Results tagged “virginiafields”

Assemblyman John Faso of Columbia Country beat former Massachusettes governor William Weld for the GOP nomination for NY State governor yesterday. However, Weld did have enough support to stay on the ballot and force a primary this fall. The split between the two candidates represents many problems in the Republican party: On one side, you've got moderate, socially progressive members (Weld is pro-choice), on the other side, it's the conservatives (Faso is anti-abortion and the Conservation party nominee). Weld's people are playing it tough and tell the Times, "There's also a stature gap: Weld's big-time, a tough prosecutor, a former governor. Faso is an Albany insider and former lobbyist." At any rate, there are problems in the NY Republican party, and it's pretty clear that Spitzer will be our next governor.

It's the last days of the Mayoral race campaigning, and the poor tree pulp is thankful, as there has never been so much paper devoted to telling voters how awesome Mayor Michael Bloomberg is. However, the local media outlets are not so happy, as the Mayor is close to spending $100 million for his reelection campaign. The translates into an approximate $100+ cost per vote, if he were to win 60% of the vote (based on the NY Post's projections for a low-to-moderate turnout). Hilarious! If only the bananaphone could be incorporated into the Al Sharpton salsaing commercial! The Mayor cashed in the perks of being the city's top guy, as he was afforded a lot of free media coverage with yesterday's marathon, besides campaign stops in Queens, whose middle class population is skeptical of him. Fernando Ferrer spent his time campaigning in Harlem with Senator Hillary Clinton, Congressman Charles Rangel, and Manhattan BEEP and one-time mayoral contender C. Virginia Fields. But, to break it down into the nuts and bolts, the Mayor shook the hand of a lion dancer (inside the costume!) and Ferrer pretended to make a call with a banana.

Well, would you look at that: When the four Democratic mayoral candidates bands together and supports Fernando Ferrer, the Bloomberg campaign gets worried. Ferrer was joined by C. Virginia Fields, Gifford Miller, and the runner-up in the primary, Anthony Weiner, in what Newsday called a "unity ritual" at City Hall, to show that the city's Democratic party could hold hands and that only they could fight the billionaire Mayor. The Mayor's team scrambled to paint him as being in touch with the common man by having Mayor Bling hold a press conference with Reverend Calvin Butts, the influential preacher in the African American community, who praised the Mayor and said the city shouldn't change its path. Fun fact: They met at the Harlem IHOP.

- Fernando Ferrer holds hands with Anthony Weiner, Gifford Miller and C. Virginia Fields at City Hall and fail to do the Voltron formation

Unlike the uncertain Democratic mayoral primary, the other races were more decisive. In three big races, the incumbents prevailed, with Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau (top left), Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum (top middle), and Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes (top right) winning their respective Democratic primaries. Morgenthau had his first real challenger in years with Judge Leslie Crocker Snyder, but managed to hold her off. Gotbaum won very decisively against challengers like the Norman Siegel and Andrew Raisiej. Hynes' race was much closer, with State Senator earning 37% of the vote to Hynes' 41%. All three are expected to win the general election this fall. And since C. Virginia Fields has to leave the Manhattan Borough Presidency because of term limits, the Manhattan Borough President's race was a hotbed of candidates, with Upper West Side state Assemblyman Scott Stringer (right) winning with 26% of the vote in a race that does not have a 40% rule for runoff; most people also expect Stringer to win the general election. The NY Times has a good article about the Manhattan BEEP's role "largely ceremonial" but can wield power with real estate developers in land deals.

It's deja vu all over again! In the recent Democratic mayoral primaries, runoffs were threatened and this year's was no exception as campaigns squirmed in too-close-to-call limbo. While former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer has essentially 40% of the vote needed to avoid a runoff, he's about 0.04-0.05% short of a perfect, unequivocal 40%, which translates to a handful of votes. And Congressman Anthony Weiner, who has 29%, will be demanding that every vote be counted, including 8,422 valid absentee ballots. Which means that the results for the Democratic primary might not be known for days, even a week. Ferrer was in the odd position of being so close to victory, but not guaranteed of it, last night at his party, while Weiner's party got more interesting as Ferrer's numbers dropped.

