The mayoral and citywide elections are coming up a week from today. As such, I just received my free full color voter guide in the mail. Since I’ve only been in New York a little under 2 years (2 year anniversary November 1st!!), this is my first citywide election. I love that the city hands out these guides and that they also feature ALL of the candidates.
Everyone knows that New York is one of the most densely liberal places in the country. As a Midwesterner, I’m simultaneously pleased and fascinated. This of course leads to many of the candidates being liberal or even socialist. This doesn’t seem to hold true to the Mayors of the last decade, but that is a different story all together.
Last month was the primary where we decided between a host of choices all running on the democratic ticket. We pretty much decided candidates for comptroller and public advocate. Thumbing through this voter guide, we apparently decided a number of city council seats who are currently running unopposed.
I don’t have a television and I rarely listen to the radio, so my only sense, besides reading the news and doing a little healthy research is the mailers I receive. Bloomberg, running for that illusive third term has been running his campaign completely out of pocket. He has sent us at least 100 mailers. Bloomberg has run a heavily public, very expensive and very expansive campaign. AMNY, the free daily newspaper that everyone reads on the subway ran a poll about how annoyed New Yorkers were at the constant bombardment of Bloomberg advertising and you can probably assume the results.
We met someone at a backyard barbeque who is working on his campaign. We let out a collective questioning sigh when we found out. He then quickly said, I don’t like Bloomberg, I just don’t have a job and he pays well. He outlined the Bloomberg strategy to gather as much information on every New Yorker as possible so as to target them with specific marketing. Do you have kids? Learn how Bloomberg has saved New York City Schools. Are you a small business owner? You’re in luck! To give my own personal testimony to the far reaches of Bloomberg, my boyfriend and I live together but are not married. I originally ended up getting mailings, as it seems that I’m on every mailing list in the land. My boyfriend received none, until Bloomberg started addressing things to the “both of our last names household”. How does he do it?
Running against Bloomberg is Democrat William Thompson. This guy should get a lot of credit, because he’s always in the press, most people know his name, and I haven’t seen him spend any money. Actually, the first advertising I’ve seen in a campaign that’s been going on for the last year is some haphazardly placed signs in my neighborhood, that were taped to street poles. That’s it. He’s the front runner, in the last polls I heard, getting around 30% behind Bloomberg’s 50%. He seems to be running on the theory that no one really knows how Bloomberg became mayor in the first place, because everyone complains about him and the fact that they’re pretty mad he’s seeking a third term.
The less public candidates are even more entertaining. There was David Werpin for Comptroller, who unlike his 3 competitors in the primary, ran a large campaign that included radio ads and full color mailers. They didn’t say much, except that all of his rivals were liars or bad for the job in one way or another. It didn’t give too many facts. The thing that really stood out was the full color garbage can full of money. “Don’t let your comptroller throw money in the garbage!” Simple, but not effective, as he did not even make it to the runoff election. He, unlike Bloomberg, also sent us two of everything.
I’ll finish with some examples of the lesser known candidates running on November 3rd. These are excerpts taken directly from the 2009 voter guide. I chose some of my favorite, more radical candidates.
For Mayor:
Name: Francisca Villar
Affiliation: Party for Socialism and Liberation
Occupation: Student
Occupational Background: Student
Educational Background: AS Bronx Community College, Currently: Lehman College (Biology)
Prior Public Experience: Founder and President of my building’s tenants association: Bronx Community College Student Government Association
What is the most important issue in the city you would address if elected?
The billionaires must pay for the economic crisis. A 5 percent tax on all wealth on all wealth over $100 million would alone raise over $8 billion a year from the city’s 55 billionaires alone; if they try to leave the city, their property and wealth should be confiscated. The $5 billion that the city pays every year to the banks for “debt servicing” must go to the people’s needs.
Name: Jimmy McMillan
Affiliation: Democratic
Occupation: Rent Activist and Founder of The Rent is Too Damn High movement.
Occupational Background: Retired Letter Carrier
Educational Background: Degree in Private Security Investigations
Organizational Affiliations: Veterans Quality of Life
Prior Public Experience: United States Army – Vietnam Veteran (3 Bronze Stars).
What is the most important issue in the city you would address if elected?
Rent is Too Damn High-Rent-Freeze-Rent Reduction-Rent Roll Back. (People must have money to spent.) Our plan will create 3 to 6 million jobs that will generate a 3 to 6 billion dollar surplus. Do the math an estimated 10 million New Yorkers of Brooklyn, Bronx, Staten Island, Manhattan, and Queens will no longer have to put up being harras by “landlord(s)” again. Not only the Bailout and Stimulus will give us the opportunity to lower rent. Landlords with Violations, Failed to Register Building (s), and Other…gives us another reason to lower rent. The party is over.
Rent is Too Damn High.
Name: Joseph L. Dobrian
Affiliation: Libertarian
Occupation: Principal of the consulting firm of Dobrian, Frances, Bowie & Long
Occupational Background: Journalist, editor, consultant specializing in editorial services, TV talk show host.
Educational Background: University of Iowa
Organization Affiliations: n/a
Prior Public Experience: 2002 Libertarian nominee for U.S. House of Representatives; 2005 Libertarian nominee for Manhattan Borough President.
What is the most important issue in the city you would address if elected?
New Yorkers are fed up with the government’s finger constantly wagging in our face, while its other hand goes through our pockets. I stand for the repeal of malicious and punitive taxes, onerous regulations, and laws that penalize private conduct, so long as that conduct does not include the initiation of force or fraud. I will return liberty and dignity to the individual. I will instruct our police force to focus on prevention of crimes against persons and property, and assign the lowest priority to “victimless crimes”.
For Public Advocate:
Name: Maura DeLuca
Affiliation: Socialist Workers
Occupation: Sewing Machine Operator
Occupational Background: n/a
Educational Background: n/a
Organizational Affiliations: Socialist Workers Party, Young Socialists
Prior Public Experience: Unionist
What is the most important issue in the city you would address if elected?
Today millions are being thrown out of work as the capitalist rulers seek to make working people pay for the crisis of their system. Their ruling class is launching a frontal assault on our basic living conditions, from jobs and wages to pensions, health care, housing and essential services.
Working people need to answer these attacks. Only through a working class revolution to take power out of the hands of exploiters and war makers can we then begin to reorganize the economy and all social relations, from top to bottom, in the interests of workers and farmers.
Name: Jim Lesczynski
Affiliations: Libertarian
Occupation: Enemy of the State
Occupational Background: Marketing Manager
Educational Background: MBA New York University, BFA, Bowling Green State University
Organizational Affiliations: Manhattan Libertarian Party, Campaign for Liberty
Prior Public Experience: Disgruntled Taxpayer
What is the most important issue in the city you would address if elected?
Eliminated the position of Public Advocate. Want to save the taxpayers of New York City millions of wasted tax dollars every year? Simply eliminated the position of Public Advocate, fire the staff, and board of the offices. The Public Advocate is a do-nothing job that was designed to give empty-suit politicians a place to grandstand.
In 2005, I ran for Public Advocate on the same platform of eliminating the position. Four lyears later, the incumbent has done nothing prove that the position gives the taxpayers any value. The City Council took an important first step this year by cutting the Public Advocate’s budget. More recently, legislation was introduced calling for a referendum to eliminate the position. Now we need to finish the job. If I am elected Public Advocate, I promis to report to work just long enough to fire the staff and padlock the office.
Marisa