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The 2000 election must not be forgotten.
Democracy Now
The world needs more ballots, not more bullets.
Cracks in the Coalition
The rest of the world begins to sour on the war.
Abortion Under Attack
Chipping away at the right to choose.
But Venezuela's "revolution" faces many obstacles.
Selling the War.
Kamikaze Capitalists.
The IRA moves forward with decommissioning—but some
loyalists don't want peace.
New Yorkers elect Bloomberg as their next mayor.
There's a Police Riot Goin' On
Anti-war marchers feel the chill in Connecticut.
Climate of Fear
Long Island activist is charged as a "terrorist."
In Person
Fred Korematsu made a federal case out of it.
MUSIC: No joy for New Order.
The Vagina that Roared
BOOKS: Susanna Kaysen's "sore spot."
Fille, Interrupted
FILM: Fat Girl and French Feminism.
Mind out of Time
The seven ages of Bob.
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November 9, 2001
Going Against the Green
New Yorkers elect Bloomberg as their next mayor.
NEW YORK—The real story of the election that made Republican billionaire
Michael Bloomberg the next mayor of this city is the self-destruction of Mark
Green. Exit polls showed that 55 percent of the victor’s voters were against
Democrat Green rather than for Bloomberg. Why? Green drained enthusiasm for his candidacy among traditional Democratic constituencies
by running away from his liberal reputation. This process began in Green’s
second term as the city’s public advocate, when he attached himself like
a mollusk to Bill and Hillary Clinton, defending their sleazy hypocrisies before
any microphone the adept publicity hog could find. And when the first lady (who godmothered the serpent Dick Morris’ cynical
triangulations) ran for senator, Green was her most visible surrogate when she
was kept hidden from the press by her handlers. Having justified the Clintons’
destruction of the Rooseveltian liberal heritage he’d long embraced, Green
should have surprised no one when he morphed into an electoral Pander Bear.
But he did. Green shunted aside his campaign manager, Richard Schrader—a former director
of New York Citizen Action who is widely respected by progressives here—in
favor of counsel from his older brother Steve Green, a wealthy real estate magnate
(and a Republican). As chief fundraiser, Steve introduced Mark to the city’s
business community, to which Mark sucked up throughout the year. To win the runoff for the Democratic nomination against Fernando “Freddy”
Ferrer, he echoed the same racially divisive rhetoric he had criticized during
the primaries, when it was used by the most conservative candidate in the race,
Peter Vallone. Already embittered at Green for running a flagrantly code-worded TV ad designed
to raise white fear of Ferrer, Hispanics were furious when, a week before the
election, the Daily News broke a story placing top Green campaign aides
in a pre-runoff meeting at which racially inflammatory literature painting Ferrer
as Al Sharpton’s puppet was planned to be used. Sharpton threatened to
call for an election boycott unless Green investigated and fired those responsible,
and Ferrer (who had formally endorsed Green and made a few token campaign stops
with him) pointedly absented himself from both a $1,500-minimum fundraiser co-chaired
by the Clintons on the Friday before the vote and a public “unity”
rally that weekend featuring not only Bill and Hill, but Senators Chuck Schumer
and Ted Kennedy as well. In Ferrer’s home borough of the Bronx, Democratic boss Roberto Ramirez
closed the party’s county headquarters for the campaign’s final three
days, and his troops sat on their hands. Bloomberg wound up with 50 percent
of the Hispanic vote—11 points better than Giuliani ever did—and 22
percent of the black vote (two points better than Rudy’s showing four years
ago). When a deliberately delayed endorsement of Bloomberg by Giuliani—made
into a brilliant pass-the-torch TV spot that had Giuliani bidding farewell to
the city—drove Bloomberg into a statistical dead heat with Green in the
last week, the Democrat played into the say-anything image that his campaign
performance had earned him by unleashing a last-minute barrage of near-hysterical
attack ads against Bloomberg. These backfired with New Yorkers longing for civility
in the post-September 11 gloom and fear. Bloomberg’s most heavily aired
negative ad featured a tape recording of Green’s own words when he claimed
that he would have been “better than Giuliani” in handling the city
after the World Trade Center atrocity, and adding—with effective understatement—just
a single question: “Really?” This spot reminded everyone of the arrogance Green displayed throughout the
campaign. One anecdote tells it all: During the primary, Green was handshaking
at the Educational Alliance, a venerable Lower East Side institution founded
a century ago by Jewish Socialists (now serving mostly seniors known as “Edgies”)
and a must campaign stop for any Democrat. A grandmotherly Edgie came up and
asked Green, “So, darling, what are you running for?” Green’s
withering reply: “Read the newspapers.” He lost the normally Democratic
Jewish vote (19 percent of the total turnout) to Bloomberg by two points. |
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