Making The Mayor, 2005 Edition

A new poll from Quinnipiac shows that Democratic mayoral frontrunner Fernando Ferrer's remarks about the Amadou Diallo shooting (not being a tragedy to an NYPD-heavy audience) may have helped his neareast opponent, C. Virginia Fields, cut into his lead. Still, Ferrer leads 36% (slipping 4 point), to Fields' 21%, which is a healthy lead, BUT Ferrer needs 40% to avoid a runoff. Anthony Weiner and Gifford Miller had 11% and 10% respectively in the poll, which is pretty sad. Gothamist imagines that Miller will be a bigger force later on, given how much money he's raised; we're a little unsure about how long Weiner can hang on.

And The Politicker reports that only 54 people showed up to what sounds like a boring Hunter College event which featured Miller, Fields, and Weiner (no Ferrer; not much speaking). Right now, the Democrats are probably best served by continuing to attack the Mayor. Miller was sounding off, as usual, about campaign financing, with all paths pointing to Bloomberg's freespending ways. And since the Mayor isn't abiding by campaign finance rules, he doesn't have to debate. Forget about the Democrats, best is how the GOP is "not happy" about the Mayor's hinting that he might endorse Senator Hillary Clinton. But Bloomby's words show, as a pundit noted, "a problem that the mayor could conceivably face [during his reelection bid is] holding onto Republicans in Staten Island, in parts of Queens, and support from Giuliani Democrats." Are the Giuliani Republicans already sold in?

Here's a great article from Gotham Gazette called, "What Can Any Mayor Really Do?"

Photograph of City Hall in 1940, from City of New York; Fiorello LaGuardia was mayor at the time