On Sunday, May 15th, the Audobon Reform Democratic Club of NYC, based in Washington Heights, interviewed a massive number of candidates for various offices to decide whom to endorse . 49 voting members attended the entire meeting, though some had to leave early. Most interesting to readers will be the mayoral candidates so I'll put them in the first part of this multi part report.
C. Virginia Fields
In sharp contrast to her appearance at the WFP, where she gave a rousing, pro-union speech, she tempered her speech at the ARDC and pitched herself as a professional, experienced politician.
She talked about the same themes, however. She focused on the following:
We need to expand opportunities for people of every gender and race.
Education must be fixed. She mentioned a local school that has to stay in a building that was originally built as a warehouse.
She mentioned mass transit and the needs of the disabled.
In response to a question about rent increases, she said she had a 10 year plan to build more affordable housing. But I later learned that the real concern of the guy asking the question, who's retired and, I assume living on a fixed income, is to slow or prevent rent increases. I believe she got his vote when she said, "last year, I spoke against the Rent Guidelines Board." She said that it implicitly favors the landlords, especially under Bloomberg, and fails to take into account the needs of the renters.
Fernando Ferrer
When Ferrer entered the room, he spoke Spanish to some of our Spanish-speaking members, which was nice, and which he did not do, IIRC, at the WFP meeting. His first gesture was to put down the mic and speak to us without it. Physically, he looks neither tough nor strong, but his voice was strong and it was a very good gesture.
He launched into his anti-Bloomberg speech. He talked about the subway problems of decaying ceramic switches and track fires, about how Bloomberg is giving away pieces of the city hoping to make it back in taxes. He said jobs start with housing, not stadiums. He talked about his stock tax plan.
The first question was very hostile. The questioner asked how he could have said that what the police did to Diallo was not a crime. He ducked the question and denied the charge, forcefully, but it's the issue that is sinking his campaign. Later, the questioner told he his real grudge against Ferrer is Ferrer's behavior in the 2001 mayoral race between Bloomberg and Green. I don't know anything about that and if you are reading this and do know something, please post it in the comments below.
The next question was related. The questioner asked if Ferrer was willing to work with whoever wins the primary to ensure they win the office, even if it's not him. Ferrer ducked this question by misinterpreting it, warning that Bloomberg would spend $100 million on commercials but we have the truth on our side, and every one of the four Democratic candidates has more government experience than Bloomberg.
Finally, Ferrer got a friendly question about his campaign pledge to put the stadium to a referendum. Ferrer pointed out that the mayor has the power to put it on the ballot, but that Bloomberg chose not to, because he knew he'd lose. "I'm also in favor of a free and competitive bidding process. I saw this movie before. It was Rudy Giuliani, Yankee Stadium on the West Side."
Asked if he'd protect people's rents, he said he would.
In response to another friendly question about the stadium plan, he pointed out that Bloomberg's plan for the number 7 line extension bypasses Penn Station. "If he wants to create the Olympics Express, he can, but that's not what New Yorkers want."
Gifford Miller
Miller came in and saw Robert Jackson, who is the most popular local politician in the club -- he received 47 endorsement votes for and 2 against, and he may win the election by similar margins, 95 percent to about 5 percent. Miller shared a joke with Jackson, but the joke came across as a little awkward. Miller is absolutely wonderful, but I wish he could serve one more term running the city council. I strongly urge everyone to support a relaxing of local office term limits to three terms instead of two.
Miller launched into his own speech about how the mayor of New York City is the icon of urban America, and Bloomberg is an apologist for Bush administration policies that are bankrupting not just New York City, but every city in the USA.
"We know how to fix education. We know it. It's about class sizes and class resources. It's not about high stakes bubble testing of third graders." He touted the policy that he and the WFP are advocating that charges families earning $10,000 a week $80 a week to help pay for schools.
He attacked Bloomberg's stadium and olympics policies. "He's advocating an 80,000 seat stadium but has no plans to build additional parking, while our transit system is in crisis. We're paralyzed because of a lack of leadership."
There was a specific question about disabled people's access to taxis, and Miller disagreed with the questioner. The questioner said that disabled access taxis cost nothing extra to run. Miller said that he wanted to sell some more taxi medallions and reserve 10 percent of the medallions for disabled access taxis and use those new medallions to assess the profitability of disabled access taxis.
In response to a question about what he'd do about the transit system, he said that we have to fix the aging guts of our 100 year old system. It's not a sexy policy, like extending the line, but it's needed.
In response to a question about the elderly, he said, "keeping people in their own home and independent saves money. Our proposal to negotiate discounted prescriptions for all New Yorkers was blocked by the mayor." In spite of the fact that he has the right policies for the elderly, I think he looks too young, and will not be the Dem candidate because of the elderly vote. OTOH, I believe he has the youth vote more or less locked up.
Anthony Weiner
Weiner was the only candidate I had not seen before. He was up last. He said he was written up as the wonkiest candidate, which was good for the race -- he was just glad he wasn't running for office in high school, where they would have beaten him up. He said that if he was elected mayor he would return to "this very spot" and speak to us again -- our club president marked the spot and everybody laughed.
He said that Bloomberg had allowed the government to short change New York City by $1.7 billion in No Child Left Behind (NCLB) funds. He said he was advocating a plan for middle class pain. He advocates a 10 percent city tax cut for families making less than $150,000. He said he wasn't promising the world, or that "my beloved Mets will win the World Series."
The first question was the most hostile of the evening, "how dare you vote for the war?" The questioner later told me that Weiner is seen as the most conservative and hawkish Dem in the race, and that his district (he's a Representative) is the Rockaways, a white working class neighborhood (it lost a lot of firefighters on 9-11 -- and the NYFD is 91 percent white).
Weiner took the question very well. I like him and if this were an election for something else, I'd support him, but I cannot see him winning a race against Bloomberg because they're too similar. Weiner said he'd voted for the war because he trusted the president, and when he learned that the information that had led him to vote for the war was false, he voted against it, and has continued to ever since. He said, "fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me."
A very liberal questioner in an ACT cap said his family's from Northern Ireland and knows about terrorism and what would Weiner do about the problem. Weiner said that it was disgusting that Bloomberg had eliminated the Community Oriented Policing Program (COPPS).
Another questioner said that his civil rights had been violated during the RNC and what would Weiner do about a similar situation. He had an absolutely wonderful answer. "The idea that we launched the Bush victory keeps me up at night. When they decided to come here, I thought, 'let's let them see our problems', but Bloomberg acted like Ricardo Montalban welcoming people to Fantasy Island. If I'm mayor, I won't allow you to block ambulances, but I'll be there and I'll talk to you. Bloomberg showed his true colors as a Republican during the RNC. It was a classic instance of how a Republican behaves when confronted with criticism. I'll use the blue room to get my views across, but you won't see this condescention. The RNC people went from their hermetically sealed hotel to the hermetically sealed convention. They were sealed off from New York. And it was expensive. Bloomberg doesn't tolerate debate, just as Giuliani didn't."
The club voted 24 for Fields, about 15 for Miller, about 7 for Ferrer, and about 3 for Weiner. One of the Weiner voters complained to me, "but he was clearly the smartest."