No Fun!

If you subscribe to the idea that Anthony Weiner ran for mayor in order to raise his profile for a future run, then his ostensibly noble decision to concede defeat to Fernando Ferrer and avoid a runoff (which is unclear will happen under state law) may seem smart. If you buy the notion that Bloomberg is unbeatable, then it is doubly smart. If you even think that it’s a brilliant move to say you want to avoid a runoff and then just have to participate in a runoff, then it’s triply smart. But at least for now, it appears that Ferrer is the Democratic candidate who will face Michael Bloomberg in the general election:

Representative Anthony D. Weiner conceded the 2005 Democratic mayoral nomination yesterday to Fernando Ferrer, the top vote-getter in the race, in hopes of averting a potentially destructive runoff election and strengthening Mr. Ferrer’s hand as he begins the final eight-week campaign against Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

Mr. Weiner’s decision, made after a long night of strategizing with aides and his mentor, Senator Charles E. Schumer, came as a surprise to New York Democrats, not least Mr. Ferrer, who was said to be ecstatic. Mr. Ferrer lost a bruising mayoral runoff to Mark Green in 2001, and faced an uncertain bout against the scrappy Mr. Weiner; yesterday, he embraced a nomination that had eluded him in two previous runs for mayor.

In a surprising development, however, city elections officials announced that they were required under state law to hold a runoff despite Mr. Weiner’s withdrawal – at a cost to taxpayers of at least $10 million to pay for sending 6,030 voting machines to 1,409 polling stations and running the special election on Sept. 27. Mr. Ferrer will also stand to collect more than $421,000 in public campaign funds if a runoff is held.

Campaign lawyers for Mr. Ferrer and Mr. Weiner began looking for loopholes yesterday to avert a runoff, which is required when no mayoral primary candidate wins 40 percent of the vote. According to unofficial results, Mr. Ferrer won 39.949 percent of the vote, about 250 shy of 40 percent, in an election that drew just 15 percent of registered Democrats. Some 8,000 absentee ballots remain to be counted, but it is unclear if those votes will help or hurt him.

Mr. Weiner said he would not participate in a runoff even if one were held, calling it “a waste,” and Mr. Ferrer’s camp said they hoped to have the problem solved quickly so he could turn his sights on Mr. Bloomberg, beginning with a unity rally with Mr. Weiner and dozens of other Democrats on the steps of City Hall this afternoon.

. . .

Mr. Weiner explained his decision yesterday by saying that, his competitive spirit aside, Democrats needed to unite quickly if they were to overcome the unlimited campaign spending of “billionaire Republican Mike Bloomberg.”

“It was a difficult decision – it’s in my DNA to keep fighting,” said Mr. Weiner, standing on the bottom step of his childhood home in Park Slope, where he was known as a sports fanatic. “But I believe it is the right thing to do.”

Florida 2000 . . . New York City 2005?

Mayoral hopeful Fernando Ferrer may be facing a runoff against Anthony Weiner (whose charming “Weiner Mayor” signs could stay in rotation another couple of weeks), pending the outcome of an extremely tight vote count:

Fernando Ferrer captured the most votes in the Democratic mayoral primary last night, but a strong possibility emerged that he might have to vie in a runoff for his party’s nomination against Representative Anthony D. Weiner.

According to preliminary, unofficial results last night, Mr. Ferrer held a strong lead over Mr. Weiner, who rode an anti-establishment political message out of last place in a four-way race in just the last few weeks. But unofficial results showed that Mr. Ferrer captured 39.949 percent of the vote, a hairbreadth short of the 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff on Sept 27.

Foreshadowing a fierce battle over the election results in coming days, Mr. Ferrer stopped just short of declaring victory in the Democratic primary last night, saying, “We’re almost there.” Mr. Weiner had 29 percent of the vote, and insisted that he was in the runoff.

Several thousand absentee ballots still need to be counted.

Meanwhile, Gifford Miller barely did better than perennial gadfly Christopher X. Brodeur, whose message appealed to 17,000 voters (4 percent) versus Miller’s 46,000 supporters (10 percent):

Maybe it was his pledge to eliminate all subway fares. Or perhaps it was his desultory campaign promises, as outlined in a column in The New York Press several months ago, to cap apartment rent increases at 10 percent, legalize marijuana, eliminate the posts of borough president, and install free public toilets throughout the city. Whatever the reason, more than 17,000 of the roughly 455,000 Democrats who cast primary ballots yesterday chose Mr. Brodeur for mayor over a raft of higher-profile candidates with full campaign staffs.

Mr. Brodeur, a blunt-spoken man in his late 30’s who wears his chin stubble long and his brown shaggy ponytail even longer, cast himself as a reform candidate and said he has disliked every Democrat and Republican he has ever voted for.

“I’m sick of this government’s corruption, top to bottom,” he said in a two-minute campaign spot that appeared on public-access television. And if you did not want to vote for him, he added, “You can vote for one of the typical politicians, and I’m sure that’s going to work out real well.”