Okay, here's a 11PM check on the votes: With 5999 precincts of 6033 precincts reporting, it seems like Fernando Ferrer has a 39.99% of the vote, with Anthony Weiner snatching up 28.9%. C. Virginia Fields has 15.89% and Gifford Miller has 10.19%. That is some ouchy for the Miller campaign. If these numbers hold, then there will be a runoff. Ferrer originally had a pretty substantial lead (with 500-some precincts reporting, his lead was 44% to Weiner's 28%), but Weiner gained enough. A WNBC reporter said that Weiner will probably ask for the votes be to recanvassed, to make sure they stay under 40%. So it's very exciting!

Okay, so it's crunch time for the Democratic mayoral candidates, with just hours until the polls open tomorrow and New Yorkers (hopefully) go and vote for a Democratic candidate. Former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer received an endorsement from Reverend Al Sharpton yesterday, which helps his frontrunner status, but many polls show the Congressman Anthony Weiner is right at Ferrer's heels - and that Ferrer still might not be able to avoid a runoff. While a lot of polls and surveys seem to indicate that Mayor Bloomberg is uncommonly popular for a Republican mayor in our blue city, the NY Times finds some voters that do want him out but, as ever, it comes down to who will actually come out and vote. The big questions are the middle-class (Miller or Weiner) and African-American population (Fields, Ferrer, or maybe even Weiner?). What Gothamist has been finding interesting in this final stretch is that we've been noticing the NY Post has been talking up Congressman Anthony Weiner's chances a lot, perhaps trying to sway voters to force Ferrer into a run-off. The latest stories about Gifford Miller seem to be more about his finance troubles, and C. Virginia Fields seems to have faded completely. Gothamist thinks it's too close to call whether or not there will be a primary. What do you think will happen tomorrow?

It was the Democratic mayoral hopefuls' second-to-last-debate-gasp to get in some good punches, but it was actually kind of boring because the answers were 25 seconds. Former Bronx Borough President and frontrunner Fernando Ferrer, Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, City Council Speaker Gifford Miller and Congressman Anthony Weiner mainly tried to attack the Mayor whose popularity with Democrats is confounding their campaigns. And with Hurricane Katrina very much the top story of the news, they all said the Mayor's plans in the event of a disaster woudl be "muddled". The NY Times noted that the candidates "in many cases they either overstated their own accomplishments, exaggerated problems facing the city or did not have sufficient backup for their claims about the state of the city." Read the transcripts here and here's Gotham Gazette's handy primer on the Mayoral race.

On what was surely one of the most beautiful "last day of the summer" in recent memory, millions of people celebrated in Brooklyn at the 38th West Indian American Day Carnival and Parade. While people with roots in the Caribbean were the main participants, they weren't the only ones: The NY Times reported that "four rabbinical students donned do-rags with the colors of the Jamaican flag." And Gothamist's favorite quote comes from Newsday, where Jason Ridges said, "I'm not from any island but Coney Island. This is the one day of the year I can feel Caribbean."

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?

The Campaign Finance Board's records show that Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields has not reimbursed her government drivers for driving her to campaign events. Newsday points out that Fields hasn't "paid for gas or parking used during those appearances" and that in the past week, only two of her many events were job-related. Fields' campaign manager, Chung Seto, claims that the drivers/city will be reimbursed, but she doesn't know why it's taking so long. Just like she didn't know why the flyer was Photoshopped, eh? Actually, the practice of using a city government car for campaign events is common, as long as the city is reimbursed is common (City Council Speaker had his police detail drive him around). Congressman Anthony Weiner's campaign took the opportunity to say that while he has a congressional car, Weiner uses his own hybrid car to get to campaign events.

Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields is featured in the third mayoral hopeful profile from the NY Times (which means we'll be reading about Congressman Anthony Weiner next week). The article notes that she's nice, "immaculately turned out," and, so far, not very firm when it comes to taking sides in a issue. The article is filled with examples of Fields's good nature but not exactly distinctive political career:

When Percy E. Sutton, the Harlem business mogul and a fund-raiser for Ms. Fields, was asked to name her most memorable achievement, he paused, searching for an answer. "I just know I admire her because she stands up for causes," he said at last.

The Politicker points out that in Times reporter Randal Archibold's slideshow, Archibold says, "She’s good-natured. She just generally seems a very nice person...[hesitates, then adds with a gentle laugh]...which, in New York City, is not always an asset when you’re campaigning." Ouch - but she was trying to calm Weiner down during Sunday's debate by placing her hand on his. New Yorkers, whether they admit it or not, seem to like tough or extreme mayors (even though Ed Koch was all "How am I doing?" he was pretty extreme - he didn't want a second area code for the city because he thought it would divide the city!, Rudy Giuliani was thought of as a near-fascist before September 11, and Mayor Bloomberg, well, he's extremely rich), and a nice lady from Birmingham whose fierceness only appears occasionally probably won't make the cut come September 13.

With a day to think about Tuesday night's Democratic debate, people are wondering what will happen at the next debate. Will the candidates be able to emerge as distinct candidates? The NY Times has the optimistic outlook, with pundits thinking that things can only get more exciting. Well, we can always hope the candidates will wander off message - our bet's on C. Virginia Fields to do that first. But Fields did sound the first more critical salvo (this side of Anthony Weiner calling Fernando Ferrer's plans from the '70s), essentially calling Weiner and Gifford Miller weak for saying NYC is better now than it was four years ago ("Why are they running now?"), which is clever in that "make the two white, middle class guys seem the same" mode. Mayor Bloomberg is on the attack, even though his approval numbers are extremely high (for him), by holding up a picture of Gifford Miller and saying the City Council Speaker has yet to pass the noise code he said he would pass over a year ago. Miller says that the Mayor should just do his own job and answer the questions he and other Council members asked. Yeah, we're kind of glazing over this too.

The first official Democratic candidate mayoral debate took place last night with all four candidates, including Congressman Anthony Weiner who had been passed a kidney stone earlier in the day. After that, we can only imagine the debate was a walk in the park! The NY Times has a transcript of the debate, but there's nothing like seeing City Council Speaker Gifford Miller get all pissy when asked if he would send his kids to public school (they attend private pre-K now). Former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer tried to redirect criticism from himself to the Mayor, Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields was the only candidate to eagerly say she wanted the Reverend Al Sharpton's endorsement, and Weiner came away with the best one-liners. All in the all, the debate was kind of boring, like the candidates themselves; the Observer's Ben Smith and Lizzy Ratner explain the problems with all the candiates, including Mayor B, in an article today called the "Aristo-Democrats," with the most frightening cartoon EVER.

- City Council Gifford Miller's commercials are out, and Gothamist sees one advantage that Miller has over the candidates: He's got adorable moppets (even though they are dressed sort of the same - Gothamist is very anti-dressing your kids in the same or similar outfits because kids are individuals; let them dress the same when they are teenagers and learning to be sheep) that he can hoist onto his shoulders while campaigning - people think twice before taking shots at guys with little kids on their shoulders, at least outside of ballparks. Anyway, the NY Times has more thorough analysis of the commercial (slick but misleading in some areas), but Gothamist will say that it's kind of goofy, because Miller is striding forward in most of the setting (down the steps of a building, on a city street, in a cafeteria) as he's talking to the camera. It almost seems like a Saturday Night Live goof commercial.

