abuse. (NY
Times)
Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi called yesterday
for an overhaul of the city's election system
and for advancing the primary by four months,
from September to May. The fact that election
officials are considering postponing this
September's runoff election, he said, indicates
problems with the current system. "We're dealing
with a third-world- country level of administration
of elections here in New York, with voting
machines that are 40 years old and processes
that discourage voting all too often and participation
all too often," said Mr. Hevesi, who is seeking
the Democratic mayoral nomination. (NY
Times)
Last week, Mark Green took his place amid
a crowd of Hasidim, as aides circulated a
statement saying that "leaders from the Satmar
Congregations of New York City, the largest
of the three major Hasidic groups in the city
with some 100,000 followers" supported his
mayoral campaign. As Mr. Green smiled for
the cameras, most of the leaders of the Satmar
establishment in New York City - including
its grand rabbi - were actually in Europe,
unaware that political endorsements were being
made in the name of the Satmars. Many of the
Hasidim surrounding Mr. Green in the picture
belonged to a smaller group that is at odds
with the Satmar establishment, which is based
in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. A few of them live
in Orange County. "It's obvious that those
people who endorsed Mark Green wanted to take
advantage of Mark Green and make him think
they were the leaders," said Rabbi Isaac Wertheimer,
the man chosen to discuss the matter by the
Satmar leadership in Williamsburg. "Mark Green,
I guess, he didn't know exactly what he was
getting into." (NY
Times)
Green has accepted the endorsement of a coalition
of 15 Muslim-American organizations that includes
a group that calls U.S. aid to Israel "blind
support of Zionist colonialism." A Green spokesman
said he was unaware of the group's views.
(Daily
News)
Peter Vallone's first campaign ad will feature
former Mayor Ed Koch: "Hi. I'm Ed Koch, and
I'm supporting Peter Vallone for mayor. He
won't have to learn the job. As they say,
he's been there, done that. I know. I was
mayor for 12 years when he was majority leader
of the City Council. He was my partner in
government. No one in this election has his
experience and ability. So if you're interested
in electing a mayor who can run the city in
good times and bad and never lose his cool,
always remembering that he serves you, please
join me in voting for Peter Vallone." Times
analysis: Actually, Vallone was majority leader
for only three years of Koch's mayoralty,
and they famously clashed over Vallone's to
make the Council a more powerful body. (NY
Times)
Evidence of Bloomberg's deep-pocketed campaign
is hitting mailboxes across the city.It's
a glossy, 12-page, multicolored, mass mailing
by the Bloomberg campaign that is virtually
a minimagazine filled with everything you
want to know about the billionaire, and then
some. But nowhere in the magazine is the fact
that he is running as a Republican. (Daily
News)
Barry Grodenchik, Tony Avella and John Liu
called this week for a complete overhaul of
the city's Department of Buildings, which
seems to get involved in corruption or incompetence
charges on a recurring basis. All three also
are candidates for Queens City Council seats
and have the backing of the Queens County
Democratic Organization, which has been known
to refer job applicants to the Department
of Buildings. (Newsday)
07/26
Mark Green is clearly ahead in the campaign
for the Democratic nomination for mayor, according
to a new Quinnipiac College poll, but the
race for second is too close to call. With
30 percent of the vote, Green does not have
enough support to avoid a runoff, and it's
impossible to predict who his opponent would
be in that contest. The poll found Bronx Borough
President Fernando Ferrer with 18 percent,
City Comptroller Alan Hevesi with 17 percent,
City Council Speaker Peter Vallone with 16
percent, and 18 percent undecided. (New
York Post)
The poll also indicates that Republican candidate
Michael Bloomberg's $8 million investment
in campaign ads and other electioneering is
beginning to pay off. He remains far behind
his major Democratic rivals, but the huge
margins are shrinking. Bloomberg trails Mark
Green 54 percent to 28 percent, the poll found.
City Comptroller Alan Hevesi's 37-point lead
over Bloomberg in June is down to 22 points,
and City Council Speaker Peter Vallone's 43-point
lead has shrunk to 25 points, according to
the poll. Bronx Borough President Fernando
Ferrer now leads the billionaire 48 percent
to 33 percent, down from the previous 55 percent-to-25
percent advantage. (Daily
News)
Mark Green has enlisted David Boies, the
lead attorney for Al Gore's campaign during
last year's recount in Florida, to put together
a team of hundreds of lawyers to monitor polling
places on Primary Day. The lawyers would guard
against balloting mistakes and the possibility
of voter fraud. Observers believe the effort
is designed to compensate for Green's lack
of support from the traditional Democratic
Party establishment whose loyalists are often
deployed as poll watchers. "In the outer boroughs,
the polls will be opened and closed by inspectors
from the Democratic Party machinery," said
one lawyer involved in the Green campaign.
"So it's in our interest to have a set of
eyes and ears trained in the law and ready
to spot problems of any type that may arise."
