City Democrats, Mind Games and the Bloomberg Factor

The NY Times has a detailed article about the dilemma of some of the city's Democrats who are Bloomberg Democrats (because, if you will remember, the Mayor was originally a Democrat before he switched parties so he could actually run and win - he's a Democrat in Republican's clothing some say): What do they do on September 13, Primary Day? Do they vote for a candidate to sandbag Fernando Ferrer into a run-off? Do they vote to someone they (gasp!) might actually like? Or do they stay at home? The city's Democratic party is definitely at the nadir, if it's pretty much a game of rock, paper, scissors to figure out what to do at the polls. What's funny in that funny-sad way is many Bloomberg Democrats may make Anthony Weiner a beneficiary of their eh-ness about their own partiy's candidates, probably because Weiner hasn't had as many head-to-head clashes with the mayor as the other candidates who are city fixtures.

All Gothamist can say if you're a registered Democrat here in the city is to learn as much as you can about the candidates and vote for whomever you think would be best. What you do on election day is up to you, but it should be a race, not a resignation. This earlier post has links to the candidates' websites, as well as political coverage from the NY Times and Newsday. Related: The Times' Clyde Haberman also laments the voter apathy in his column.

In the meantime, the Mayor opened the new subway simulator training facility on Randalls Island for the Fire Department. Newsday says the event could have been his way to deflect criticism over his decision to give the NYPD hazardous-material incidents the first command, versus the FDNY.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on September 2, 2005 11:07 AM

Comments [rss]

Susan Donovan

If you don't care about the Mayor at least vote for a good Public Advocate! Did you see Norman Siegel's press conference on the steps of city hall at noon today? I'm voting for him.

cajun

mayor bloomberg's silence regarding the New Orleans disaster is almost deafening. Some of the other candidates have already organized methods to raise funds for the Red Cross and the United Way. Louisiana helped us back in 2001, we should help them now.

Sitter

"GET OF YOUR ASSES AND READ FOR ONCE."

I can read while seated.

Frank the Crank

It's the voters' fault they don't know anything. Doing just a bit of research will yield pretty big differences, if not just between the democrats, but between them as a group and mr. Bloomberg. There's been publicized debates. There are tons of newspaper articles about the issues. There are websites. There are free voter information packets. What else do people want?? Gothamist put a link up to all the candidates' websites. GO READ ALL OF THEIR WEBSITES if you're going to vote, you lazy bastards. Don't just read one. Read all of the candidates' sites. Generations of people died to give us the right to vote, yet New York's apathy is so apparent it's a disgrace. People say it's boring. So what do you want, dancing girls? This is important shit! And people bitch and moan about the government not listening to them. GET OF YOUR ASSES AND READ FOR ONCE.

Last year, when more than the usual amount of people voted, they usually picked Kerry. But when I asked them about the other candidates (you know, the ones HERE IN NEW YORK), they didn't know shit about them. Some idiot protesters voted FOR the very judge that made it illegal for them to protest the RNC in Central Park, simply because they chose Democrat all down the line! People are idiots.

pete

oh so now the media begins to bemoan the public's lack of interest in the democratic candidates.

i suspect any disintrest stems from the fact that the media have spent the last 6 months writing about the process rather than policies, telling the public how utterly boring they all are, and by trying to fit them into neat little ehtnic and cultural stereotypes.