Thursday, September 22, 2005
Viewing the Primary from 14th Street and 3rd Avenue
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
I spoke too soon. About the candidates in the primaries sparing us the vision of poster pollution, that is. In the weekend preceding the Tuesday September 13th primary, the lampposts and traffic lights on Third Avenue from 14th Street north suddenly spouted stacks of large colorful posters. They were actually not bad looking and came easily off the next day, compared to the little Xeroxed signs of yore that would plague us for months. The posterers were Darren Bloch, Mike Beys and Gur Tsabar for City Council District 2, Scott Stringer for Borough President, and a few C. Virginia Fields for Mayor, while 14th Street in Alphabet City, Margarita Lopez for BP and Bob Morgenthau for District Attorney signs were stacked on every post for four blocks, with a few Gur Tsabars surviving from an early poster attack (not so Carlos Manzano for BP signs, noted torn and left on the ground.) Darren Bloch workers and the candidate himself had taken two corners of 16th Street and Third for some last minute handshaking ("I've been doing this for seven months, why should I stop on the last day?"), and had a woman volunteer worker handing out signs on 20th and Second Avenue, greeting voters on their way to the polls at PS 40.
The polling place was quite empty at 8 PM, with 120 votes cast at my Election District, "a real low, " per one of the workers who had manned the post for decades.
The scant turnout was not for lack of propaganda. The weekend's direct mail was another surprise, 35 mailing pieces, nearly all on letterhead size stiff glossy board with gorgeous photographs, For the CC2 seat, Mike Beys had one, Darren Bloch sent three, Joan J. Brightharp - one, Gur Tsabar - two. None from confident Rosie Mendez, the winner (36% of votes 5,113 voters) and from second - placer Brian Kavanagh (19%).
Borough President is where the action was, with three pieces in favor of Scott Stringer the winner (26%, 37,719), and one against, from Stan Michaels (4%), the tenant advocate, 24 years on City Council and looking for a new career at 72, accusing Scott of accepting donations of some $74K from developers. The real mail flurry enveloped Eva Moskowitz (2nd, 17%), with two messages from the Working Families Party accusing her of not protecting wages, one in support, explaining that she's been targeted by the UFT for defeat, and two praising her.
By contrast, the non-controversial Councilmember Bill Perkins, who runs in Marathons (11%), had three mailing pieces, and Carlos Manzano (3%), immigrant from Coli, Columbia and an administrator for the city's Beacon Schools, had a four-page endorsement from Chelsea's McManus Democrats. Margarita Lopez (13%) had two, including endorsements by Mario Cuomo and Gloria Steinem, and Keith Wright (5%), endorsed by Percy Sutton, had one.
Betsy Gotbaum, the incumbent Public Advocate, won big (two mailings, 48%, 180,933) against the well -known ACLU leader Norman Siegel (30%) and four others (no mailings). And then there was the forever Manhattan District Attorney Bob Morgenthau (59%, 73,908), and a surprisingly heavily campaigned Surrogate battle, with the eventual 51% winner Kris Glen (two pieces) battling the negatives from the camp of Eve Rachel Markewich (one piece). As for the media-advertising mayoralty candidates, there was only a lonely letter from senator Liz Krueger, endorsing last-placed Gifford Miller, the neighborhood's favorite.
A couple of asides about the local races - as to the Mayoralty, you can find all you want in the Paper of Record and on TV.
First, what about the Working Family Party, enemies of Moskowitz? It is a coalition of labor union locals, upstate rural groups, ethnic groups, immigrant and religious interests. It acquired ballot standing by collecting over 50K votes for former City Council President Peter Vallone in the 1998 Gubernatorial race. Their big accomplishment was rallying a protest, as leaders of a coalition named $5.15 Is Not Enough, against Gov. Pataki's veto of the increase of $2 to the NYS minimum wage. The State Senate eventually overrode it. No Naderites they, WFP have been endorsing Democrats, maxing at 158K votes for Senator Schumer in 2002, with 17K in Manhattan and under 70K in NYC overall.
A remembrance about City Councilmember Stan Michaels, a 24-year veteran. I ran into him in the later 1980s, while testifying in a City Council hearing, against the proposed move the Police Academy to the Bronx. The closing, proposed by a citizens' commission in 1986, was eventually withdrawn by Mayor Edward Koch, based upon the scarcity of funds a much as the cost-benefit analysis by our Committee to Save the Police Academy. Bronx BP Ferrer seized this opportunity to offer a vacant space near the 149th Street Hub for a new Academy, $400 million job. My suggestion was "not to fix what isn't broken," and to use the vacant space to bring in a major tax-paying tenant. "I will pass your recommendation to Borough President Ferrer," Mr. Michaels commented, dryly.
As of the mayoral election four years ago, Ferrer still had expectations of a Police Academy for the Bronx. I have no idea what his current plans are.