Finally, A Principled Stand

As New Yorkers go to the polls on this primary day, voters can be assured that Fernando Ferrer is ready to take principled stands. After apparently rethinking the facts behind the shooting of Amadou Diallo earlier in the campaign, the Reverend Al Sharpton has come to rescue, saying it was all just a careless mistake:

Mr. Sharpton called for black voters to unite behind Mr. Ferrer despite his controversial remark that the 1999 fatal police shooting of Amadou Diallo was not a crime.

“All of us have blundered and made mistakes,” Mr. Sharpton said. Referring to the city’s first black mayor, he added: “When Dave Dinkins ran, he made a mistake with the Latino community. We asked them to keep moving. Now Mr. Ferrer has said to us that ‘I said something careless.'”

The only thing better than having to flip-flop on your positions is to have Al Sharpton do it for you!

(See also Diallo: A Tragedy or a Line from the Village Voice Power Plays blog.)

Ghoulish!

If you already thought Mayoral hopeful Fernando Ferrer was a bad guy for lying about sending his kids to public school, you might not want to hear that he was the only one of the four major Mayoral candidates to campaign yesterday, the fourth anniversary of Sept. 11, as the Post breathlessly reports:

Fernando Ferrer was ripped by families of 9/11 victims and others yesterday when he broke from tradition — by becoming the only mayoral candidate to campaign on the somber fourth anniversary of the terror attacks.

On a day when the other candidates declined to talk about politics out of respect for those killed on Sept. 11, 2001, the Democratic primary front-runner not only publicly met with the Rev. Al Sharpton to crow about winning his endorsement, but blatantly criticized main foe Anthony Weiner.

With a media horde in tow, Ferrer and Sharpton appeared together at the popular Amy Ruth’s restaurant in Harlem to discuss the minister’s 11th-hour endorsement of Ferrer. The primary election is tomorrow.

But critics — including incensed relatives of 9/11 victims — blasted the politicking as disgraceful on a day when the nation honored the 3,000 people killed on 9/11.

(Of course, there’s always the chance that the Reverend Sharpton was helping the other candidates . . .)

For his part, Ferrer responded by noting that he was eating dinner with two relatives of 9/11 victims:

Ferrer all but admitted the awkward situation in accepting Sharpton’s backing yesterday.

“I’m extremely pleased getting Rev. Sharpton’s endorsement and help. But this is not a day to talk about campaigns and tactics. It’s a day to remember what the city endured four years ago,” he said.

Sharpton said he and Ferrer were not ignoring the tragedy.

He noted that two of the young people who dined with them lost parents on 9/11, and other events they attended yesterday were in memory of the attacks.

Ferrer then went on to attack Anthony Weiner, his closest competitor, for the Congressman’s vote on the Iraq War. Weiner, who while not campaigning at a Harlem church, refused to respond to Ferrer’s comments, instead affirming that even though Sept. 11 is two days from the primary, there is something sacred about the date:

“This is Sept 11. If there is one day on the calendar that we can suspend politics, it should be today,” said Weiner, who attended a church in Harlem. “I don’t think it’s a day for politics.”

Although I’m sure the churchgoers he met on Sunday appreciate anyone praying with them, they may or may not realize that Weiner is Jewish and they may or may not have perceived his visit as campaigning. I’m just saying, is all.

Trampled, Trampled!

I feel remiss for not paying enough attention to the race for Manhattan district attorney between 86-year-old longtime DA Robert Morgenthau and 63-year-old “upstart” Leslie Crocker Snyder. Not only do both candidates have connections to Law & Order but according to the Times, the race also involves a healthy dose of small-scale thuggery:

Her latest television ads have tweaked him for refusing invitations from several television channels to debate her. That issue has led to several recent confrontations – including the Tuesday night scuffle.

It occurred after Ms. Snyder and Mr. Morgenthau appeared – separately but sequentially – at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center on West 13th Street. As Mr. Morgenthau left the center and walked slowly east on 13th Street with members of his staff and his police detail, a man in a suit carrying a large Snyder sign on a stick followed the group, asking loudly whether Mr. Morgenthau would debate Ms. Snyder.

What happened next is in dispute, but eventually Eben Bronfman, of Mr. Morgenthau’s staff, confronted the man and ended up pushing him against a fence as Mr. Morgenthau got into a black S.U.V. A Morgenthau volunteer nearby screamed that the Snyder supporter had trampled on her and torn the campaign button from her shirt.

The man with the sign would not give a reporter his name or say whether he was employed by the Snyder campaign, but he was later identified by Ms. Snyder’s camp as Carlos Laracea of White Plains, the campaign’s director of minority outreach. Mr. Laracea said that Mr. Bronfman had choked him. “I never laid a hand on them,” Mr. Laracea said, but “he got physical with me.”