: Running For Mayor…Through Queens

Standing in front of the 18-member, mostly black, People’s Choice Political Club, Inc., who gathered inside a one-room church in Jamaica, mayoral candidate Fernando Ferrer said, “Ask me the question.”

The question that Ferrer rightly anticipated, was about his remarks that Amadou Diallo’s death in 1999 by police officers was “not a crime.” He also said there was a tendency to “over indict,” following that incident, angering many in the black community. Ferrer has since called those words “careless.”

How the one-time Democratic front-runner is received by one of the largest and most faithful Democratic voting blocks could determine which Democrat makes it to the general election in November.

Queens
Many of Queens’ 1,093,464 registered voters will have plenty of opportunities to meet Ferrer and the other candidates running for Mayor. One group opportunity came up last weekend when all four Democrats, two Republicans and the incumbent mayor gathered at the Samuel Field YM&YWHA in Little Neck, making it the first time the public got to see and hear from all the 2005 mayoral candidates at the same time.

U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Kew Gardens) said it was neighborhoods like Little Neck that would “decide who the next mayor of New York is.”

The borough’s 160,866 Republicans make Queens the most Republican county in the City, nearly doubling that of Staten Island (82,193). Queens comes in third for its number of Democrats (688,789) and voters not enrolled in a party (201,184). Queens also offers a backdrop against which Bloomberg and the six others vying for his job can paint their candidacy.

Bloomberg

Bloomberg
In the last two weeks, Mayor Michael Bloomberg zig-zagged across Queens, and has picked up an endorsement, and a sari, from the Jackson Heights Merchants Association. He hosted his own Town Hall meeting inside Queens Hospital and personally filled in a pot hole in Glendale.

When he picked up the endorsement of the Jackson Heights Merchants Association, Shiv Das, a local businessman who has raised money for Democrats in the area, introduced Bloomberg as “the people’s mayor.”

At the Jackson Heights events, the JHMA distributed buttons that read “We Love Our Mayor.”

In Little Neck, the Mayor was asked if there was a Queens equivalent to Manhattan’s stadium and convention center that would spur economic development here.

“In terms of economic development, there is probably in some senses more going on in Queens than any other place,” said Bloomberg. But, he noted, “Its not all one location, its not all one big project.”

The Mayor left before the floor was opened for questions to attend an event in Manhattan, where his daily question and answer session with reporters was scheduled.

Miller

Miller
Gifford Miller, the 35-year-old Speaker of the City Council, spoke after the Mayor left, cutting away at what he had just heard. Bloomberg “just talked [for] five or six minutes about education and he didn’t mention teachers,” Miller said. He said the City was “paralyzed by a lack of leadership.”

Miller, the number two leader in the city, and Bloomberg have a lot in common. Both Bloomberg and Miller are white, Upper East Side residents of Manhattan. When asked to prove how a Miller administration would be less “Manhattan-centric,” Miller said he is already focused on the outer boroughs. Among the evidence Miller offered was his recent attendance at PS 188 in Bayside during the annual Principal for a Day event.

Weiner

Weiner
The Forest Hills resident has begun to wonder aloud “Wouldn’t it be great to have a mayor from Queens?” The Brooklyn native and son of a schoolteacher has made his biography a selling point to audiences in Queens, and a tool to distinguish himself from the other white man running in the Democratic primary, Gifford Miller.

“I don’t think our appeal as Democrats should only be to liberal and moderates. We have become, Democrats have become, true conservatives in Congress,” Weiner said in a speech last month about national politics at the National Jewish Democratic Council. Afterwards, Weiner said the tack to the right is a message that will not hurt him in the mayor’s race “if we couch it in terms of fiscal responsibility.”

Another message Weiner has is that the mayor is “100 percent wrong” on education. Instead of focusing on a top-down restructuring of the public school system, Weiner said the focus should be on “the individual relationship between the teacher and student.”

Ferrer

Ferrer
When the floor was opened up to questions, District Leader Elmer Blackburne asked the remaining six candidates about unemployment in the Black and Hispanic communities, and diversity within city agencies.

“I think every level of decision making in this city should be a mirror of this city,” Ferrer responded
Afterwards, Blackburne told The Tribune he liked Ferrer’s answer, but added, “a lot of people that talk to me still have not heard a forthright explanation” about the Diallo comments. He said Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields had a strong lead in Southeast Queens, noting that “she’s been the beneficiary,” of Ferrer’s comments.

Ferrer’s aides have said they want to make the race a national rallying point for Democrats, with a national fund-raising operation to match.

“All I’ve got is four pairs of Rockports, a vision for this city, a dream for this city, and you. With you, we’ll face $100 million,” Ferrer said.

Fields

Fields
As the only African American running for mayor, the Manhattan Borough President reminded the Queens audience of her “long journey from Birmingham to the office of Manhattan Borough President.” She reminded the audience of her career as a social worker, and how she worked her way up the ladder of local government from community board to the city council to the Borough President’s Office.

“When you’re the Borough President, you have the core of the city at your fingertips,” Fields told the audience. She then explained how she would work to bring more people into the discussion about how best to run the city.

In Hollis a week earlier, Fields reiterated that her administration would be, “working together, getting things done, [and] using every level of government and being inclusive in our approach.” Fields’ appeal goes beyond the black community, which she demonstrated when she spoke to a gay, lesbian and transgender Democratic group previously.

“As an African-American woman, I know what it feels to be locked out, left out, and made to feel you don’t matter, you’re not worthy. In my case the color of my skin; in your case, sexual agenda plus color of skin.”

Ognibene

Ognibene and Shaw
Former Councilman Thomas Ogniebene and businessman Steve Shaw are looking to oust Bloomberg in the September Republican primary.

Shaw attacked one of the mayor’s hallmark issues: the drop in crime and changes in public school. “There’s nothing really remarkable,” about the crime reduction, Shaw said, noting the decline is steeper in other large American cities. As for schools, Shaw seemed to poke fun at the notion of building smaller, theme-oriented learning environments, instead telling the audience he’d rather see schools “focus on the basics: teaching language, reading writing, doing math.”

Shaw

Ognibene used his under-funded opponent status to criticize the mayor for leaving so early. “Whether we have $4 billion or $4 in our pockets, we all found it important to be here.”