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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
[Talks about his connections with the Village Independent
Democrats] I think we share values like making sure
the graduate students of NYU right here can organize
like the [National Labor Relations Board] says they
have a right to organize. I want to be the 108th mayor
of New York City because I love this city, but I am
not satisfied with this city. My wife and I have planted
our flag and are raising our children because 95 years
ago Nathan Green and Fannie Aaronburn fled czarist
Russia and landed on the lower east side for freedom
and opportunity. They worked their tails off, their
children got good schooling, my mother was a teacher
until I was born, my father worked his way through
New York Law School. My other grandparents came from
Poland...[He talks some more about his family]
I know who I represent, and I know where I came from.
But I am not satisfied with this city, not when 40
percent of the children who enter 9th grade don't
graduate on time. Not when so many minority wrongly
but vividly fear the cops more than the culprits.
Not when we have a mayor who spends so much time talking
about building stadiums and skyboxes rather than building
affordable homes for young couples. It's important
that any candidate for mayor build on what Mayor Giuliani
has accomplished, for example in crime suppression.
[And then] to go way beyond him. [I wish we] had a
mayor of New York City that didn't arrest the homeless
on Thanksgiving, didn't try to shut museums because
of exhibits he didn't much like, didn't violate civil
liberties in 21 of 22 court decisions, and didn't
run a government by enemies list, based on perverse
math that you can add to the city by dividing it.
I am not running against Rudy Giuliani. I am running
to go beyond Rudy Giuliani. I am starting this campaign
in a very strong position because of a provably huge
interborough, interracial coalition. Why? I have been
a noble underdog and I've been ahead. I am starting
in this strong position I think for two reasons. My
record, and my vision. Look, I'm in government not
to jump on bandwagons, but to build them. I did it
as a public interest lawyer, I did it as an author,
I did it as someone who would fight Buchanan and Buckley
and Novak--I had to get tetanus shots that morning
(a joke)--and survived to get to VID. But before you
promote anybody to the top job, you better be sure
they excel at that and did not slumber through their
current jobs. Before any of us should sit in city
hall, you better ask where have you stood on the big
issues and what have you gotten done. And when I was
told that we can't stop mob ownership of commercial
carding, I went after the mob, revoked their licenses.
My daughter got a death threat against me. And we
got it done, in this instance with mayor Giuliani
and we saved a half billion dollars a year for business
and consumers. I was disgusted as a father and as
a public official at billboards disproportionately
in minority communities that seduced 13 year olds
into smoking, if not dying and I filed a petition
in 1990 against Joe Camel. Six years later the Federal
Trade Commission ruled that it was illegal as unconscionable.
Six months later, RJ Reynolds took the signs down
around the country.
The thing perhaps that I'm most proud of, as an activist
in government, who tries to expose problems, craft
solutions, and enact them, is my record on police
misconduct. Four years ago, before any of us heard
the names Louima, Diallo, or Dorismond, I sued Mayor
Giuliani because he was in deep denial about racial
profiling and police misconduct that went unpunished.
I won my lawsuit, I released an investigation showing
a pattern of unpunished misconduct. In part as a result,
along with [New York State Attorney General] Eliot
Spitzer's investigation and the US attorney general's
investigation, the rate that police with substantiated
complaints are punished went from 25 percent, up to
75 percent. He won't admit it, but Mayor Giuliani
saw the light, because he felt the heat of public
officials like myself demanding that he do better.
And after Patrick Dorismond was tragically killed,
Mayor Giuliani compounded the tragedy by politically
releasing--and illegally releasing--confidential files
of the deceased man. I sued him in State Supreme Court
and I won to put him under oath how he got the files,
and why he did it. I'm proud to be with Peter [Vallone],
the author of the bill we're all running under, where
we get matching funds so nobody can buy the election,
there's a floor under candidates because of public
funds, and a ceiling which we can not exceed. They
invented web sites for wonks like people in this audience
[plugs his website, saying it shows the hundreds of
things he's done].
If you want to elect a politician who is more cautious,
and finger in the wind, vote for someone else. If
you want someone who has been an outspoken fighter,
for children, and families and tax payers, and gay
couples, and minorities in the workforce, that's what
I have done my whole life. It's not a slogan, it's
my public life since school. Basically, all of that
should get all of us to the finals. The four people
who are running are very experienced and credible,
as city-wide and borough wide officials. For two centuries
from the Erie Canal to our port, we prospered as a
manufacturing, bricks and mortar economy. Our asset
now is not on brawn, it's on brains, it's not our
port, it's that we're a portal to the new information
economy. Despite the collapse of the dot coms, the
speed at which information is distributed is not going
to get any slower. We're at the crossroads of the
information global economy. I have ideas on how using
the new technology and bringing people together rather
than dividing them, we can have smarter kids with
smaller class sizes and my class size summit is getting
there, smarter policing by tougher disciplining and
more neighborhood policing. Smarter growth, where
we talk more about housing and the Internet economy,
than stadiums for private teams worth more than the
people in this room put together. And finally, in
race relations, there are 200 nationalities in this
city. You can't elect somebody who looks like each
of you. You can elect somebody who listens to each
of you. The era when we have a chief executive of
this city, who doesn't represent half the city, who
won't even sit down with the elected and civic and
religious leadership of half the city, is about to
be over.
