2001 NYC: Mark Green vs Fernando Ferrer (anybody remember this?)

[Essene]

In 2001... in the race for Mayor (to replace Rudy Giuliani)... Public Advocate Mark Green took a very sharp, nasty turn into a smear campaign against Bronx Borough President Freddie Ferrer. The Green campaign pushed subtle racist literature around town.

Remember that?

September 11th was primary day, and up to that moment... Green ran such an incredibly nasty campaign that many calls of racism were rampant across the local media. Green pulled ahead in the primary, leaving the city's democrats in dismay. It was DEVASTATING for the Democrats and had ripple effects throughout the state's party machinery...

9/11 obviously disturbed the election process to some degree, but the bottom line is that the Green smear campaign caused a huge backlash and alienation among the voters. The Democrats were SUPPOSED to win that race, and 9/11 wasnt the sole cause of that loss. There's an important lesson here.


What i think we're seeing in the Democratic primary may end up being JUST LIKE Green vs Ferrer.

Thoughts?


(And for those who don't see the punchline: Mike Bloomberg stepped out of nowhere and won that race)

[HeraldSquare212]

1. Yup, I remember

and you make an excellant point - a primary like that could suppress our own vote and give the election to the Reps.

[aquart]

2. No. But Bloomberg is hoping it will give it to him.

[Essene]

5. Bloomberg can foil the election either way

Let me be blunt.

Mark Green was an annoying old school 70s radical that could only obtain the "Public Advocate" position. He got some big endorsements, but otherwise people basically... didn't like him.

Freddie Ferrer was a unifying latino... poised to be the first latino mayor of NYC, coming out of a strong Bronx reform movement (that continues today). He was charismatic and blunt.

In the end... minority turnout was very low, people were disgusted and folks moved to Bloomberg.


If Hillary gets away with this smear campaign on Obama, undermining all he represents to MANY people (including independents)... she then goes into the national race:

1. as one of the most disliked politicians in the country
2. as somebody who smeared the positive, unifying young black civil rights guy
3. as somebody from congress (and the only thing americans hate more than Bush is congress. We havent elected somebody from congress since 1960 for a reason)

Bloomberg will feed on moderates from both parties and articulate a centrist, populist position that will attract people. As a true independent, he'll also bring in those who hate "the 2 party system" and want a moderate.

Against Hillary, he's stongest. Against Obama, he's weaker... but every punch on him helps his opponents.

Either way... a nasty primary with the elite liberal white gal beating up on the young inexperienced black guy... is going to hurt the party's chances.

Bloomberg could foil the election EITHER WAY, but the bottom line is that a nasty, pointless smear war among the democrats will almost promise it foils it for the democrats.

[Essene]

3. Exactly. And this year... independents and high voter turnout are everything

There's a reason Karl Rove is attacking Obama and stirring up the in-fighting.

The ironies of that Mark Green campaign are just way too similar.

[Fredda Weinberg]

4. Worse than that ... provisional ballots weren't counted.

I checked later ... both parties had agreed to ignore the law and disenfranchise more ballots than the margin of victory.

[Essene]

6. please explain

I'm very curious.

[Fredda Weinberg]

11. The official version

At the end of the primary election, the Board of Elections inval-idated over 40,000 paper ballots for various reasons. When thenumber of invalidated votes were disproportionate to one can-didate, that candidate raised questions about the process bywhich the casting and counting of such votes took place

http://www.tcf.org/Publications/ElectionReform/nyc-hayduk.pdf

Here's from a NYT story

''Until all the votes are counted, it would be premature to have a preordained Democratic nominee,'' Mr. Ramirez said. ''I think the voters are entitled to that, however anxious we may be. You can do the math: the difference is 18,000 and there are 30,000 votes still to be counted,'' he said.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C05EEDB153EF93BA25753C1A9679C8B63

More

Mr. Ramirez said that he had reports of Green campaign workers pressuring Board of Elections staff to invalidate paper ballots in the Bronx. Mr. Ramirez later explained that, according to those monitoring the validation process for the Ferrer campaign, election workers were invalidating paper ballots, mostly from low-income and minority neighborhoods, that had been filled out by voters who said that the machines did not work or by those who were in the wrong poll site.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE2DF173EF934A25753C1A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1

Roberto Ramirez, the Bronx Democratic party chairman and a spokesman for the Ferrer campaign, noted that more than 50,000 absentee ballots and paper ballots filed by people who had trouble with their machines or were not listed as registered have yet to be counted.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE0D9113FF936A25753C1A9679C8B63

You get the picture? Anyway, I checked afterwards ... turns out, the excuse the BoE used to invalidate the ballots, that the voters had already signed the register, was bogus. They even made a file showing that the voters had done everything right ... but the paper ballot still wasn't counted.

