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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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Alan Hevesi
First, just a general statement as to how I see
this city, in summary, and what our potential is.
Secondly, since I am meeting a lot of you for the
first time I will give you a little biographical
background. And third let me review very briefly
what the agenda of issues is for the next mayor.
This city, New York City, is the greatest city
in the world. And it is the most ethnically diverse
city in the history of cities. There has never been
a place like New York. Forty percent of New Yorkers
today are immigrants. If you include my generation
when my parents were the immigrants, it's 56 percent.
There are over a hundred, many more than a hundred
languages, dialects, and subdialects spoken in the
public schools by kids who didn't speak English
first. It's an incredible, extraordinary mix of
people. It also means in our democratic politics
that we get very contentious when we debate public
policy issues. And we are going to disagree, and
if people disagree they ought to do it in the context
of that system of democracy, but we also for our
own sakes and for our children's sakes and the future's
sakes should have an understanding that we ought
to be together on first principles, that we ought
to be able to listen to each other, to disagree,
to compromise, and to focus on what are the major
issues. And I think the glory of our city is this
diversity. . .
Let me tell about my career in the legislature
and then comptroller and how I see the city. I am
the author of 108 laws. At least half a dozen of
them I believe have saved people's lives. Legislation
to require that every hospital accept every emergency
patient: There was a time that you could have a
heart attack outside the city hospital, public or
private, and they didn't have to treat you because
they wanted fracture cases--they had too many heart
attacks for their teacher training.
That's now a crime. It's now a crime to perform
medical experiments on people without their informed
consent. There was a time in the city when you could
do that. . . . There was a nursing home scandal
in the 1970's. I wrote the Omnibus Nursing Home
law. I wrote the Son of Sam law, which prohibits
a criminal from profiting from his crime by publishing
the results, and if there is any profit it goes
to the victim. So there is a long record of involvement
with legislation.
But let me talk about our positioning in this
mayoral race in relation to the record. A lot of
the media are going to portray me as the centrist
candidate--the centrist candidate for the shorthand
characterization. And on issues on governing that
will be true, I am going to be the fiscal moderate.
I've had about a dozen fights with Mayor Giuliani,
I've gotten along with him more than most. Sometimes
that's difficult. Most of the fights have been on
financial issues where I thought he was violating
the norms of prudent budgeting. So for example he
wanted to sell the watershed of the city of New
York for cash flow, before the Wall Street boom.
The council passed that into law. I said I would
not issue the debt. I blocked the plan. The mayor
sued me, and unanimously three levels of judges
agreed with me that that was a bad idea and illegal.
He wanted to do bond refundings that had the advantage
in the short term of saving money this year and
maybe next year, and then blow out the budgets.
And I issued a policy saying there will never be
in my term as comptroller bond refunding that has
one nickel's negative disadvantage, negative effect
on any future budget and that's been the policy
here. In terms of governance, plans to use our surplus
to pay down long term debts so that we are not cheating
our children, resisting the sale of our assets in
order to have cash today, and then somebody else's
problem the next time. I'll be the centrist.
But when it comes to fundamental social issues,
the litmus test issues, the issues that define our
public officials, I'm the most powerful and militant
advocate, not because I tell you this, not because
I am positioning myself in a campaign, but because
I have an advantage over the other candidates in
the sense of having a record of 22 years in the
New York state Legislature, voting 2200 times a
year on the floor of the assembly, and 500 more
times in committee. That's over 50,000 votes. .