(New
York Observer)
In a meeting with the Post editorial board,
mayoral candidate Alan Hevesi yesterday said
that New York has generally been going the
right way under Mayor Rudy Giuliani, contesting
his opponent Fernando Ferrer's claim that
New York is turning into "two cities." (New
York Post)
7/25
Abner Louima, the Haitian immigrant who
has become a symbol of police brutality, gave
his endorsement to Alan Hevesi. (NY
Times) (Daily
News)
The Haitian immigrant's vote of confidence
on the steps of City Hall seemed to energize
Hevesi's campaign, which has been lagging
in polls, and caught his three principal rivals
off guard. (Newsday)
Hevesi contacts in the Haitian community
as far back as 1994. Three years ago, he helped
organize planes to shuttle food and medical
supplies to Haiti after Hurricane George.
(NY
Post)
The Rev. Al Sharpton - Abner Louima's longtime
adviser - was said to be surprised by the
police-torture victim's decision to back Alan
Hevesi. (NY
Post)
The city Campaign Finance Board will begin
auditing Alan Hevesi's mayoral campaign today.
Hevesi's rivals have suggested that Hank Morris,
his campaign manager, is undercharging him,
which would give the city comptroller an advantage
in a primary in which spending by each of
the Democrats is capped at $5.5 million.(NY
Times)
Hevesi is the only major candidate for mayor
since the Campaign Finance Board began in
1988 to run with only the barest of staffs,
and without a traditional headquarters or
discernible overhead costs. With payments
to Hank Morris's firm concealing and reducing
these expenses, Hevesi has been able to air
TV ads for months while keeping his spending
total only slightly higher than his three
Democratic rivals, who have yet to buy commercial
time. (Village
Voice)
With more than three months to go before
Election Day, this campaign season has already
been a huge boon to political consultants.
A computer database analysis of campaign filings
of the 350 candidates across the city shows
they have spent a combined $26 million through
July 11 - with $8 million shelled out alone
by media mogul Michael Bloomberg, the only
major candidate not to be enrolled in the
city's voluntary campaign-finance program.
(NY
Post)
The top five political consultants who have
charged the most in this year's election:
Squier, Knapp & Dunn ($4.8 million) Morris,
Carrick & Guma ($1.75 million), Penn, Schoen
& Berland ($465,000), Sheinkopf Communications.
($348,000), and the Global Strategy Group
($304,000). (NY
Post)
City Council Speaker Peter Vallone yesterday
joined a lawsuit against the city to stop
a bus service arrangement a union calls improper.
(Newsday)
Former Mayor Ed Koch will play a prominent
role in a TV ad for mayoral hopeful Speaker
Peter Vallone. (Daily
News)
Herman Badillo appealed to members of the
Campaign Finance Board yesterday to count
about 125 more donors to help his cash-strapped
campaign qualify for matching city funds.
Badillo missed the first opportunity to qualify,
when he did not raised the required $250,000
from at least 1,000 New York City contributors.
(NY
Times)
Before announcing his bid for mayor, Michael
Bloomberg began resigning from four exclusive
clubs in Manhattan and Westchester County
that have predominantly white memberships.
Bloomberg quit the Harmonie Club, the Century
Country Club, the Brook Club, and the Racquet
and Tennis Club, according to his campaign.
(NY
Times)
7/24
Fire Department officials suspect that a fire
was deliberately set at the campaign headquarters
of Anthony Andrews, one of the 11 candidates
running to succeed Thomas White in the district
28 seat of City Council representing Jamaica.
At 4 a.m., someone threw paint on a 10-foot-long
banner above his headquarters and then started
a fire, officials said. (Daily
News)
In his race for mayor, Mark Green has been
going to as many as 11 events a day, and clearly
keeping tabs: Number of African-American churches
visited, 130; number of schools he has popped
in on, 50; 70 town hall meetings in 53 community
districts. (NY
Times)
Some of Hollywood's biggest names are taking
sides in a little-noticed City Council race
- all thanks to a childhood friendship between
a novice candidate and superstar actor Edward
Norton. Producers David Geffen and Jeffrey
Katzenberg have each chipped in $2,500 to
Mark Levine, one of 10 Democrats slugging
it out to succeed term-limited Councilman
Stanley Michels in district 7 in northern
Manhattan. Actresses Gwyneth Paltrow and Courtney
Love have also written $2,500 checks, as has
Norton himself. Director Milos Forman came
in with $250. Levine has amassed an impressive
$105,644 war chest, surpassing his two closest
rivals, Mario Torres, a vice president of
the Battery Park City Authority ($82,066),
and Robert Jackson, who led the lawsuit challenging
the state's education formula ($33,607). (NY
Post)
7/23
A recent study concluded that 90 percent
of New Yorkers do not have the foggiest idea
who their City Council representatives are.
(Daily
News)
Bloomberg said that because both New York
senators, Charles Schumer and Hillary Rodham
Clinton, are Democrats, he would try to "be,
as mayor, the third senator, if you will,"
a Republican lobbying the Republican administration
in Washington for increased federal aid. His
opponents ridiculed his remarks. (NY
Post)
After weeks of offering little but praise
for Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, Michael R.
Bloomberg, the Republican mayoral candidate,
sent a modest critical punch in the mayor's
direction yesterday. He said that Mr. Giuliani
was wrong in 1995 to have ousted Yasir Arafat
from a concert for world leaders at Lincoln
Center. (NY
Times)
7/22
Mayoral candidate Alan Hevesi's opponents
have pressed the city's Campaign Finance Board
to rule on whether his political consultant
Hank Morris is unfairly providing cut-rate
office and consulting services to his friend,
the man he wants to make New York's next mayor.
