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What is Searchlight on Campaign 2001?
Searchlight
on Campaign 2001 is a guide to the political races in what
many are calling New York City's most significant campaign
season in modern history.
What is so significant about it?
For
the first time in memory, most political offices in the city
will be wide open to people who have neither money nor connections.
Why will the races be so open?
There
are two reasons. This year, a new law goes into effect that
limits the terms of New York City elected officials, forcing
the mass retirement of most incumbents in the city - including
the mayor, the comptroller, the public advocate, four of the
five borough presidents, and 36 of the 51 members of the City
Council. At the same time, a new campaign finance law kicks
in, which allows any candidate who agrees to certain restrictions
to collect four dollars of matching funds for every dollar
they raise.
What does this have to do with this site?
As
a public service, Searchlight on Campaign 2001 has a separate
page for each race, including all the races for City Council,
that not only sorts out the candidates -- many of them new
and unfamiliar -- but also offers an opportunity to learn
about the issues, and the districts themselves.
Who is behind Searchlight on Campaign 2001?
Searchlight
on Campaign 2001 is a project of Gotham Gazette, a non-profit,
non-partisan, non-ideological (but non-boring) web site about
New York City news, policy and politics published by Citizens
Union Foundation, part of the oldest and largest good-government
group in the city (founded in 1897).
What's wrong with the way the regular press
covers the races?
That
is for you to decide. And one of our regular features, Campaign
Trail, helps you to decide. Campaign Trail provides succinct
summaries and links to campaign articles in the commercial
press.
Who are we?
Masthead
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Mark Green
[Question: What would your approach be as mayor
to meet the needs of the city's large and growing
Latino population?]
When I was first asked a version of this question
in the very first debate by Gabe Pressman, I said
my goals were to shrink class size so that our kids
, K through three, can learn and build not more
stadiums but more housing which our city so desperately
needs. But to understand what I would do as 108th
Mayor, you should know where I've been. My bond
is my history. Thirty- one years ago I had brown
hair and I was the editor of a leading civil rights,
civil liberties law review in America. So before
I knew I was running for this office-- I'm precocious,
but not that precocious-- when I was a young lawyer
in formation, I ran a human rights law review arguing
against the death penalty because it didn't deter,
it was unappealable, it was a mistake, and it discriminated
by race under its application. A year ago I did
a study called Justice Denied because this state
and city pays legal aid lawyers as much in the year
2001 per hour as we paid in 1985 per hour. Guess
what, there aren't enough lawyers representing young,
mostly women with children, in the family court
because lawyers aren't available.
I was the person who pushed and insisted and got
the city council to approve the four to one match
which has opened up this campaign, so that on the
Democratic side for sure, merit, not money, will
be the decisive factor. Thousands of more people
are participating.
Before any of us heard the names Louima and Diallo
four and a half years ago, I sued Mayor Giuliani
to get the files of abusive and unpunished cops.
Got the files, exposed a pattern of the NYPD protecting
rather than punishing abusive officers and helped
triple the rate of discipline in the police department.
And so when I argue that I have been a fighter on
your side against bullies and big shots and interests,
and will be a fighter on your side against bullies,
big shots and interests, it's not a slogan, that's
been my life, and that's why I think I would be
the best mayor for all of New York and for the Puerto
Rican and Latino community in New York.
[Question: A major issue facing Latinos across
the country is under-representation, especially
when it comes to decision making levels, and New
York City is no exception. How would you specifically
address this issue? What are your thoughts about
city affirmative action programs?]
It's a good question because we have to see what
each of us have done to predict what each of us
will do. I am a strong advocate of affirmative action
to undo the discrimination of the past. Let me just
say that when I was the Consumer Affairs Commissioner,
a quarter of my staff was Latino, a quarter of my
staff was African-Caribbean-American, and the very
first set of issues I worked on with the 106th mayor,
David Dinkins, who I am proud is supporting me in
this campaign, was called the Poor Pay More, how
low income communities of color paid more for the
same exact market basket of food, auto insurance,
financial services. Bad enough when there's willful
discrimination in the private market, when there
is de facto discrimination when you buy goods. We
try to encourage more Pathmarks into the city and
crack down on stores which overcharge people because
of the communities they live in.
As public advocate and now as a candidate, I have
a staff that is a fifth to a third Latino. In a
city with 200 nationalities, ethnicities, religions
and races, a city where there is no majority, 40
percent of us were born abroad, it is crazy to exclude
the talents of big chunks of the city. That's what's
happened.
