I went to a fascinating conference yesterday on politics and the internet, and one of the discussions was about how newspapers are using the Web. Although our speaker was from Washingtonpost.com, his remarks could have been titled "The Times, they are a Changing"....ouch! sorry...but what's the deal with this new Times Select? Remember when we thought that "information wants to be free? Not at today''s Times, I guess.
The first blow from W.43rd Street to news junkies like me in D.C. was when they decided to stop sending the New York City editions of the Times to Washington. The Sulzbergers decreed that Washingtonians needed local TV listings more than the NYC news a lot of former New Yorkers and New Yorker wannabes counted on from the Times. I had to go online to find this account of the latest from the NYC mayoral election.
September 22, 2005
Ferrer Campaigns With Green and Criticizes Bloomberg
By PATRICK D. HEALY and THOMAS J. LUECKHello Mark! I've been wondering when Mark Green (disclosure: I've worked on his campaigns) would make an entrance in the 2005 mayoral race. The Times could have written one of those "Former Rivals in bittersweet embrace" headlines but chose to play it cool. Besides, now that the paper has it's must-miss gossip column "Boldface Names" that headline is saved for news from J-Lo or Gwyneth)
Fernando Ferrer, the Democratic nominee for mayor, campaigned for the first time yesterday with his former political archnemesis, Mark Green, while also unveiling his first television commercials against his new rival, Michael R. Bloomberg, one of which suggested that the Republican mayor had failed to tackle poverty in the city.
Archnemesis ---ooo, scary. I guess they couldn't fit that into the headline so they used it in the lede. But all in all so far this story is handing the Ferrer campaign the mike and letting them say their piece about Mike Bloomberg. They'll beat up on Freddy again, but for now the press had decided that after being reborn by his primary win he's got hybrid vigor.
The Ferrer camp, seeking to build political muscle as a new poll showed the mayor leading by 14 percentage points, also geared the new ad and its allies' lobbying efforts to woo the Working Families Party and the United Federation of Teachers for endorsements that could particularly influence liberal voters who may be leaning to Mr. Bloomberg.
God I miss the Vietnam war. Back then, the New York left had a focus, a clear area of agreement. Now we've got the Working Families and the Teachers and the hospital workers and a newly split labor movement --can't we just all get along?
The two candidates themselves scuffled lightly, meanwhile, over the issue of debates, with the mayor saying there would be two and the Democratic challenger appearing to call for at least five.
Here it comes, the invevitable debate about debates. Watch for more stories in the weeks to come, giving the press a focus and another reason not to cover important issues. Every campaign underdog calls for more debates, the bigger the gap between the candidates, the more outrageously the front-runner can manipulate the process. In 1986, when I helped Mark Green lose his race for U.S. Senate, Al D'Amato got a debate scheduled opposite a playoff game at Yankee Stadium.
Yet it was Mr. Ferrer's appearance with Mr. Green that provided the drama of the day. Mr. Ferrer won more votes than Mr. Green in the 2001 mayoral primary, yet lost to him in a runoff. The two camps accused each other of racially tinged politicking, bitterness set in and Mr. Green led a divided party to defeat against Mr. Bloomberg.
OK, I've been wrong about Ferrer and Green in the past. (Note the dateline on that first clip...) But it is big news that Mark Green has endorsed Ferrer, and if the press will let them, maybe these two leading Democrats can work together.
That enmity, which is still palpable among some of their past and present advisers, was not visible yesterday as the men shook hands with voters on the Upper West Side, which provided crucial support for Mr. Green in 2001 and is now a likely Bloomberg-Ferrer battleground. As they introduced each other to voters, Mr. Green repeated, "Say hello to Fernando Ferrer, Democratic nominee for mayor," while "You know Mark Green?" was Mr. Ferrer's mantra.
Know what that first sentence really says? Someone in the room who's been around Mark Green a long time said something disparaging. The only thing "palpable" in this paragraph is the reporter looking for something specific for his story, in this case, a dig about a grudge. Too bad, really, because the rest of that sentence has a nugget of real news. Where's Waldo? Do you know?
Addressing the issue of their relationship, Mr. Green characterized it as fine, adding that they realized after debating together against a proposed charter change in 2003 that they were "a much better team together than against each other."
In making the endorsement, Mr. Green said he was supporting Mr. Ferrer because he had fought over the years for "all those millions of people who can't privatize their lives." Mr. Ferrer said he was grateful for the support yet did not return the favor and endorse Mr. Green's candidacy for attorney general next year, saying he would make that decision at the appropriate time.