[Question about abolishing the Board of Education]
There are three things I want to do in 30 seconds.
Shrink class size, and school size, it's the best
way to make sure that if kids are in classes of 20
or fewer, they'll get it. Second, pay teachers a lot
more for higher standards, and more professional development,
and more computer sophistication. Third, change the
structure of the Board of Education so that there
is more mayoral control. I'll tell you, if this room
could start a country, how many of you would say "Let's
see, let's create a bureaucracy where six politicians
appoint seven people, who may be buddies rather than
educators, to govern the city's education.
There's no more important issues than public safety,
and public education. Test scores have been flat for
a decade, and excellent chancellors, like Harold Levy,
or poor chancellors, can't do well enough because
the system doesn't let them. We need all those three
things.
[Question about no-tolerance policy towards illegal
drugs, described as a "police state policy."]
For as along as I have looked at it, I have wanted
to repeal the Rockefeller drug laws. Two states in
a public vote did what Governer Pataki is starting
to do, and we have to push him to do. That is, when
you're dealing with a stupid kid first time non-violent
drug offender, who's not selling but using from heroin
to marijuana, treat him rather than incarcerate him.
It's cheaper, more moral and it cuts costs. Those
are three goals that are not liberal, and they're
not conservative, they're smart.
[Question about making housing affordable not just
throughout the city, but in areas where it is difficult
to find a place, like Greenwich Village and the Upper
West Side.]
I think all of the candidates happily are fighters
for keeping rent stabilization and rent control, because
[without them] then things will really get out of
hand. But beyond that, because housing is not a discretionary
item, it's an essential of life, we have a market
economy, the reason rents are up for all of us--my
daughter happily will now have to live with us forever
is because we can't afford anything. The bad news
is a lot of people want to be in New York city, especially
in Manhattan, the jewels of the city are words like
Greenwich Village, and the Upper East Side. First
of all, I have said at the President Carter Habitat
for Humanity symposium in the first month of office
should I be mayor, I want to organize an affordable
housing development summit and bring together the
best developers and for-profit people, the best churches,
the best not-for-profit organizations to accumulate
a pool, a stream of revenues from Battery Park City,
from the sale of the World Trade Center . . . from
Washington--which it's hard to be optimistic about
that now--how many New Yorkers are there in Bush's
cabinet? Stumped me too. I can't guarantee that there
will be more affordable housing in a particular venue,
like Greenwich Village. Space is scarce. . . Mayor
Giuliani for seven years has never used the words
"class size" or "housing shortage." I'm delighted
that in the eighth year he is trying to prettify his
legacy by at least talking about what his successor
will do.
[Question about what he would do differently than
Giuliani to get hospitals to operate under a balanced
budget]
I don't have a policy or opinion on it. . . . We
need to stay away from for-profit hospitals. Hospitals
will change in the next ten years as much as they
have changed in the past hundred, because thank god
with more preventive care, there are fewer beds being
used, but it's amazing that the mayor hasn't treated
hospitals with the same passion as the mayor of Detroit
treats cars, and the mayor of Akron treats tires.
It is, along with finance and real estate, the two
major job providers and profit centers in our city,
and they deserve a lot more attention from our next
mayor.
[Question about free tuition at the City University
of New York]
I was against ending remediation at the four year
colleges as the mayor has proposed it because it made
it harder for the newest arrivals to do what my grandparents
did a century ago. CUNY of course can take people
and process them by giving them a quality humanities
education, and all these proposals have made it harder
not easier. Now, there is a big budget implication
to making tuition free. What I wouldn't do is price
working people out, and the worst thing just about
that I think the mayor has done is not that his welfare
policies have required work for welfare, there's a
consensus about that, but that he is requiring students
who are going to school in one borough to work off
their benefits in another borough, giving them the
horrible Faustian choice of being educated or working.
That is cruel, it's unnecessary, and it should be
reversed.
[Question about giving millions of dollars to the
police for the enforcement of quality of life violations]
Let me say that Bernard Kerik is the only police
commissioner in the last five years that I haven't
asked to resign. Howard Safir allowed the overtime
to start ballooning from about 80 million dollars
in 1995, to 250 million dollars, that is managerial
neglect. I did ask him to resign about a year and
a half ago, before Diallo. I think he incompetently
ran the police department. We need as many or more
patrol on our streets. That means, and here Alan Hevesi
and I agree, we need to civilianize--you don't need
cops in blue--handling medical records, preparing
the fleet, we should civilianize desk jobs and move
more police more onto the street. We can save money
and increase safety.
[Question about big chain stores moving into the
city, considering that some don't allow unions and
don't allow people to shop with food stamps]
Well, I am a progressive pro-labor Democrat, but
I don't tell a private company whether they're union
or not. If they are going to deal a contract with
the city, I'd like to figure out a law so they pay
a greater living wage and they don't cut cost by cutting
benefits. If a Home Depot wants to move in, I don't
think they should be able to move in as a matter of
right, which is the initial issue, but at the same
time a lot of people like these stores and they go
to New Jersey to shop there because there is a big
choice and a low price. And so it should go through
land use process to watch out for extra traffic and
pollution. And if any store doesn't take food stamps
or harasses people for shopping while black, that's
something that the Human Rights Commission should
go after. But the mayor can't tell a store not to
come in, other than for quality of life reasons in
a community.
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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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