Sex pols sock it to NY
WHAT’S the matter with New York? More to the point, what’s the matter with New Yorkers? The question takes on new and urgent meaning after the latest poll showing Eliot Spitzer stomping his primary opponent in the comptroller’s race and Anthony Weiner leading the Democratic mayoral pack. The laughoutloud jokes about the pervpalooza campaign suddenly feel stale now that the sexcrazed pols are serious contenders.
This is no laughing matter. Both could win. There, I said it.
The races are different — Spitzer has only one opponent, Weiner has four major ones — but something strange is afoot in both primaries. Or maybe it’s not so strange.
Maybe it’s actually as simple as this: Voters are mad as hell about politiciansasusual and they’re not going to take it anymore.
Say what you will about Spitzer and Weiner, but they break the mold, to a fault, of course. But that might be good enough in this lackluster field.
They embody, in their own weird ways, what the late, great Murray Kempton wrote about John Lindsay and his opponents in the 1965 campaign: “He is fresh and everyone else is tired.”
Similarly, in 1977, Ed Koch pulled an upset in a divided field largely on the strength of a biggerthanlife personality.
The polls also suggest that a more recent phenomenon, the revolution against the city’s permanent government that saw Democrats lose the last five mayoral elections, is alive and well. The party kept nominating runofthemill pols, and voters kept saying no thanks, we want somebody better, somebody not from the clubhouse.
So Rudy Giuliani beat David Dinkins and Ruth Messinger; Michael Bloomberg beat Mark Green, Freddy Ferrer and Bill Thompson.
Not many New Yorkers regret those results. Gotham isn’t Nirvana, but it sure beats Chicago and Detroit. You have a good chance of living to old age here, largely because you have better odds against a speeding bicycle than a bullet.
The sense that City Hall demands a big personality helps explain the lack of enthusiasm for any of the other mayoral candidates. The many attempts to draft top cop Ray Kelly into running was one indication, and another was Bloomberg’s bid to lure Hillary Rodham Clinton and others into the race.
Even union bosses, initially determined to unite behind a single Democrat, couldn’t settle on one puppet. They spread their endorsements around in a way that is keeping each of the wannabes alive without actually making any one of them inevitable.
As for policies, the differences among the candidates are mostly nuanced. They’re all playing small ball, microtargeting messages to specialinterest groups that include realestate developers, gays, smallbusiness owners and ethnic, racial and religious blocs. Only occasionally do straight, secular, middleclass taxpayers, homeowners and families figure into the calculation.
Weiner’s positions and interestgroup appeals aren’t really distinctive, but he is. Like a crazy man in a subway with a knife, you can’t take your eyes off him. The others you can safely ignore.
Spitzer also carries the aura of a man who could explode any minute. You know he’s itching to take a bite out of somebody; you just hope it’s not you.
His vault in the Quinnipiac poll is a real headturner. Eight days after jumping into the race, the former governor stands at 48 per cent, a 15point margin over Scott Stringer. He leads among women, blacks and Hispanics, with Stringer ahead only among men.
Stringer, the current Manhattan borough president, barely registers, with nearly six out of 10 Democrats saying they don’t know enough about him to have a clear opinion.
In a sign of its confusion and desperation, his camp is spinning that finding as an upside, saying his numbers will grow as more voters get to know him. But time is running out for an introduction.
Besides, everybody knows Spitzer, and nearly half already have settled on him as their man. Remarkably, 53 percent of Dems have a favorable opinion of him, with only 32 percent unfavorable.
Although this is still just the primary season, it is disturbing to think that Spitzer and Weiner, after their sleazy betrayals of public office, could get another shot without any evidence they have changed. But voters seem ready to get back on the roller coaster instead of settling for boring.
Buckle up, New York. It could be a helluva bumpy ride.