. And therefore I am on the record. So in the late
70's, after Roe V. Wade, when the pro-choice coalition
went home with victory--women now had the right
to choose for the first time in history--they weren't
going to go to jail or be prosecuted for having
abortions. The pro choice coalition went home after
Roe V. Wade. Right to Life didn't go home. They
attacked this law in every state. On the edges,
prohibiting Medicaid funding for abortion, parental
consent for teenage abortions and so on, and when
it came to New York, New York's Assembly--not the
Legislature, the Assembly--was one of the very few
institutions to protect a woman's right to choose,
and not take a step back. And I was the Health Committee
chair and therefore the informal chair of the pro
choice coalition of NARAL and NOW and Planned Parenthood
and the Civil Liberties Union. And I am very proud
that New York State is one of the few states that
has never ever retreated, and never ever once compromised
on a woman's right to choose. 1983 the first Gay
Right's legislation was introduced into the New
York Assembly, I was the second lead debater...in
1993 we passed this legislation. And I mention these
because I am not from the Village, and I am not
from the West Side of Manhattan. I come from Central
Queens a moderately progressive assembly district--Forest
Hills--with an Orthodox Jewish community throughout
and the Southern part of my district is school board
24, which resisted the Rainbow Coalition and now
has elected the leading homophobic figure in New
York City. I led the debates against the death penalty--I
didn't [just] oppose the death penalty--I led the
debates against them from the moment in 1978 when
the issue came back to the legislature, and led
it for the entire fourteen remaining years of my
career....
None of the four of us, all experienced and well
qualified candidates, is a celebrity. This is going
to be a campaign about substance. And here are the
issues: Two or three of them involve sustaining
what has been accomplished in the Giuliani administration.
And you cannot take away the reality that Giuliani
has focused on some issues and been very successful.
We cannot take a step back in the fight against
crime. We have new methodologies, new deployments
for the peaceful use of the police force because
the crime rates are dramatically down, and new technology
so that a confrontation between a police officer
and a citizen is on camera.
There's a variety of changes to make. I attribute
the fact that we have 37 million tourists instead
of 27 million tourists partly to that success and
how shinier and cleaner and safer the city has been.
We have 412,000 more jobs than we had six years
ago. They are high end jobs. The growth in our existing
industries like Wall Street and lawyering and marketing
and advertisement. . . They didn't come here for
the low rents or the low taxes. They came here to
be part of the creative energy of New York. And
that has to be sustained by us being business friendly.
And I am not for massive tax cuts but I am for tax
cuts that increase and create jobs.
But having said that, the new issues that confront
the new mayor: School reform. There has to be a
crusade to reform and fix the public schools. The
general commentary is that we have the best public
schools in New York. And we have the worst schools
in the world, awful, terrible schools with no learning
and no teaching and no family support and the buildings
crumbling. We have in the midst of this boom an
unemployment rate at 5.6 percent, which is down
from 10 percent five years ago. But 5.6 percent
is the second highest among cities in America. Three
months ago we were number one. We dropped below
Miami. There is a population here of several thousand
New Yorkers who are school dropouts, who cannot
get jobs, there are many fewer entry level jobs
because we have less manufacturing--from 900,000
to 400,000--because there isn't any port to speak
of. And the threshold has been raised because of
the information technology revolution. You got to
have 200 storefronts in the city that are just like
libraries--you walk in the door, the computers are
there, the teachers are there, you go to the beginner
computer, and get them hooked like the four-year-olds
are on computer games. You then take the ten lessons
intermediate, you finish another sequence, and over
in the other corner are the Chase Manhattan back
office jobs that we connect you to.
[Question about paying workfare recipients paychecks
rather than welfare benefits?]
I believe in the WEP program, the work experience
program for people who are on welfare. I also believe
in various substantial programs that train people
to get out of welfare, and we've had a number of
work training programs that correlated to no jobs
at the end of the path. They have to be work experience
and training that connect you to the jobs that are
available, whether it's retail, whether it's in
computers, whether it's construction--by the way
vocational education as well--we've closed down
vocational education in the public schools, and
now the construction industry is desperate for people
to train as carpenters and as engineers.
[Question about how to protect affordable housing]
There is a fund of money available at this moment
to amortize a substantial debt for an affordable
housing program. Battery Park City is a state run
operation, which the city by the way can take over--we
have the option at five year intervals--but it makes
a profit. This year's profit is about 54 million
dollars. It's been averaging about 40 million dollars.
Next year's profit will be 104 million dollars but
that's one shot, because they're selling a building--they
built the building and don't want to be landlords.