The era when we have a mayor who ignores half the
city, won't go to half the city, won't sit down
with the elected and religious leadership of half
the city, is going to end in six months when I'm
mayor.
Now let me give you just one concrete example.
The fire department. I have nothing against white
men, as you can see. But other cities like Los Angeles,
Chicago and Philadelphia, which have roughly our
minority/majority populations, have 40 and 50 percent
of their fire departments people of color. In New
York City, seven percent of the fire department
are people of color, 93 percent are white men. That
is intolerable in a city that 63 percent are non-white
and so I propose to Virginia Fields, our borough
president, [to create] two fire services high schools
so we can capture students at an early age when
they are excited about their career, get them on
a career path of fire service.
We cheat tax payers and we cheat a city of immigrants
built by immigrants if we don't make our city more
inviting to our new immigrants.
[Question: What role did you personally play,
how did you respond, not just after serious incidents
like the Anthony Baez police brutality case, but
the infamous Seinfeld and Law and Order episodes
on the Puerto Rican Day Parade and the David Letterman
insulting remarks about the Colombians?]
I don't want to fight hypothetical, but I sure
as hell hope I would appoint men and women who wouldn't
engage in such casual verbal stereotyping and discrimination.
But if an otherwise good person made a stupid remark
, I would publicly chastise him because they work
for me and then if their work product was still
good, we'd move ahead.
I rarely comment, whether it's Seinfeld or The
Sopranos, about artistic works that could be or
are offensive. I'd like to focus on offensive deeds,
more than offensive artistic words. So when Mayor
Giuliani tried to arrest the homeless on Thanksgiving,
tried to change the city charters, when he denied
that there was a level of racial profiling, police
misconduct that was tearing apart cops and communities
of color, and when he tried to shut a great cultural
institution because he didn't like a particular
exhibit, which he never saw by the way, more often
than not, let's be factual, I was the one Democrat
who again and again and again and again stood up,
talked back, organized the coalition, and defeated
him when it counted.
I will try to be sensitive to offensive images
in the artistic media, but I really want to focus
as public advocate and mayor on the policies that
can better integrate communities of color in our
city and to our culture and to our economy, and
to our government.
[Question: What is your campaign strategy for
reaching Latino voters?]
I want to focus on three issues, that all New Yorkers,
especially the Latino community , I hope will appreciate.
First, the school system is broken and I want to
fix it. To simply argue the Board of Ed should stay
intact or the way to cure the bureaucracy is to
expand its size won't work. Test scores have been
flat and if we don't teach basic literacy and numeracy
skills to our young children, the majority of whom,
of course, are kids of color, the city won't make
it and neither will the Latino community. That's
step one. How do you do that? I created a class
size coalition of the leading business, labor, civic,
and parents to figure out the will and the wallet
to shrink class size so that by the time I'm done
as mayor, no child will be in a class larger than
twenty, K through three, period. And second there
is a big deal to negotiate now with our teachers
and if Mayor Giuliani won't do it, I will. And it's
to pay more for more professional development during
the school day. All these teachers really want,
and require more performance. Going to lower performing
schools and spending more time on week-end and in
the summers as we have asked the principals we should
ask similarly of teachers.
Second, on economic development, New York City
is it for technology and it was at The New School
that I held a community entrepreneurial development
session four months ago with some of the leading
neighborhood advocates. I don't want to just give
big tax breaks to big companies who threaten to
leave so that so much of our scarce dollars go to
mid and down-town Manhattan. Every community has
untapped demand and skills that we grow from the
bottom up as Senator Kennedy tried to do in Bedford
Stuyvesant so many years ago. None of this would
work without the broadest possible coalition, and
so the way to reach the Latin-American community
is that I don't want to run based on any one race,
or one zip-code, or one group. We just tried that.
I am very proud that when New York 1 two months
ago analyzed this campaign and they reported independently
that I have the broadest, interracial interethnic,
multi-borough coalition of any candidate. From Mayor
Dinkins to Fernando Matteo to 100 Latinos in Law
Enforcement, to 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who
Care, to 80 Pentecostal ministers in the South Bronx,
part of the Latin-American clergy association. That's
the coalition I need to win, and that's the kind
of coalition, I need to govern for the Latino community
especially.
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What is this?
