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Sunday, April 24, 2005

NYC-Mayor: Ferrer the Bumbler

Just a few days ago, in discussing the mayoral race in New York City, I opined:

Ferrer will continue to make mistakes (everyone in NYC knew that his Diallo comments were an enormous error the moment he uttered them) - partly because he now has a seeming penchant for them, and partly perhaps out of desperation for losing Sharpton - or, chastened and burned, he will run an overly cautious campaign.

As someone who admittedly has not been fully tuned into this campaign, I had no idea how right this guess (and it was only a guess) would actually be. To wit:

On Monday, Fernando Ferrer, a Democratic candidate for mayor, announced his proposal to revive a tax on stock trades, and his rivals immediately denounced it as misguided and hurtful to business. On Tuesday, pressed to defend the plan, Mr. Ferrer said that the city was under court order to produce billions for public education, and his opponents pounced on that mistake to paint Mr. Ferrer as gaffe-prone and ignorant.

And on Thursday, a day after Mr. Ferrer said that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg had failed to extract any additional state aid for education, he was left once again to defend himself against claims that he was wrong. (Emphasis added.)

Wow. I know that to many people (especially non-NYers), these issues may seem a bit arcane or even downright inscrutable, but I assure you, Ferrer's stumbles represent some pretty serious screw-ups. This hardly seems like the kind of campaign that will stay intact until the primary in September. Everyone is gunning for Ferrer, and he just can't handle the incoming fire. And the biggest beneficiary may well be the incumbent Republican Mike Bloomberg.

Posted at 03:43 PM in New York | Technorati

Comments

Sheldon Silver and Joe Bruno may have assured the mayor's re-election by throwing a monkey wrench into Bloomberg's awful plan for a West Side Stadium. They make up 2/3 of the Public Authorities Control Board which needs to approve the plan, and they just said that approval will not come before the Olympic committee announces it's decision on July 6. Game set match?

Most opposition to Bloomberg centers on his plans for the rail yard. Now that they appear derailed, what happens?

I mean, support for Ferrer was always lukewarm at best. He pissed off white liberals in the last mayoral election when he witheld support from Mark Green over perceived racial insults from Green's campaign during the primaries (over his relationship with Al Sharpton).

Now he's managed to piss off black voters with his ongoing refusal to apologize for his recent backtracking Diallo remarks.

That leaves us with Fields, Miller and Weiner. A least the governor's race is looking good.

Posted by: JohnS at April 25, 2005 12:49 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment