As the disaster that is the wake of Hurricane Katrina understandably continues to dominate the media, the Times takes a look at what the sudden dearth of local news coverage will do for the September 13 Democratic Mayoral Primaries. Candidates have historically depended on a slow Labor day news cycle in order to attract attention for one last media blitz. This year was no different until Katrina hit. Suddenly Miller, Weiner and Fields, who are all hoping for a shot to go against front-runner Ferrer in a run-off, have to take a step back to allow news coverage to go where it is clearly needed. This effectively kills their last campaigning weekend as none of the candidates will be doing heavy campaigning next weekend in honor of 9/11. The consultants that the Times spoke to seem to think this will work out in Ferrer's favor, lowering the chances of a run-off. But does anyone else find it odd that the Times not only ran an article saying that Hurricane coverage is bad for the other candidates but also, in the same issue, ran an editorial endorsing Ferrer AND ran an article pointing out that it ran an editorial endorsing Ferrer? Is that normal?

In the meantime, if you aren't glued to the news or enjoying the stunning early September weather outside, you can read up on the September 13 elections. Here are the candidates' websites: Fernando Ferrer, C. Virginia Fields, Gifford Miller and Anthony Weiner. The NY Times and Newsday have pretty good sites for local politics: The Times' Metro Campaigns and Newsday's Race for City Hall.

Photo from the NYTimes