Gotham Gazette's Searchlight on Campaign 2001 offers a comprehensive
look at what is being called New York City's most significant
campaign season in modern history. (See the left-hand column
for an explanation).
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Districts of the Week
District
1 -- Lower Manhattan
Whoever wins the election in district 1 will represent immigrant
Chinese garment workers, as well as Wall Street traders living
in Battery Park City. There are several candidates hoping
to be the council's firsts -- the first Asian-American man,
the first Asian-American woman, the first gay Rhodes Scholar,
the first dot-com guru -- running against some politically
well connected opponents. Endorsements and fundraising will
play a big role in this race. But voter turnout could be the
main determinant of who will next represent district 1 on
the council. The key question is how many voters from each
community will come out on Election Day.
District
7 -- Washington Heights, Manhattan
The northern tip of Manhattan has become one of the most popular
places for new immigrants to call home. The northern tip of
Manhattan is a place that today's new immigrants call home.
The majority have come from the Dominican Republic, but also
from countries in South America, Eastern Europe, and Asia.
But it is not just new immigrants that are moving in. Students,
artists, and other Manhattanites looking for less expensive
rents and larger apartments have also moved north. Ten Democratic
candidates are competing for the 15,000 voters expected on
primary day. The winner who emerges from a crowded field of
candidates will have to balance the needs of the newcomers
with those who have lived there for years.
District
16 -- Highbridge, Bronx
The neighborhoods of district 16 are the city's poorest, with
the highest rate of unemployment and the lowest median household
income. But those who live there also point out that much
is positive and stable about the area, thanks in large part
to local organizations, not-for-profit agencies, and houses
of worship that help hold the neighborhoods together. Each
candidate for City Council believes that through his or her
connections to churches and local organizations, they can
help empower the community toward a better life. Helen Foster,
the current council member daughter, will face Michael Benjamin,
who has worked as an aide to several government officials
and Anthony Curry, a Bronx neighborhood activist.
District
20 -- Northeast Flushing, Queens
This year district 20 may elect the first Asian-American ever
to the City Council to an area which now has the second highest
number of immigrants from Korea and Taiwan in the city. There
are three Asian candidates in the Democratic race who have
each drawn big endorsements. Council Speaker Peter Vallone
endorsed Terence Park, City Comptroller Alan Hevesi endorsed
John Liu, and the New York Times recently endorsed Ethel Chen
The campaign has also drawn national and international press
coverage
District
25 -- Jackson Heights, Queens
Thirty-seventh Avenue in Jackson Heights, Queens is one of
the most diverse streets in the world. Little India quickly
blends into Little Colombia, with vendors selling Latin American
food to Colombians, Peruvians, Ecuadorians, Mexicans, and
Uruguayans. And each summer, the Queens Pride Parade fills
the same street with rainbow banners. So it is no surprise
that this election year the district produced a diverse field
of candidates. A number of them, however, found out that getting
on the ballot is not an easy task, especially when the Queens
Democratic organization sends teams of lawyers to challenge
petitions. But five Democratic candidates survived and will
face off on September 11.
District
31 -- South East Queens
When a heavy rain hits southeast Queens, many residents in
neighborhoods like Springfield Gardens, Laurelton and Rosedale
head to the basement with a bucket in hand. And it has been
that way for the last 50 years. In the rush to build housing
in the area after World War II, developers overlooked the
need for storm drains in hopes that the city would eventually
build a city-wide sewer system. The plan never materialized
and the area has experienced "100-year rains" three times
in the last decade. The eight Democrats -- all with little
experience overseeing massive infrastructure projects--will
try to convince voters that they can finally solve the flooding
problems.
District
35 -- Central Brooklyn
The residents in council district 35 have some of the highest
incomes in Brooklyn and some of the lowest. They can play
in a famous park and a beautiful botanical garden, and live
in the city's most crumbling public housing. They can attend
one of the four institutions of higher learning in the district,
and the worst-scoring high schools in the city. Such juxtapositions
are a way of life for a district that includes the Brooklyn
Academy of Music, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Brooklyn Botanical
Gardens; mid dle-class African-American communities near Prospect
Park; immigrant communities from Haiti, Sierra Leon, Nigeria,
and Trinidad, and in Crown Heights, a mix of Hasidic Jews
and African-Americans. Seven Democratic candidates are campaigning
in hopes that they can bring some kind of unity, and attention,
to the area. Their backgrounds are as diverse as the neighborhoods
themselves.