The dispute over Hevesi's novel arrangement
with Morris suggests the difficulty that proponents
of stricter campaign finance regulations across
the nation have faced over a generation of
trying to restrict the influence of money
on politics. (NY
Times)
Democratic mayoral hopeful Peter Vallone
yesterday threatened a lawsuit over the Board
of Elections' plan to close more than 100
voting booths at senior facilities around
the city. (NY
Post)
As the September 11 primary creeps closer,
Mark Green holds a double-digit lead over
all three Democratic rivals. Two private polls
have him near 40 percent, the threshold needed
to avoid a primary runoff. (Daily
News)
Michael Bloomberg told a radio audience of
mostly Spanish-speaking listeners yesterday
that learning English was a key to "the American
Dream." "In the end, immigrants to this country
have to learn to get the skills to participate,"
Bloomberg said on WNNY-AM's "Cara a Cara"
["Face to Face"]. On the one-hour live interview,
the Republican mayoral hopeful spoke mostly
in English, apologizing for not speaking Spanish.(Daily
News)
Alan Hevesi yesterday called for the re-establishment
of the "911 Committee," an advisory body that
for 20 years ensured the city's emergency
rooms were equipped and maintained. (Newsday)
7/21
A day after he endorsed voluntary prayer in
public schools, Republican mayoral candidate
Michael Bloomberg came out for posting the
Ten Commandments in classrooms. "I don't see
how you can study history without reading
the Ten Commandments," Bloomberg told reporters
yesterday, adding that the tenets "are probably
a good thing to post." (Daily
News)
City Council Speaker Peter Vallone's endorsement
for mayor by District 37, the city's largest
municipal union, was made final late Thursday
in a vote by its locals' delegates. The two
biggest locals, Local 1549 and Local 372,
abstained from voting. In Queens, with all
14 seats open due to the introduction of term
limits, the delegates reversed one executive-board
recommendation - voting to support Robert
Cermeli, a member of Local 375, instead of
Liz Crowley in the 30th Council District.
(Newsday)
District Council 37, which comprises 56 union
locals, endorsed Vallone by a very narrow
margin, with 42 percent voting to abstain
in the primary. At the same time, the city's
two other giant unions, the United Federation
of Teachers and 1199, the health care workers'
union, have apparently decided to sit out
the primary because their members are so divided
about the four major Democratic candidates.
(NY Times)
In the first formal endorsement ever given
by a large, organized coalition of Muslim
voters in New York City, the Muslim Political
Coordinating Committee of New York, which
represents about 15 Muslim organizations,
has said it will support Mark Green for mayor.
Ali Mirza, chairman of the committee, said
his group chose Green because it liked his
record as public advocate, and because he
twice participated in the annual Muslim Day
parade. (NY Times)
In the 45th district in central Brooklyn,
a largely West Indian, working-class district
of 150,000 people, nine candidates have declared
for City Council; others might enter the fray.
A podiatrist is running. So is an elementary
school teacher. So is a rent examiner. So
is a college professor. So are several political
aides. So is a beverage store owner. Candidates
have been hustling to round up endorsements.
Vaughan Toney has been endorsed by current
Councilmember Lloyd Henry. Kendall Stewart,
who ran in 1997 against Lloyd Henry, is a
Democratic district leader and has the support
of the party. Ernest Emmanuel has proclaimed
the backing of Abner Louima, whose fateful
encounter with the police occurred in the
district. (NY
Times)
7/20
Mayoral candidate Peter Vallone criticized
his three Democratic rivals for expressing
support for gay marriage. "It's a state and
federal question. Even if you wanted to do
it, you couldn't do it." Vallone also took
on Ferrer and Hevesi for being open to tax
hikes to improve schools, calling it "pandering
of the worst kind," in order just "to get
a union endorsement." (NY
Post)
Bucking a political taboo, Bronx Borough
President Fernando Ferrer yesterday became
the first Democratic mayoral contender since
the early 1990s to launch a campaign to roll
back a tax cut. For weeks, since Mayor Rudolph
Giuliani and Council Speaker Peter Vallone
announced agreement on a further reduction
of personal income taxes for city residents,
Ferrer has belittled the move as failing to
help working New Yorkers and forgoing useful
revenues. On the City Hall steps yesterday,
he kicked off a "Keep My Four Pennies" campaign
- referring to the 4 cents a day the income
tax cut would save most residents. (Newsday)
Republican mayoral candidate Michael Bloomberg
said yesterday that he supported reciting
the Lord's Prayer in the city schools. He
was criticized by his opponents, and by Jewish
leaders. (Daily
News)
Mayoral candidate Mark Green won endorsements
yesterday from black ministers and a group
of Hasidic Jews as he hop- scotched around
Manhattan in what his advisers said was an
attempt to demonstrate the ideological and
ethnic breadth of his political support. (NY
Times)
Mayoral hopeful Herman Badillo demanded yesterday
that his Republican rival Michael Bloomberg
nix $14.4 million in city tax breaks that
is media company received in exchange for
agreeing to stay in Manhattan. (Daily
News)
New television commercial from Alan Hevesi:
"As mayor I won't use my energy searching
for indecency inside our museums. Instead,
I'll fight for decency outside them and to
keep our city moving in the right direction
for all of us. For smaller schools, smaller
classes and the best teachers. For affordable
housing and an economy that creates new jobs.
