Bloomberg Alters Speaker Race While it is too early to tell exactly what impact Mike Bloomberg's victory will have on the City Council speaker race, two differing impressions are buzzing around Brooklyn's political circles. Brooklyn's active candidates include Councilmember Angel Rodriguez, and councilmembers-elect Bill de Blasio and Al Vann. "I think [Bloomberg's victory] has to help Rodriguez," said one insider. "Now, more than ever, the Democratic Party has to reach out to the Hispanic community and show that it's not taken for granted."

The well-documented racial divisiveness of the primary runoff and the disenchantment of the Hispanic community, the thinking goes, may make electing a Hispanic speaker a political imperative. "The gesture of respect to the Latino community would be to elect [as speaker] the most qualified candidate who also happens to be Latino," said the source. Despite the clear political sense of this reasoning, it is somewhat problematic. First, the Hispanic figure most vocal in expressing anger over the runoff, and who likely wielded the most influence in hurting Mark Green, is Bronx County Leader Roberto Ramirez.

There is no love lost between Rodriguez and Ramirez. In fact, Rodriguez bucked Ramirez when the Bronx leader tried to pressure him to backer Fernando Ferrer. And many insiders believe that Ramirez tacitly backed Rodriguez's primary opponent this year, George Martinez. In general, Rodriguez views Ramirez as a coercive bully, although he parses his words in public. So don't expect Ramirez to happily offer up Rodriguez as the salve for the party's wounds.

However, it will also be difficult for Ramirez to openly oppose Rodriguez. If Ramirez was truly angry over the tactics used in the runoff against Ferrer because they were anti-Latino and designed to thwart Ferrer's bid to be the city's first Latino mayor, Ramirez will have trouble ignoring the only Latino speaker candidate. Backing a non-Latino over Rodriguez would seem to cast Ramirez's outrage in a somewhat hypocritical light.

"As far as I can tell, the candidate of [union boss] Denis Rivera and Roberto Ramirez seems to be Bill de Blasio. If that turns out to be the case, then it puts the lie to what [their outrage] was about. Then it's about kowtowing to Roberto Ramirez, something Angel throughout his career has categorically refused to do," said the source. "The Latino voter's message wasn't, 'We want you to respect Roberto Ramirez.' It was, 'We want you to respect us.'"

But perhaps Rodriguez's biggest political hurdle isn't dealing with Ramirez and the Bronx, but rather dealing with Queens. According to sources, Rodriguez had cut a deal for support with the Queens delegation. But the deal was sealed by Green, and of course predicated upon his election. "The sealant lost-will the commitment still hold?" asked another source. "With Green's defeat, I think the Queens people may splinter many ways," answered another insider.

Catcher Blasts Lasher District Leader Bernie Catcher recently had some harsh words for Susan Lasher and the Good Government Democratic Club regarding their involvement in Oleg Gutnik's City Council campaign.

Domenic Recchia won the campaign, but Gutnik ran a strong race, garnering 43 percent of the vote as a Republican in a largely Democratic district. Recchia supporters say that Gutnik's showing wasn't all that impressive because he had a large Russian-American base, as well as a local Republican contingent outside the Russian community, he was endorsed by Mayor Giuliani and Governor Pataki, and he rode Bloomberg's coattails. However, Gutnik nonetheless proved himself to be a formidable opponent.

Two campaign pieces supporting Gutnik have Catcher steamed. The first is a rather blatant appeal for Jews to vote for Gutnik simply because he's Jewish. The second, distributed in white, conservative Bensonhurst, shows Recchia surrounded by black politicos and asks whether he is the type of elected official the community wants to represent it. Catcher blames Lasher and the Good Government Democrats for the pieces.

"I think the Good Government Democratic Club proved itself to be the bad government club, and buried itself," he said. "The club's ethics and morality stink." He also blasted Lasher for the loss. "Her switch to the Republican Party was slapped in the face because every high rise in Trump and Warbass voted against her candidate, and she always thought of herself as the candidate of the high rises," he said. Lasher did not return a call seeking comment.

Calling All White Liberals Mike Bloomberg's success throughout much of Brooklyn, particularly the southern part of the borough, has caused some to wonder whether the so-called white liberal has gone the way of the dinosaur. Although Green narrowly won the borough, his support was largely limited to a brownstone core and areas north.

"You could probably take the white people outside of Park Slope and Brooklyn Heights who voted for Green both in the runoff and the general and fit them into a moderate sized high school gymnasium," quipped one source, who also happens to be a white liberal. "At this point in the politics of the city, white liberals have to be regarded as one of those minor sort of groups you have to pay a little attention to, but not that much-like Indo-Caribbeans who are Suni Muslims. Oh God, the white liberals are having a dinner! We have to buy a ticket and give them a $2,000 member item. We've become irrelevant."

But Lew Fidler, councilmember elect in the 46th District, disagreed. "I think there were a lot of people who voted for Bloomberg who didn't think they were betraying their liberal principles," he said. "I've been saying for quite some time that the old labels, liberal and conservative, are not all that appropriate. The Conservative Party literature I saw on Election Day pointed out that Mike Bloomberg was a Republican for less time than Hillary Clinton was a New Yorker," Fidler added. Bloomberg won Fidler's district.

"It's not as clear who we consider liberal and conservative anymore," Fidler said. "It used to be that if you were against the Vietnam War and for abortion rights, you were liberal. I'm pro-choice and pro-death penalty. What does that make me?"

Green Offers Advice To Upstart Davis Assemblymember Roger Green recently offered a few pearls to councilmember-elect James E. Davis, who won in the 35th District. Davis, you may recall, said last week that if Green, State Senator Velmanette Montgomery and Rep. Major Owens did not cooperate with him, then he would run candidates against them. Green said that Davis should relax and try to get along with his local colleagues.

"I don't think that the congressperson or the state senator has a history of going around issuing blanket challenges to my colleagues because you know that ultimately, particularly if you are elected to a legislative body, you have to learn how to work with people," said Green. "The other thing I've found is that it's not healthy to assume you're the top dog in town… I've learned that you really must subdue your ego to achieve some legislative success. I would hope that he would learn to do that as well," Green added.

Davis' remarks were surprising considering his newness and the breadth of his warning. Green, Montgomery and Owens supported Davis' opponent, Tish James. James, whom Davis called a sore primary election loser after she mounted a third-party general election campaign, declined to respond directly to his remarks. She did, however, say that it was Davis who should be prepared for a challenge. "I'm announcing my candidacy in 2003," she said. "We'll be back. I'm going to continue to work for the community, because they deserve better."

Meanwhile, Davis reiterated his remarks, saying that he would like to work with the elected officials in his area, but was also willing and ready to challenge them. "There's a new day in Brooklyn politics," he said. "If they're not responding to the community, I'm going to try to put forth candidates against all of them. That's a fact. It's not a threat-it's just reality." Green added that in politics, sometimes a sense of humor was an important asset. "You can't take this stuff too seriously," he said.

Owens declined to comment, and Montgomery could not be reached.

Borough Politics Archive
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