NYC Mayoral Election

[dazzleman]

What is NYC Democrats problem with Gifford Miller? Is it that he is too young (inexperienced)? Or is it a race-issue thing, like all the minority Dems support Ferrer and the White Dems cross over to Bloomberg?

Probably the latter.  A large percentage of Democrats plan to vote for Bloomberg.  NYC mayoral politics have de facto broken down along racial lines, with whites of either party, together with some latinos, supporting the Republican candidate, while blacks and certain latinos supporting the Democratic candidate.

It has reached the point where a white candidate almost can't win on the Democratic line, because he'd have to beat a minority candidate in the primaries, and that is considered a mortal sin by minority Democratic voters.  The Democrats in NYC mayoral elections are being hoist on their own racial petard; after decades of milking black resentment to get votes, they have now created a monster they can't control.

[dazzleman]

That it is.  Here's to a Ferrer victory.  Let's hope the party stays united behind a single sacraficial lamb rather than engaging in a nasty runoff.

Ferrer is a complete nincompoop, as are the rest of those candidates.

These people want to end fingerprinting of welfare recipients.  Great idea -- let's go back to the day when people were collecting welfare under all sorts of aliases.  What's the matter with these people?  They care nothing for the taxpayers.

[dazzleman]

Weiner made a very smart move.  Kept the party together, and is setting himself up to run in 2009.  Very classy, gotta admire him.  This is a show of party unity I don't think that party has seen for a very long while.

He surrendered to the racial arsonists.  It's clear that there's no future for a white candidate in the Democratic party in New York city.  Weiner has surrendered to the idea that it's somehow wrong to challenge a "minority" candidate, one who has made race and ethnicity the center of his campaign.  In four years, there'll be another "minority" candidate, and God forbid he has the audacity to beat that candidate, the minority voters will stay home on election day. 

If he really wants to be mayor, he'd be better off doing what Bloomberg did, and switching to the Republicans.  Strange as it seems, the political breakdown in mayoral politics right now seem to favor the Republicans.  The heavy presence of the racial arsonists like Sharpton in the Democratic party delivers the working class white vote in the outer boroughs to the Republicans in mayoral elections.  Pick up enough of the Manhattan elite and upwardly mobile latinos, and you have a winning coalition.  This is what has carried the past 3 mayoral elections, and probably a fourth.

[dazzleman]

I don't think Weiner could pull off a switch to the GOP. Before switching, Bloomberg had actually donated money (significant quantities) to the NY state GOP, Chris Shays, John McCain, and Matt Fong (1998 Boxer opponent). Post switch he gave $300,000 to the RNC, money to state and local GOP, and made contributions to George W Bush, more to John McCain, Richard Shelby, Peter King, and various GOP-related PACs, in addition of course to hosting the RNC itself in 2004.

There is no doubt Bloomberg is very liberal socially, but by the late '90s at least he was openly supporting various 'moderate' Republicans, and he has actively aided the GOP across the country since the switch. Ideologically, he's not conservative, but practically, he's bought himself a spot in the tent. His record actually is superior to Lincoln Chafee, who many Republicans support without hesitation.

Weiner may be able to pull off a switch to the GOP if he laid the right groundwork.  But that would probably mean giving up his seat in Congress.  Bloomberg was not burdened by public office when he was making his moves.  Weiner not only has to be re-elected in a heavily Democratic district, but he has to take positions on national issues as a congressman.

Still, my original point remains.  I have growing doubts that a white Democrat can win the mayoral election.  There will inevitably be some black or Puerto Rican candidate he/she would have to beat to get the nomination, and a white candidate beating a minority candidate within the same party has now been added to the definition of racism.  Mark Green committed the sin of beating Ferrer in a 2001 runoff, and as a result enough blacks and hispanics either switched to Bloomberg or stayed home to give Bloomberg a victory.  Ruth Messinger was severely damaged in 1997 by, among other things, her campaign against Al Sharpton.

On the other hand, if the Democrats nominate a minority candidate who bases his/her appeal on race/ethnicity (and in New York, minority candidates know no other way to appeal for votes), working class whites will turn out in droves to vote against that candidate.  In this sense, Dinkins spoiled it for any minority candidate for a long time.  White voters deeply fear having a mayor who is going to effectively put the concerns of one ethnic community above the good of the city and the maintenance of order, as Dinkins did.  There is no reason to believe that candidates like Ferrer would be any better.

[dazzleman]

Ferrer is being outspent 17 to 1.

It's hilarious and sad at the same time.

I think some of Bloomberg's spending is overkill.  Beyond a certain amount, spending on ads doesn't buy more votes.

Ferrer is just an idiot who would take the city back to the bad old days of the late 1980s and early 1990s if elected.  I can't stand his way of appealing to people on a purely ethnic basis.  I hope he loses big, even though I have my differences with Bloomberg.

[dazzleman]

When Dinkins was mayor, police were under orders to be non-confrontational with criminals.  Dinkins did nothing for 3 days while Crown Heights erupted in violence by blacks against Hasidic Jews in 1991.

Dinkins talked about the "beautiful mosaic" but the only color in his mosaic was black.  Two incidents that took place the same weekend highlight this.  In an incident that turned out to be a hoax, a black girl claim that she was accosted by a group of whites who put white shoe polish on her face.  Dinkins strongly condemned this "attack," which was later found to be fabricated.  That exact same weekend, a woman getting off a subway train was attacked and stabbed by a group of black men shouting anti-white slurs.  This was a real attack, not a hoax.  Dinkins had no comment on it.

I fear a return to this same thing if Ferrer or someone of his ilk were ever to be elected.  Ferrer has been endorsed by New York's premier racial arsonist, the Rev. Al Sharpton.  There's no way a mayor dependent on the support of Sharpton could sustain a strong anti-crime policy.  People like Sharpton don't care about how many people get robbed, beaten, murdered, etc., as long as it isn't white-on-black violence, which is probably about 2% of all the cases.