And for a police force that's tough on crime
and misconduct. I'm Alan Hevesi and that's
why I'm running for mayor." Analysis of ad:
The reference to Giuliani's battle with the
Brooklyn Museum of Art over a photograph he
labeled anti-Catholic is the latest attempt
by Hevesi to distance himself from the mayor
(NY
Times)
Mayoral candidate Alan Hevesi's latest campaign
disclosures claim what seems impossible: The
comptroller pays nothing for rent and little
for phones, postage and photocopying. He lists
four employees, while his rivals have staffs
of a dozen or more. In addition, he is being
charged relatively low rates by his political
consultant, Hank Morris. The speculation is
that his plan is to save up his cash for a
TV ad blitz shortly before the September 11th
primary. The Campaign Finance Board is conducting
an audit: Campaign finance rules dictate that
candidates who get public matching dollars
must pay market value for services. (Daily
News)
The next political muscle that may be flexed
with some impact could come from Muslim voters.
The American Muslim Alliance and the Muslim
Coordinating Council of New York have been
interviewing candidates for city office this
year and plan to make their endorsements Sunday
night. "Muslims are getting off the fence
and getting involved in politics," said Faroque
Khan, president of the New York State chapter
of the American Muslim Alliance. (Newsday)
City Councilmember Ken Fisher said yesterday
that if he is elected Brooklyn borough president,
he will appoint himself to the Board of Education.
(Daily
News)
City Councilmember Helen Marshall, running
for Queens borough president, received the
endorsement of the Working Families Party.
She told them that her father was a porter,
which would endear her to the Service Employees
International Union, which represents porters.
But she said in a recent interview with a
Newsday reporter that her father was a merchant
seaman who jumped ship and became a house
painter during the Depression. (Newsday)
7/19
The latest campaign finance figures filed
by candidates show Mark Green leading the
fund-raising race for the last six months.
The public advocate took in $1.7 million for
his mayoral bid since mid January, compared
with Alan Hevesi's $1.2 million. Hevesi, though,
received far more money from intermediaries
known as bundlers. Of every dollar Hevesi
raised, 37 cents came from intermediaries,
while 10 percent of Green's money came in
in batches. Hevesi also has sent back far
more donations than his opponents. Much of
the more than $215,000 he returned was raised
by intermediaries but sent back after ethical
questions were raised about the contributions
or contributors. (New
York Times)
Republican mayoral candidate Michael Bloomberg
has spent an estimated $8.1 million on his
campaign already, purchasing ads and mailings.
While the effort has boosted his name recognition,
private polls cited by his Democratic rivals
show that, in a race against any of them,
Bloomberg would capture less than 30 percent
of the vote. This is unchanged from the polls
taken just after he got into the race. (New
York Observer)
A small portion of those millions is apparently
going to ordinary New Yorkers. The Bloomberg
campaign is paying people $5 to answer its
on-the-street surveys. (Newsday)
Herman Badillo told the Daily News editorial
board yesterday that he would try to create
a new party for his mayoral campaign to guarantee
him a place on the November ballot. His Republican
opponent Michael Bloomberg and Democratic
candidate Alan Hevesi are mounting similar
drives. Badillo said he did not know what
he would call his nascent party. (Daily
News)
Leaders of the ultra Orthodox Jewish Satmar
sect, long supporters of Mayor Rudy Giuliani,
are expected to endorse Mark Green for mayor
today. The move is seen as symbolically important
to Green's attempt to assemble a winning coalition.
Satmar leaders reportedly liked Green's plan
for affordable housing. (Newsday)
City Councilmember Larry Warden said he dropped
out of the race for Bronx borough president
because he didn't have enough money to wage
what he called a "quality" campaign.
Warden did not say which of the remaining
three Democratic candidates he might endorse,
though one insider said Warden would probably
try to make a deal with State Senator Pedro
Espada. (Daily
News)
7/18
Financial records from the Campaign Finance
Board and petitions for the Board of Elections
became the subject of campaign attacks as
candidates accused each other of producing
false numbers. (NY
Times)
Mets co-owner Fred Wilpon and his Sterling
Equities real-estate company donated nearly
$100,000 in this year's city elections, including
$50,700 to the four Democratic mayoral hopefuls.
They also donated $35,300 to city comptroller
candidate Herb Berman, a Brooklyn city councilman
who was a key in building a $33 million stadium
in Coney Island for a minor-league Mets team.
The Mets are seeking a new $500 million major-league
stadium. (NY
Post)
Republican mayoral candidate Michael Bloomberg
could end up spending as much as a $35 million
in his campaign, The Post reports. (NY
Post)
Mayoral candidate Speaker Peter Vallone proposed
a plan to expand city train service using
existing tracks and stations. (NY
Times)
Mayoral candidate Mark Green proposed expanding
the Javits Center north to 42nd St. yesterday.
Mayor Giuliani wants to expand the center
south as part of a plan to create a West Side
stadium. (Daily
News)
Two candidates for Bronx Borough President
dropped out yesterday. City Councilman Larry
Warden told the city Board of Elections that
he was withdrawing his nominating petition
and Ronald Law did not get the 4,000 signatures
needed to get on the ballot. The remaining
candidates for the Democratic primary include
state Senator Pedro Espada Jr. and City Council
members June Eisland and Adolfo Carrion Jr.