District
39 -- Park Slope/Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
The candidates in district 39 include a chief of staff for
an Assemblywoman, the husband of a member of U.S. Congress,
a lawyer for the Legal Aid Society, an attorney and president
of the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats, Senator Hillary
Clinton's campaign manager, the district manager of Community
Board 6, and a labor organizer. This is the race to watch
this year. The group of high-profile Democrats have raised
a lot of money, almost $1.4 million combined.
District
45 -- East Flatbush
In no place in the city are the effects of campaign finance
reform and term limits being felt more than in East Flatbush.
The seven Democratic candidates seeking to represent this
largely West Indian district come from a number of Caribbean
nations. Many have been working on politicians' staffs and
serving with community groups, clearly hoping someday to win
their own elected office. Term limits has presented them with
that opportunity, and they want to make the most of it. But
this race that usually draws only about 8,000 voters could
be decided by just a few votes. The candidates are attempting
to come up with anything that will separate them from the
pack.
District
49 -- North Shore, Staten Island
Staten Island has always been somewhat of a suburban stepchild
to New York City. When a 1998 survey asked New Yorkers why
they go to Staten Island, the top two responses were ''visiting
friends and relatives" and ''passing through.'' But in many
ways, the north shore has more in common with areas of Manhattan
and Brooklyn than with the rest of the Staten Island. The
top priority for all the candidates -- Jon Del Giorno, an
administrative manager for the Board of Elections, Mike McMahon,
an attorney and counsel to current Councilmember Jerome O'Donovan,
and Debi Rose, an administrator at the College of Staten Island
and the first African-American candidate in Staten Island
politics -- is to make sure that the island becomes more than
just a turn-around-point for the over one million tourists
who ride the free ferry from Manhattan each year.
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Abbreviations
for Party Affiliation
American
Dream Party (AMD)
Better Schools Party (BES)
Communist (Com)
Conservative (Con)
Constitution (CST)
Democratic (Dem)
Friends United Party (FUN)
Fusion Party (FUS)
Green (Gre)
Harmony Party (HAR)
Independence (Ind)
Liberal (Lib)
Libertarian (LBT)
Marijuana Reform Party (POT)
Natural Law Party (NLP)
Party of Ethics and Traditions (PET)
Reform Party (Ref)
Republican (Rep)
Right to Life (RTL)
School Choice Party (Sch)
Socialist Workers Party (SWP)
Working Families (Wor)
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2001 Election
Calendar
June
1 -- Deadline for candidates to join the Campaign Finance
program, qualifying for the four-to-one match of contributions.
June
5 - First day for candidates from the eight major parties
(Democratic, Republican, Indpendence, Conservative, Liberal,
Green, Working Families, and Right to Life) to circulate
petitions. Candidates running for City Council must collect
the signatures of at least 900 people living in the district
for which they are running in order to appear on the Primary
ballot. Candidates not running under these eight major parties
do not appear on the Primary ballot and have a separate
set of deadlines.
July 12 - Deadline for major party candidates to
file petitions.
July 10 - First day for unaffiliated candidates to
circulate petitions, in order to appear on the ballot in
the General Election. They must collect the number of signatures
equal to five percent of the total enrolled in that party.
August 7 - Board of Elections announces candidates
appearing on the Primary ballot.
August 17 - Last day for non-absentee voters to register
to vote in the Primary Election.
August 21 - Deadline for non-major party candidates
to file petitions to be included on the General Election
ballot.
September 4 - Last day to postmark application for
absentee voting in the Primary
September 10 - Last day to personally deliver application
for absentee voting in the Primary Last day to postmark
absentee ballot for Primary
September 11 - Primary election; Polls open at 6:00a.m.
and close at 9:00p.m.; Absentee ballots must be hand-delivered
by 9:00 p.m.
September 25 - Runoff Primary election for Mayor,
Comptroller and Public Advocate, if needed
October 12 - Last day to for non-absentee voters
to register to vote in the General Election
October 30 - Last day to postmark application for
absentee voting in the General Election
November 5 - Last day to hand-deliver an application
for absentee voting, or to postmark an absentee ballot for
the General Election.
November 6 - General Election; polls open at 6:00a.m.
and close at 9:00p.m. in NYC; Absentee ballots must be hand-delivered
by 9:00 p.m.
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