We can take 35 or 40 million dollars annual profit
every year, that comes to the city and borrow 350
million or 400 million dollars for an affordable
housing program and pay for it with profits earmarked
the interest and amortization. And that's not my
original idea, because it's in the lease of Battery
Park City that profits should go to pay for affordable
housing. That will create 10 or 12 or 14 thousand
units of housing depending on how you do it. You
layer on top of that what we are already doing with
the pension fund, and the New York City pension
funds in the last ten years have provided the money
for the rehabilitation of 26,000 units of housing.
Half of it during my term as comptroller. And Carl
McCall does the same with the state pension fund.
When you add that up you have a substantial first
start for affordable housing. But the point has
to be made that if we don't sustain the city's economy
as a priority, and keep the job flow coming into
the city, which pays the revenues to provide these
services, and take care of our schools, we're not
going to be able to build on that program.
[Question about capital punishment]
I led the debate on it for fourteen years and the
arguments that we made that no one bought into that
you are going to make terrible mistakes have been
reinforced by the state of Illinois which had 25
convicts on death row and 13 were proven that they
were likely not guilty by DNA.
[Question about affirmative action]
Yes (I support it). Not quotas, but affirmative
action. I have supported for example Mayor Dinkins
had an affirmative action program that substantially
increased the number of vendors doing business with
the city from four percent before he was mayor to
17 percent by encouraging women owned and minority
owned businesses. We've done this at the comptroller's
office. In fact the first thirty Wall Street firms
that we've selected when I was first elected have
nine minority and women owned firms, and we have
insisted, despite mayor Giuliani's opposition to
any affirmative action, that the questionnaires
filled out by people who do business with my office
tell us their affirmative action program and I think
indirectly--not that we'll take credit--but for
example Merrill Lynch has a president named Komansky,
and his next in line, when he retires, is an African
American. So that they have been recruiting internally,
as well as partnering up with the smaller firms.
[Question about how to improve relations with cops
and minorities]
I produced a memo with 19 recommendations to the
police commissioner for dealing with the issue of
the relationship between particularly the African
American community and the police department. And
it's full of a variety of ideas, I'll give you an
example or two. Some are technical. There was a
time in New York City that when a police officer
graduated from the academy and went to work and
got into a police car with a partner, a rookie,
that there was a requirement that a training sergeant
climb into the back seat of that car and rode with
that rookie for 20 tours. And supervised to see
whether that rookie was quick on the trigger, or
incompetent, so in the probation period you can
either deal with them, train them, or get rid of
them. That has to be restored--more sergeants. We
have an outstanding series of strategies and tactics
to fight crime. They're summarized by the zero tolerance
program. The precinct commanders... if they don't
do the job, they are removed. We have to now insist
that there be zero tolerance for the police officers
who violate reasonable search or probably cause
rules, who are part of a pattern in some neighborhoods
which became systematic in this city of abusing
African American young men for the most part. We
have the best police department in the world, with
40,000 police officers. We have the best trained,
I think the most restrained police department in
the world. Most cops are responsible professional
people, and some of them are heroes and I go to
their funerals each year. And some of them are racist,
and some of them have violated these rules and they
have to be disciplined and it's the precinct commander
who was responsible for the crime rates must also
be responsible for finding out and getting rid of
the bad cops.
[Question about handling municipal union demands
and whether he supports pattern bargaining]
I believe that for example the teacher's union--the
teachers get paid 25 percent less than in the suburbs,
and that gap has to be closed. The same with police
department. The city has to be firm in the negotiations,
but has to be fair, there has to be a reflection
of the cost of living. On top of that, you pay more
for productivity.
[Question about whether he would help strengthen
rent control laws]
Two responses: I have the advantage over my rival
candidates that I have voted to sustain rent control
and rent stabilization dozens of times as a member
of the New York legislature. Second, I am working
on a project now that I put together in my conference--all
the major tenant associations which would normally
not communicate with each other, all had rival approaches
to legislature in Albany, and we're drafting a omnibus
tenants bill which will be ready in February.
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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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