(Daily
News)
Queens Borough President Claire Shulman
officially endorsed Alan Hevesi for mayor.
(Daily
News)
Former Board of Education President and city
comptroller candidate William Thompson won
the endorsement of the United Federation of
Teachers union yesterday. (Daily
News)
The city's campaign financing program is
helping even the race for Brooklyn borough
president. Councilmember Fisher has raised
nearly $931,000 with state Sen. Marty Markowitz
raising $490,500 and former Deputy Borough
President Jeannette Gadson raising $250,000.
But more than half of Fisher's money came
in donations of more than $250 and will not
be matched. (Daily
News)
Several of the 90 City Council candidates
running in Queens are approaching the $137,000
limit, according to the Campaign Finance Board.
(Daily
News)
7/17
Michael R. Bloomberg, the billionaire businessman
who is making his first foray into politics,
has already spent a little more than $8 million
of his own money in his bid for mayor. That
is more than the combined expenditures of
all four of the Democrats and one Republican
vying against him. (NY
Times)
Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields,
the city's top elected black official, has
endorsed Herb Berman for comptroller, rather
than his rival Bill Thompson, the only citywide
African-American candidate. (NY
Post)
Queens has no elected Latino officials in
the City Council or the state Legislature.
But with Queens' growing Latino population
- nearly 25 percent of the borough - and with
election interest fueled by Bronx Borough
President Fernando Ferrer's mayoral candidacy,
there's no doubt that the Hispanic vote will
be more energized. There are about 85,000
registered Latino Democrats in Queens. One
race they may help determine is Queens borough
president. (Daily
News)
The blessing of the Queens County Democratic
Organization seems to have done wonders for
the fund-raising of Helen Marshall, one of
three leading candidates for Queens borough
president, according to records released yesterday.
Marshall, a city councilwoman who represents
an East Elmhurst district, has raised $213,000
to date - nearly triple the $76,915 she had
raised by her January filing with the city's
Campaign Finance Board. One of her opponents
Carol Gresser has raised $329,000; the other,
Sheldon Leffer, $156,000. (Newsday)
Of the five candidates for the district 39
city council race in Park Slope who have made
their fund-raising numbers public, only two
received more than half their money in Brooklyn.
For example, Bill de Blasio, who ran Hillary
Rodham Clinton's successful Senate campaign
last year, raised only two percent of his
funds in Brooklyn; some 40 percent of his
funds are from people who live outside the
five boroughs. (Daily
News)
7/16
Mayoral candidate Mark Green yesterday called
for slashing the city's energy use - including
offering landlords bigger incentives to replace
old refrigerators in apartments - to spur
conservation. Green, the city's public advocate,
wants $16.6 million cut from the $332 million
that city government currently spends on power
each year. Doing so, he said, would come from
such measures as cutting down on the amount
of heat and air conditioning and installing
sensors to turn off lights when no one is
in a room. (NY
Post)
Peter Vallone and City Council Member Gifford
Miller stood on an Upper East Side street
corner Sunday to call for stricter enforcement
of New York City' s bicycle laws. Standing
with Alan Finger - who was recently hit by
a bicycle while walking on a sidewalk - Vallone
and Miller demanded that the police department
enforce the law that keeps the sidewalk clear
of bicycles.
Two weeks ago, a report by Mark Green on
the shooting of Amadou Diallo contended Mayor
Rudolph Giuliani's public support of the police
officers in the case "short-circuited" the
department's internal investigation. Bill
Bratton, the former police chief who is supporting
Green, was finally reached for comment on
Green's report. He said he was not consulted
about the report and that it "made certain
presumptions based on circumstantial information."
(Newsday)
7/15
Michael Bloomberg has a novel idea to boost
his prospects in the mayoral race: Create
a new political party so he can appear on
an additional line on the November 8 ballot.
He's calling it the Education First Party,
to underscore his commitment to improving
city schools. There's only one problem. Democrat
Alan Hevesi also is forming a new political
party so he can grab an extra line on the
ballot. And he's calling it the Education
Party to showcase his commitment to the schools.
(Daily
News)
In the 21st Council District - drawn 10 years
ago with the expressed purpose of electing
a Hispanic to the City Council - politicians
of Dominican and Ecuadorian descent are openly
complaining of what they call Puerto Rican
dominance of Latino politics in New York.
The strong rivalries are making it possible
- some say likely - that the primary victory
in September will go not to a Latino, but
to a longtime black activist and minister,
the Rev. Marvin J. Bentley, a resident of
the small but politically powerful African-American
community of East Elmhurst. (Newsday)
7/14
Mayoral candidate Michael Bloomberg, who has
been estimated to be worth around $4.5 billion,
presented four years of tax information Friday,
but revealed very little. He offered reporters
only what is required by election law, and
did so under tight restrictions. He did not
include actual tax returns, which his rivals
for mayor have done, and which mayoral candidates
traditionally release. His campaign said that
such information could harm his company. But
some tidbits can be gleaned. He donated more
than $100 million to nearly 600 charities,
including beleaguered Hale House, in the year
2000, which was more than twice the donations
he made the year before. He sold off his portfolio
of stocks in preparation for his run for mayor.