Oh well. It would have been nice to get an endorsement for AG but I have a feeling Mark wasn't counting on one. But I'll tell you one thing that would get the attention of a "Mayor" Ferrer --and it's the answer to our riddle--if Mark Green made it a personal priority to beat Bloomberg on the Upper West Side, or in his old neighborhood on the Upper East Side.
Appearing with his old rival reflected a budding confidence in Mr. Ferrer, who notably avoided events during the primary campaign that might be unpredictable or remind voters of his past failures (such as losing to Mr. Green).
Cute. Oh, let's give a round of applause to that snide (at least it was edited if not written in the parenthetical) remark.
Mr. Ferrer and other Democrats see the mayor as less politically sure-footed than usual lately, citing Mr. Bloomberg's recent break with President Bush over abortion rights and hurricane recovery.
I'm sorry, but how is telling the swing voters in this race (liberals) what they want to hear a mis-step? (This race may be the exception to the rule articulated yesterday by Hal Malchow, who said "I've never seen a piece of Republican direct mail that didn't include the words "liberal Democrat."
Yesterday, the mayor again sought to curry favor with Democrats by standing with a Democratic senator, Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana, as she criticized the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina. Yet he seemed uncertain about echoing her criticism; asked by a reporter about the federal and local efforts along the Gulf Coast, he said, "I am not an expert," before urging better emergency planning.
Bloomberg may be trying to win re-election in New York, but he still can't say boo to Bush, in the bayou or Sohoo. That's why Ferrer will try to change his name to "Republican Michael Bloomberg" but it probably won't be enough to beat Mike's many advantages. But hey -- I've been wrong before.
Trying to tweak the mayor, the state Democratic Party sent a man wearing a George W. Bush mask to a Times Square rally yesterday, where the mayor was endorsed by unions of theater, film and art professionals. The man held a sign that read, "Thanks, Mike, for Your Support," while a woman handed out fliers describing how the mayor had raised millions of dollars for Republicans.
Clever! You have to do stuff like that to get attention these days. (If you're in DC this weekend for the protests, look out the folks from Funny Times and see what kind of seeds they're planting.)
Mr. Ferrer was pointedly aggressive in criticizing the mayor yesterday, ranging from the city's evacuation plans to the years-overdue contract for public school teachers. In an appeal to the 105,000 teachers' union members who are registered city voters, Mr. Ferrer said contract talks were foundering because Mr. Bloomberg "walks away from that table and fails to take the most basic action a mayor has to engage in."
Mush. Freddy, couldn't you have come up with stronger verbs than "walks" and "fails" and "engage in?" The man (kidding!) next to you knows how to frame the debate and seize control of the rhetoric. Get his help.
The mayor said yesterday he was optimistic that a new contract would be reached, and noted that his earlier one with teachers included a landmark double-digit raise. Yet he faces pressure from the union to settle a contract during the election season or endure a possible strike as well as a probable teachers' endorsement of Mr. Ferrer.
Yes, I think we can probably assume that the teachers won't endorse Bloomberg. Although many parents will, including parents who've voted in the past for Mark Green.
In one of its new television commercials yesterday, the Ferrer campaign sought to deepen an impression of the mayor as uncaring about working New Yorkers, citing what he said was a rising city poverty rate. Kevin Sheekey, the mayor's campaign manager, said Mr. Ferrer was trying to fool New Yorkers with "distortions and deceit" by citing poverty rates in a way that the Census Bureau had discouraged.
"Distortions and deceit" is better than "engage in" but never mind the war of spoken words. How about the battle over the mailbox?
I've created political direct mail for decades and the strategy for those oversize postcards you get is for their arrival to be staggered; so a piece about education comes a week or so before the one about health care, and so on and so on until a well-tuned juggernaut rolls out on Election Day.
But when a ton of candidates are running and every printer and mail shop from New York to Milwaukee are working overtime, everything gets dumped at once. A friend in Manhattan estimates receiving 100 pieces within the last few weeks of the primary. When every candidate is pulling on your coat at the same time, you just want to get away.
Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Ferrer, who have yet to joust aggressively with each other in the week-old general election campaign, did clash briefly over televised debates.
"Two debates is what we had the last time and two debates is what we are going to have this time," the mayor said at a news conference. Mr. Ferrer scoffed at the mayor's suggestion of two debates. "We owe it to the people of all of this city not only to have debates in every one of the five boroughs but to have debates on specific topics," Mr. Ferrer said during a visit to the Michael J. Petrides High School on Staten Island.
You see? They can't even wait until tomorrow to the debate/debate/distraction. Keep an eye on reporting about the New York election --if you can find it.
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