- Thank you, Politicker, for posting Anthony Weiner's campaign flyer to show how he's probably the "only candidate for mayor who will mail out a copy of his Bar Mitzvah photograph." The flyer also says Weiner "will be New York City's Middle-Class Mayor" because middle-class is no longer a twelve letter word. WNBC 4 says that the latest WNBC/Marist poll has Bloomberg soundly beating all possible Democratic mayoral candidates, leading Fernando Ferrer 16 points, C. Virginia Fields and Weiner by 18, and Gifford Miller by 20 points! This is the first time Gothamist has seen Weiner not be at the bottom; it must be the picture!

- And in a style update, Newsday's political blog, Politarazzi, learns that Mayor Bloomberg has been wearing a worn, leather jacket for over a year. Politarazzi first thought the leather jacket was the brainchild of a stylist for the Mayor's campaign brochure, to have the Mayor fit in with blue collared types. Gothamist guarantees that leather jacket was artfully distressed by only the most expensive jacket distressers...there's no way Bloomberg's staff went to Sears to pick up a jacket for him.

Democratic front runner and former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer will start his advertising campaign tomorrow, according to the NY Times. This would make Ferrer the first of the Democratic hopefuls to compete with TV and radio, with what his campaign calls a "substantial" ad buy while his rivals' campaigns say the ad buy is "modest" (tens of thousands of dollars). Well, everything is modest compared to what Mayor Bloomberg is spending! But the Daily News points out that City Council Speaker Gifford Miller has purchased $1 million of advertising in the week before the September 13 primary; Miller has also raised the most money of the Democratic contenders. It sounds like Ferrer is attempting to develop name recognition with a steady media presence for a longer period whereas Miller may simply try to blanket the area with his message in the final moments, though Ferrer is probably going to increase his media by the primary. Gothamist gives the edge to Ferrer with this decision, because we suspect Bloomberg has helped his approval ratings with his seemingly constant advertising in the past few months. And we doubt C. Virginia Fields and Anthony Weiner will advertise much to make a blip.

Last night, the mayoral would-be candidates, sans Congressman Anthony Weiner (because of stuff in DC) and the Mayor (because he didn't want to), debated the issues on NY1 in the first televised forum. The big topic of the night was how the Mayor's education plans are still failing the city's kids as well as how security measures like bag checks are not very effective. Ooh, we can't wait for campaign caricatures that show "Bag Check Bloomby!" Like the Parks Mayoral Forum we attended earlier this week, Fernando Ferrer, Gifford Miller, C. Virginia Fields and the lone Republican, Thomas Ognibene, tried to establish their own distinct personalities. The NY Times pointed out that Ognibene attacked Bloomberg in "more personal terms", and we suspect that Ognibene is a dream for the Democrats, as their candidates don't have to get their hands too dirty with attacks.

Last night, Gothamist headed to the mayoral forum held by Parks 1, the non-profit that is working to make NYC's parks the number one in the nation by trying to get the city goverment to commit 1% of the city's budget to the parks. (You can sign the pledge here.) Four of the potential candidates appeared: Former Bronx Borough President Ferando Ferrer, City Council Speaker Gifford Miller, Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, and former Queens City Councilman Thomas Ognibene. Congressman Anthony Weiner had agreed to come, but he was stuck in D.C. (legislation!), and Mayor Bloomberg was invited but did not attend. The discussion covered topics like how the candidates would deal with poorly maintained parks, vehicles in parks, and community gardens. Also, the candidates had other ideas about revenue to support and maintain the parks besides the 1% idea, because 1% of the city's budget is a huge chunk of change (we think it's about $500 million, based on the 2006, but we're still trying to figure out how the parks line item works). While the candidates tried to emphasize their commitment to New York and the parks, Gothamist began to think about who might be left standing this fall.

The nomination of Judge John Roberts to the Supreme Court has struck a sour note with New Yorkers who are not David Brooks, especially New York politicians in search of female voters. Mayor Bloomberg received an endorsement from Naral Pro-Choice in New York. Bloomberg, who has consistently been pro-choice, in spite of his inconsistent political party sides, even made remarks saying that he'd only support Roberts if Roberts didn't overturn Roe v. Wade. Bloomberg's challengers have come out against Roberts as well, and they take the Mayor to task for not being aggressive enough in pro-choice efforts; City Council Speaker Gifford Miller, for instance, points out that Bloomberg vetoed a bill giving emergency contraception to rape victims. But, as others point out, it's not surprising Hizzoner is pro-choice, given his advice to female employees at Bloomberg.