He is owner of several horses that his daughter
rides competitively, part-owner of a yacht,
and he has invested in a national tour of
the musical "Annie" and in making Arthur Miller's
novel "Focus" into a film. (Daily
News) (NY
Times)
His opponents attacked Bloomberg for his
non-disclosure disclosure. "Are there issues
about whether the taxes he paid don't correlate
to the total income he's earned? We don't
know," city comptroller Alan Hevesi said.
"He might as well have taken the forms and
not answered any question and left them blank."
(NY
Post)
7/13
Republican Herman Badillo appears to face
the highest risk of being knocked out of the
mayoral race after he and the five other major
candidates submitted petitions yesterday to
the Board of Elections to qualify for the
September 11 primary ballot. Badillo handed
in 13,927, which is nearly twice as many as
the 7,500 signatures mayoral candidates need,
but considered a risky margin since it is
common for candidates to challenge the signatures
on their rivals' petitions. By contrast, the
Democratic mayoral candidates handed in up
to 150,000 signatures each. (Daily
News)
Mayoral candidate Mark Green enjoyed a big
fund-raising edge over his Democratic rivals
in the first six months of 2001, figures released
yesterday show. Green's campaign reported
that he collected $1.8 million. Hevesi reported
$1.25 million, Vallone, $1 million, Ferrer,
$625,000 (Daily
News)
Republican mayoral candidate Michael Bloomberg
released his plan to untangle traffic. (Bloomberg
campaign Web site)
District Council 37's surprise backing of
Council Speaker Peter Vallone was part of
a wider pattern in which the mammoth municipal
union has rewarded several term-limited members
of the City Council seeking higher office.
For comptroller, Herbert Berman; for public
advocate, Stephen DiBrienza; for Queens borough
president, Helen Marshall; for Staten Island
borough president, Jerome X. O'Donovan. A
little inside insight into the Vallone endorsement:
Karen Persichilli, a longtime Vallone loyalist
now running day-to-day campaign operations,
happens to be married to Mike Keogh, the union's
political director. (Newsday)
The three Democratic candidates for Queens
borough president say they all easily collected
enough signatures to get on the ballot. So,
too, has the Republican candidate Al Stabile.
(Newsday)
All three Democrats, incidentally, have one
thing in common: None of them was born in
Queens. Helen Marshall was born in Harlem,
grew up in the Bronx and moved to Queens in
1960. City Councilman Sheldon Leffler (D-Hollis)
was born in Brooklyn and moved to Queens with
his family when he was 2 years old. Former
Board of Education President Carol Gresser
was born on Long Island and moved here after
her marriage.
Candidates for public office who sit on local
school boards get a fund-raising boost from
teachers in their districts, campaign finance
records show. One example: Juan Martinez,
the president of Community School District
14 in Williamsburg (which has a history of
financial irregularities), who is running
in Bushwick's 34th Council District. Martinez
has amassed $51,000 in campaign contributions,
one of the heaviest war chests of any Brooklyn
council candidate, and 63 percent of that
money comes from teachers and employees of
the school district. (Daily
News)
7/12
Mayoral candidate Michael Bloomberg's
campaign is trying to assert tight-fisted
control over everything, which makes sense.
Even before his political ambitions surfaced,
no one understood the value of control better
than Mike Bloomberg, a guy who literally built
his fortune on the control of financial information.
(The
New Republic)
Today's the day. Candidates for city office
have until midnight to file their petitions
to qualify for this year's elections. A Council
candidate looking for a spot on the September
primary ballot must produce at least 900 valid
signatures from party members living in his
or her district. Mayoral candidates need 7,500
signatures citywide. (Daily
News)
Leaders of District Council 37 made their
union the first municipal union to make an
endorsement in the mayoral race and in doing
so gave a boost to the candidacy of City Council
Speaker Peter Vallone. If, as expected, the
decision is ratified by the rank and file,
it will provide Vallone with organizational
support and give his flagging mayoral bid
an "instant infusion" of credibility.
Union leaders said they were endorsing the
speaker because he had stood with them on
many issues and they "believe he will
be a good mayor for the entire city."
With 125,000 members, District 37 is the city's
largest municipal union. (Daily
News)
Many unions, however, as well as leading
elected officials are holding off on making
endorsements in this year's mayoral race.
Noting that voters seem uninterested in the
campaign, several union leaders and politicians
say they might stay neutral in the September
11 primary and wait to see who emerges in
an expected two-way runoff. Others, such as
U.S. Representative Charles Rangel say they
will not make any endorsement until it appears
that voters are paying attention to what Rangel
sees as a lackluster campaign. (New
York Times)
Michael Bloomberg yesterday vowed that, if
elected mayor, he would take mass transit
at least once a day. But under the billionaire
candidate's definition, taxi cabs qualify
as mass transit. Riding the F train, Bloomberg
called for mayoral control of the Metropolitan
Transit Authority and for building the Second
Avenue subway, adding a Grand Central station
stop for the Long Island Rail Road and extending
the 7 train west of Times Square. He offered
no new ideas on how to pay for those projects
however. (Newsday)
Mayoral candidate Mark Green launched his
radio advertising campaign yesterday with
spots featuring former Police Commissioner
William Bratton and former Mayor David Dinkins,
both of whom have endorsed the public advocate's
candidacy. (Daily
News)
State Senator Pedro Espada yesterday formally
announced his candidacy for Bronx borough
president. Espada says he has 25,000 signatures,
enough he believes, to withstand any attempts
by his long-time adversaries at the Bronx
Democratic Party organization to keep him
off the ballot. The organization is backing
City Councilman Adolfo Carrion for borough
president. (Daily
News)
7/11
After six months of campaigning, the polls
on the mayoral candidates remain the same.
