Tag: Bill de Blasio
Phoners
by Joshua Malbin on Sep.24, 2009, under New York, Politics
I’m a member of the Freelancer’s Union for the health insurance. Before the primary and now before the runoff I’ve gotten calls from some phone bank of theirs, urging me to vote for David Yassky for Comptroller and Bill de Blasio for Public Advocate.
Okay, whatever. But what was odd was the reason given both times: Yassky and de Blasio will fight for a new law to give unemployment benefits to freelancers.
It’s a small point, but Comptroller and Public Advocate are not legislative positions.
Primary Day: Runoff Aftermath
by Joshua Malbin on Sep.16, 2009, under New York, Politics
In NYC, as you may or may not know, candidates who win a plurality but don’t crack 40 percent in the first round of primary balloting have to face a runoff election against the second-place finisher. Today that applies to the Comptroller and Public Advocate races. John Liu was the leading vote-getter for Comptroller, so I can just stick with him over David Yassky. But for Public Advocate Norman Siegel came in fourth, alas, meaning I have to choose between Bill de Blasio and Mark Green.
I’m not so troubled anymore by the allegations that de Blasio may have broken New York’s campaign finance law by coordinating with the Working Families Party. Those charges should be investigated and if necessary the WFP should have to change its practices, but I’m not ready to punish candidates the WFP helped with what comes down to fieldwork and voter lists.
I’m a bit more bothered that de Blasio joined with David Yassky to send $145,000 from the City Council’s slush fund to the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy, and in return the Conservancy’s board and director raised $16,150 in campaign contributions for him. But I also think perhaps too much has been made of this because the slush fund now has the stink of criminal indictment about it. To be clear: the appropriations made from the slush fund by de Blasio, Yassky, and lots of other Council members may be totally not okay in the end, but they are an entirely separate question from the embezzlement indictments. Those charge that a small number of Council staff members (and possibly one or two Council members) made up organizations and sent city money to them.
All that really pales in comparison with the fact that Mark Green is one of the biggest jerks in city politics. I hear that Bill de Blasio is also kind of a jerk, but Mark Green is legendarily jerky. It’s what made him such an effective Public Advocate the first time around. He loves being in the news and he loves being a demagogue, and that’s really all there is to the job.
So I would vote for Green with no reservations except… this was exactly my thought process when I decided to vote for Green over Andrew Cuomo for state Attorney General. I thought it’d be good to have an obnoxious jerk for AG. Yet I’ve been very impressed with the job Cuomo has done. I plan to vote for him for governor. Maybe the thought process that led me to Green is flawed. (I know Cuomo hasn’t announced yet, but everyone knows he’s going to run. He’s probably just waiting for someone to find Paterson a graceful exit, so he doesn’t have to risk Paterson calling him racist for long primary months.)
What this all boils down to, in other words, is that as of one day after the primary I’m leaning toward Green, but could be talked out of it.
Go ahead and talk me out of it if you want.
Tentative Primary Endorsements
by Joshua Malbin on Sep.08, 2009, under New York, Politics
The New York City Democratic primary is in one week, and in every race other than Mayor, it’s the election that counts. Here’s my current thinking about who I’m going to vote for. If you disagree with any of these, please talk me out of whatever mistake you think I’m making.
Mayor: Tony Avella. This one matters very little, since Avella’s going to get crushed by Bill Thompson, who will in turn get crushed by Bloomberg. I just like Avella’s rabble-rousing rhetoric about luxury developers.
Comptroller: John Liu. Mainly on the strength of endorsements, in particular that of the Working Families Party.
Public Advocate: Norman Siegel. Mark Green has already shown he’s enough of an obnoxious publicity-hound to be good at the job, and Bill de Blasio seems like a decent enough guy. But I love me some fightin’ NYCLU.
Brooklyn Borough President: Eugene Myrick. A protest vote for the only other candidate on the ballot. I’m sick of Marty.
City Council District 39: Brad Lander. We went over this already.