Mayor Bloomberg has spent $23 million on his reelection campaign so far, with $13 million spent on advertising between May 12 and this past Monday. Damn, because it was in March that we said "Damn!" to his spending $5 million. The Post reminds us that the Mayor spent $74 million in 2001, and at this pace, he could spend $100 million. With Senator Jon Corzine spending about $75 million on his Senate campaign, and untold millions on the gubernatorial race this fall, will we only see gazillionaires running?

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."

Joseph Mercurio (at right) after a series of unfortunate missteps involing a campaign flier. Mercurio spoke to The Politicker and said that Fields had approved the flier (Fields had claimed she never saw it and would never have let it be printed if she had), with the Photoshopped-in Asians. This comes after Field fired him, essentially blaming him for the fiasco, and put her campaign manager, Chung Seto, in charge, leading Mercurio to say that Seto wasn't capable of running the campaign. The Reverend Al Sharpton questioned the Mercurio's professionalism on his radio show yesterday, saying, "A professional ought to be a professional. And whatever disputes there are, they ought to remain that way [private]. They don't have a right to come back and try to slam-dunk you after stuffing their pockets."

C. Virginia Fields' campaign has been spinning ever since Fliergate. Yesterday, she held an emergency press conference, with real life Asians (as opposed to Photoshopped ones), telling reporters, "By and large, I knew all of [the people in the montage], except the two Asians in there, I don't know them." Fields' new campaign manager is Chinese - Chung Seto, whom Newsday says holds the "highest position" for an Asian in any campaign. Fields' solution to the problematic flier was to blame the company, Winning Direction, and say she'd "withdraw" the mailing, so if you see some people lurking around your mailbox, they might be Fields campaign operatives! One man who was in the flier picture, David Givens, was annoyed and told the Post, "If you're going to put my photo in campaign material, please tell me. I haven't endorsed her." Which brings us to the other Fields problem: She has a "casual" photograph of herself with some firefighters in both the flier and on her website, and it turns out that the Fire Department doesn't allow photographs of firefighters in political campaigns. The FDNY said that even though firefighters might appear in news conferences that are used by political candidates, Deputy Fire Commissioner Francis Gribbon tolds the NY Times, "We don't endorse political candidates or become involved in campaigns in any way. So we would not allow it." Unless it's a politician tugging at the September 11 heartstrings, because Gothamist feels like we've seen a lot of those.

Every so often, Gothamist gets passionate emails from Christopher X. Brodeur, who is running for mayor, about Mayor Bloomberg being corrupt. And yesterday, Brodeur sent us something about how a flier that Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields put together had Asians Photoshopped into it. As Gothamist had trouble opening the attachment and needed to rest up for the bid anticlimax that was the 2012 Olympics announcement, we had to wait for today's Post story with Fields's chief consultant admitting the whole picture was doctored:

Fields' chief consultant Joseph Mercurio said that the photo in the handout — "Virginia Fields, Democrat, a Mayor for All New Yorkers" — is actually four separate pictures that were melded together into one. Mercurio said the fake photo was intended to represent Fields' "inclusiveness."

Continue reading "Photoshop Fun for Fields"

Much to the delight of gay and straight New Yorkers, yesterday's steamy weather meant that there was more reason for marchers in the Gay Pride Parade to go shirtless. If you were downtown, everywhere people would turn there was bound to be a fairly naked, glistening body. New Yorkers enjoyed themselves, and some noted how the parade has become "mainstreamed." The parade was started as to mark the Stonewall uprising in 1969, and some who marched in the first pride parade 36 years ago marched again yesterday.