The lack of change in the polls may mean the
race will be decided in the final days before
the Sept. 11 primaries. (Daily
News)
The mayor's race has turned to issues of
taxes and economic development, as Republican
Michael Bloomberg toured downtown Jamaica,
Queens, and Democrats debated a tax cut.(Newsday)
City Comptroller Alan Hevesi reportedly tried
to get the spending cap lifted in the Democratic
primary race because of concern about running
against billionaire Michael Bloomberg. Mark
Guma, one of Hevesi's chief political advisers,
asked the city's Campaign Finance Board to
eliminate the $5.23 million spending cap for
Democratic candidates because Bloomberg is
already spending millions of dollars on television
commercials. (NY
Post)
City Councilman Ken Fisher, a candidate for
Brooklyn borough president, promised yesterday
that fixing up the waterfront would be his
top priority. Fisher met with the Daily News
Editorial Board and said that he supported
rezoning that would help Williamsburg change
from an industrial area to a residential and
commercial neighborhood. (Daily
News)
City Councilman Adolfo Carrion formally announced
his bid for Bronx borough president on the
steps of Borough Hall yesterday. (Daily
News)
Carol Gresser, candidate for Queens borough
president, received the support of candidate
Haydee Zambrana who dropped out of the race
and endorsed the former Board of Education
president. Zambrana, a community activist
in Corona, had the support of some Hispanic
voters in the area. (Daily
News)
7/10
During a campaign stop on Wall Street, Fernando
Ferrer vowed to reinstate the most recent
cut in the personal income-tax surcharge and
said he would consider restoring a portion
of the hotel-occupancy-tax cut. Ferrer labeled
the Mayor Giuliani-backed reduction in the
surcharge adopted last month as "trivial and
superfluous," saying it saves the average
New Yorker pennies a day, while depriving
the city treasury of $180 million a year.
(NY
Post)
Peter Vallone pledged yesterday to make "values
education" a hallmark of reform in the city's
public schools. "I will put important values
like respect and responsibility back into
the classroom," the City Council speaker said.
"I will make it a central tenet of my school
reform." Other values to be part of the lesson
plan: honesty, kindness, freedom and nonviolence.
(Daily
News)
George Delis was all prepared to run to succeed
Peter Vallone in the district 22 Astoria seat
of the City Council, until Peter Vallone Jr.
entered the race, and received the Queens
Democratic Party organization endorsement.
Delis dropped out, afraid to continue running
because his current job is a political appointment.
"Term limits did not go far enough," he said.
"Is it fair that a son should move in and
the party hands him the seat?" As many as
11 of the 35 open seats are being sought by
relatives of the departing representatives.
(NY
Times)
7/09
Mayoral candidate Alan Hevesi proposed yesterday
putting five so-called mammogram vans on city
streets to offer free - and potentially lifesaving
- breast exams to uninsured women. Each van
could provide more than 7,000 women with the
breast cancer screening annually, Hevesi said.
(Daily
News)
7/08
Mayoral candidate Fernando Ferrer criticized
the education plan of Republican hopeful Michael
Bloomberg yesterday, calling the businessman's
proposal to fix city public schools "amateur."