I spoke too soon. About the candidates in the primaries sparing us the vision of poster pollution, that is. In the weekend preceding the Tuesday September 13th primary, the lampposts and traffic lights on Third Avenue from 14th Street north suddenly spouted stacks of large colorful posters. They were actually not bad looking and came easily off the next day, compared to the little Xeroxed signs of yore that would plague us for months. The posterers were Darren Bloch, Mike Beys and Gur Tsabar for City Council District 2, Scott Stringer for Borough President, and a few C. Virginia Fields for Mayor, while 14th Street in Alphabet City, Margarita Lopez for BP and Bob Morgenthau for District Attorney signs were stacked on every post for four blocks, with a few Gur Tsabars surviving from an early poster attack (not so Carlos Manzano for BP signs, noted torn and left on the ground.) Darren Bloch workers and the candidate himself had taken two corners of 16th Street and Third for some last minute handshaking ("I've been doing this for seven months, why should I stop on the last day?"), and had a woman volunteer worker handing out signs on 20th and Second Avenue, greeting voters on their way to the polls at PS 40.
The polling place was quite empty at 8 PM, with 120 votes cast at my Election District, "a real low, " per one of the workers who had manned the post for decades.
The scant turnout was not for lack of propaganda. The weekend's direct mail was another surprise, 35 mailing pieces, nearly all on letterhead size stiff glossy board with gorgeous photographs, For the CC2 seat, Mike Beys had one, Darren Bloch sent three, Joan J. Brightharp - one, Gur Tsabar - two. None from confident Rosie Mendez, the winner (36% of votes 5,113 voters) and from second - placer Brian Kavanagh (19%).
Borough President is where the action was, with three pieces in favor of Scott Stringer the winner (26%, 37,719), and one against, from Stan Michaels (4%), the tenant advocate, 24 years on City Council and looking for a new career at 72, accusing Scott of accepting donations of some $74K from developers. The real mail flurry enveloped Eva Moskowitz (2nd, 17%), with two messages from the Working Families Party accusing her of not protecting wages, one in support, explaining that she's been targeted by the UFT for defeat, and two praising her.
By contrast, the non-controversial Councilmember Bill Perkins, who runs in Marathons (11%), had three mailing pieces, and Carlos Manzano (3%), immigrant from Coli, Columbia and an administrator for the city's Beacon Schools, had a four-page endorsement from Chelsea's McManus Democrats. Margarita Lopez (13%) had two, including endorsements by Mario Cuomo and Gloria Steinem, and Keith Wright (5%), endorsed by Percy Sutton, had one.
Betsy Gotbaum, the incumbent Public Advocate, won big (two mailings, 48%, 180,933) against the well -known ACLU leader Norman Siegel (30%) and four others (no mailings). And then there was the forever Manhattan District Attorney Bob Morgenthau (59%, 73,908), and a surprisingly heavily campaigned Surrogate battle, with the eventual 51% winner Kris Glen (two pieces) battling the negatives from the camp of Eve Rachel Markewich (one piece). As for the media-advertising mayoralty candidates, there was only a lonely letter from senator Liz Krueger, endorsing last-placed Gifford Miller, the neighborhood's favorite.
A couple of asides about the local races - as to the Mayoralty, you can find all you want in the Paper of Record and on TV.
First, what about the Working Family Party, enemies of Moskowitz? It is a coalition of labor union locals, upstate rural groups, ethnic groups, immigrant and religious interests. It acquired ballot standing by collecting over 50K votes for former City Council President Peter Vallone in the 1998 Gubernatorial race. Their big accomplishment was rallying a protest, as leaders of a coalition named $5.15 Is Not Enough, against Gov. Pataki's veto of the increase of $2 to the NYS minimum wage. The State Senate eventually overrode it. No Naderites they, WFP have been endorsing Democrats, maxing at 158K votes for Senator Schumer in 2002, with 17K in Manhattan and under 70K in NYC overall.
A remembrance about City Councilmember Stan Michaels, a 24-year veteran. I ran into him in the later 1980s, while testifying in a City Council hearing, against the proposed move the Police Academy to the Bronx. The closing, proposed by a citizens' commission in 1986, was eventually withdrawn by Mayor Edward Koch, based upon the scarcity of funds a much as the cost-benefit analysis by our Committee to Save the Police Academy. Bronx BP Ferrer seized this opportunity to offer a vacant space near the 149th Street Hub for a new Academy, $400 million job. My suggestion was "not to fix what isn't broken," and to use the vacant space to bring in a major tax-paying tenant. "I will pass your recommendation to Borough President Ferrer," Mr. Michaels commented, dryly.
As of the mayoral election four years ago, Ferrer still had expectations of a Police Academy for the Bronx. I have no idea what his current plans are.
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 10:39 AM 
