Mayoral Hopeful News
Fernando Ferrer presented a plan to decrease the high school dropout rate, as a counter to the Mayor's claim that his efforts (mainly around younger students' test scores) have been worked. Bloomberg's campaign points out that graduation rates have fallen 4% since he's taken office, but Ferrer's campaign questions if a 50% dropout rate is "something to brag about." Gothamist thinks this is an interesting tactic, as dropout rates are a number that people can understand; however, the Mayor might try to mention different things he's done at the high school level and that he's focusing on the younger kids now. This comes as the Mayor received the backing of DC37, one of the city's biggest labor unions, as it looks like the Mayor's efforts to court unions is paying off. Interestingly, the union's board voted 14 to 12 to back Bloomberg; the Times reports "many opponents of an endorsement arguing that it was wrong to back the mayor before the Democrats had even chosen a candidate."
And poor Virginia Fields: The flier "scandal" refuses to go away, with her former consultant contacting the media with emails showing that Fields was aware that the flier was doctored to include Asian. You can see the two versions of the flier here.
Finally, Tom Ognibene, the Queens GOPster trying to head Bloomberg off on the Republican part of the ticket, is trying to get more people to sign his petition. Indeed, a reader emailed us to say that his spam email account that usually attracts mortgage refinancing loan spam received Ognibene spam, urging him to sign the petition. Ognibene is described as being "For Defense Of Marriage / Against Raising Taxes / A Tough Crime Fighter / A Proud Republican."