(NY
Post)
7/07
A city housing official who was one of Controller
Alan Hevesi's top mayoral campaign fund-raisers
has been removed from his post and reassigned
pending an investigation. Officials in the
Department of Housing Preservation and Development
said the investigation of Fred Buzzeo, director
of the department's Queens Anti-Abandonment
Office, will seek to determine whether any
of the $61,000 Buzzeo raised for Hevesi's
campaign came from employees under his supervision
or businesses that have contracts with the
agency. (Daily
News)
7/06
Term limits and the city's campaign finance
law have combined to create a boom year for
political consultants. Some of them are veterans
in the city's political world. But with some
350 people running for an array of city offices,
many novices are benefiting as well. (New
York Times)
For one campaign aide, though, the political
bonanza could become a legal morass. City
Council candidate Joyce Shepard has sued her
former campaign manager, Jack Ballinger. The
District 19 contender alleges that Ballinger
created a campaign website for her and then
lied about her on it. (Daily
News)
Republican mayoral candidate Michael Bloomberg
has announced a sweeping plan to create at
least 100,000 housing units and preserve 2.9
million existing ones. To accomplish this,
Bloomberg would designate a deputy mayor as
housing czar and "re-engineer" the Department
of Buildings to expedite development. In addition,
he would condemn privately owned vacant land
for housing development; give tax incentives
to builders who maximize the size of their
developments; and turn city-owned waterfront
land into new housing zones. Perhaps most
radically, Bloomberg wants the city to seize
buildings that have suffered chronic housing
code violations and turn them over to responsible
owners. (City
Limits Weekly)
The director of a Queens office of the city's
Department of Housing Preservation and Urban
Development is being removed from his post
while officials investigate whether any of
the $61,040 in contributions he delivered
to Alan Hevesi's mayoral campaign came from
city employees he supervises or contractors
who do business with his agency. The official,
Fred Buzzeo, collected more than 130 donations
for the comptroller last year, according to
campaign finance records. City ethics rules
ban workers from soliciting donations from
their subordinates or from using any city-paid
time or resources to collect donations. (New
York Times)
7/05
Politicians took advantage of the Fourth of
July holiday to press their campaigns. Favorite
stops for mayoral hopefuls included the Coney
Island Boardwalk and the Fourth of July parade
in Staten Island. Among the highlights (if
it can be called that): Public Advocate Mark
Green tried to teach a parrot to say "Vote
for Green." (New
York Times)
Joe Heaphy, executive director of the New
York State Tenants and Neighbors Coalition,
has ended his campaign for the City Council
seat from the 26th District. "I have decided
that the best way for me to continue serving
the needs of the community and the city is
to focus my energy on my work to preserve
affordable housing for those who need it most,"
Heaphy said. Public advocate candidate Norman
Siegel used Independence Day to attack Mayor
Giuliani for allegedly infringing on New Yorkers'
freedom of speech. "New York has, under his
administration, become increasingly authoritarian
and repressive," said Siegel, former executive
director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
(Daily
News)
7/04
Herman Badillo yesterday accused his Republican
rival for mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg, of
engaging in dirty tricks and a smear campaign
against him. His opponent's representatives
deny the charge. (NY
Times) (Daily
News)
City Council Speaker Peter F. Vallone, who
has languished for months in the back of the
Democratic pack, has begun to retool his low-flying
campaign for mayor. The goal, Mr. Vallone's
advisers say, is to find an issue that can
galvanize his candidacy and change his image
with voters, to the extent that voters have
an image of him at all. (NY
Times)
William Thompson, the ex-Board of Education
president and investment banker who's running
for city comptroller, broke a half a dozen
securities regulations over his vaunted eight-and-a-half-year
banking career, raising doubts about his qualifications
for the city's second most important elected
post. (Village
Voice) Thompson denies the charge. (NY
Times)
7/03
Mayoral candidate Alan Hevesi was endorsed
by the state Public Employees Federation yesterday,
but declined to say whether public employees
should have the right to take contract disputes
to binding arbitration.(Daily
News)
Michael Bloomberg is taking heat in a political
TV ad for suggesting that sanitation workers
have more dangerous jobs than firefighters
or cops. A Conservative Party ad unveiled
yesterday rakes the Republican for the controversial
comments. "Don't trash the Finest and the
Bravest, Mr. Bloomberg," a voice says in the
ad. (Daily
News)
Republican mayoral candidates Herman Badillo
and Michael Bloomberg face a first test of
strength next week, when each submits voter
signatures to get on the Sept. 11 primary
ballot. Petition gatherers for both candidates
have fanned out in the five boroughs in search
of 7,500 signatures from registered city Republicans.
Failure to deliver enough signatures to the
city Board of Elections by midnight on July
12 will bump a candidate off the ballot. (Newsday)
Public Advocate Mark Green described himself
as a "proud liberal" yesterday and set off
a debate about the L-word. (NY
Post)
Just a few days after his release from a
federal prison in Brooklyn after being held
for 40 days, Adolfo Carrión is returning to
his race for Bronx borough president with
a fury. But Mr. Carrión, a Democratic city
councilman, has returned to a campaign whose
competitive dynamics have intensified significantly
since he was arrested and jailed for his role
in a protest against the United States military's
bombing exercises on the Puerto Rican island
of Vieques. In that time, State Senator Pedro
Espada Jr. has unleashed a campaign whose
pitch can only be described as feverish. Apart
from daylong campaign appearances throughout
the borough, Mr. Espada has raised more than
$100,000 and plastered the Bronx with his
campaign posters and campaign literature.
And another competitor, Councilwoman June
M. Eisland, is also raising money and increasing
her public profile throughout the Bronx. Moreover,
the names of two other candidates have surfaced.
One, Ronald Law, who was once an aide to Daniel
Patrick Moynihan, the former senator, and
Mario M. Cuomo, the former governor, has entered
the race. Councilman Lawrence A. Warden, another
Democrat, has also begun raising money and
collecting signatures to qualify for the ballot
in the Sept. 11 Democratic primary. All of
that has heightened the sense of unpredictability
in a race that is the most competitive contest
the Bronx has seen for the borough presidency
in recent years. (New
York Times)
7/02
Three mayoral candidates -- Peter Vallone,
Mark Green, and Michael Bloomberg -- went
to church yesterday looking for support in
black congregations. (New
York Times)
City Councilman Adolfo Carrion, who spent
more than a month behind bars after protesting
Navy bombing in Vieques, got a warm homecoming
yesterday at the Bronx church once headed
by his father. (Daily
News)
7/01
Only two of the six mayoral candidates - Democrat
Alan Hevesi and Republican Mike Bloomberg
- have run television commercials touting
their candidacies. So far, this article argues,
the commercials have failed to sell the product.
(Daily
News)
June
Campaign Trail