[Essene]

12. Scary... the lengths some (democrats) will go for power

Thanks for the info.

Creepy. Scary.

I lived in Harlem at that time and remember voting in 2001 to be extremely suspicious. I myself had my registration brought into question (they had misspelled my name and street address. They nearly didnt let me vote). I had to fill out a special ballot and paperwork. While i was there, i saw at least 4-5 other people going through very traumatic experiences. There were several broken machines as well and the entire place was very tense. I had never seen anything like that before in NYC or elsewhere. I believe i filled out a small grievance card, but that was it.

For all i know, my vote was invalidated. In fact, in retrospect, I'm sure it was...

That was the general election.


What's sad it seeing political campaigns so desperate for power that they would utterly destroy their own party and the integrity of democracy just to obtain it.

[Fredda Weinberg]

14. I wish I could say I was shocked. The only thing that bothered me

was "progressive" media didn't care ... I tried. But they were behind Mark Green, who went on to lose ... a lot of people were turned off and turnout was light.

[Essene]

16. Yea, i dont understand why candidates and progressives cave in

Especially given the implications not only of the corruption but then also the complacency.

[Fredda Weinberg]

17. I understand and accept. They're human. So w/a little care and

feeding, you get acceptable results. 9/11 changed things for a while, but I see sanity returning.

[Essene]

19. yea but... there is so much at stake. i dont get it

i dont get why the LOSING politicians give up so easily and why the public just accepts corrupted democracy just out of expediency.

it's not sad. it's scary.

[madinmaryland]

7. If I recall, Bloomberg at the time registered repub,

so that he did not have to run in the Dem Primary. Also, weren't there three or four candidates in the Dem primary, including Green and Ferrer. I'm not sure this is quite an accurate comparison. Whoever won the election was essentially a democrat (Bloomberg was a lifelong democrat).

Also, the democrats had been in disarray since the early 90's following David Dinkins.

[Essene]

8. He was asked by Repubs to go Repub to replace Rudy

He was a fairly moderate guy, with a history of social liberalism but a strong business side. The GOP in NYC clearly wanted to reinvent themselves and hold up a moderate after the divisive Rudy years. I highly doubt Bloomberg would have won without both 9/11 and the Mark Green smear campaign (which devastated turnout and the party).

I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that Ferrer would have won, otherwise.

The point is that... the internal smear campaign cost the Dems the election.

[madinmaryland]

9. Given that 9/11 happened and 9ui11iani endorsed Bloomberg,

any democratic candidate was doomed. Bloomberg also spent $75 million compared to only a small amount by the democrat(s).

If 9/11 had not happened, I still think Bloomberg would have bought his way into office (see what John Corzine did with the Senate and NJ governorship)

[Essene]

10. I disagree. The smears caused low turn-out. Rudy was the past...

The mark green campaign smear has as much if not more of an impact.

Think about this...


Democratic Primary #1: 785,365 votes
Democratic Primary Run-off: 790,019 votes

Mark Green's final votes: 709,268
Bloomberg's Final votes: 744,757

Over 50 thousand more people voted in the Democratic primaries than voted for Bloomberg.

Folks got SICK of the democratic party.

Voter turn-out was very low and it wasn't just about 9/11.

[Chovexani]

15. 9/11 really had very little to do with that election

A shit ton of Black and Latino Dems either stayed home or crossed over to vote for Bloomberg because of that shit Mark Green pulled. Did 9/11 have an impact? Of course, but so small as to be negligible.

[Essene]

20. Has anybody carefully documented? Good articles?

I hope some insiders are really taking this seriously, especially in the Hillary camp.


They need to get into damage control...

[Chovexani]

13. Mark Green acted despicably towards the end of that campaign

And lost a LOT of the minority vote because of it. My mom voted Republican for the first and only time in her life, for Bloomberg, because of that and she was not alone by any means. Losing the minority vote in NYC is NOT something any candidate can afford and still expect to win.

I stayed home for the first and only time in my voting life. I was not the only one, either.

[Essene]

18. I think this feeling was very widespread... and has relevance to 2008

If the Hillary camp keeps pushing their smear, it could end up very similar. That's my fear.

And i'm not alone in saying i'd happily vote Bloomberg if she won the Democratic nomination doing this...

[Essene]

21. Told ya... the baiting "worked" for hillary and now it's going to implode

=(