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Cheap And Easy Low-Hanging Fruit

With primary campaigns heading into their final week, mayoral candidates score cheap and easy political points by slamming the President’s response to Hurricane Katrina. Grandstanding works!

Meanwhile, one of the like 19,000 candidates for Manhattan Borough President scores even cheaper and easier points by mentioning George Bush in television spot, then getting the unbelievable good fortune to have the local Fox affiliate refuse to run the ad. Huge, huge coverage ensues:

A local television station, WNYW/Channel 5, is refusing to run a provocative advertisement promoting a Democratic candidate for Manhattan borough president. And the campaign of the candidate, Brian Ellner, is charging that the station is doing so because the spot takes a swipe at President Bush.

The 30-second ad features Mr. Bush’s face superimposed upon a middle-aged man’s naked torso as Mr. Ellner says of the president that “the emperor has no clothes.” Mr. Ellner also introduces his partner, Simon Holloway, in the spot – which the campaign says is the first time in city history that a gay candidate has introduced his or her partner in a campaign commercial.

Mr. Ellner said in an interview yesterday that representatives of Channel 5, a Fox affiliate, had told his campaign that they would not show the advertisement because it was “in poor taste.”

“It’s pretty clear it’s an anti-free speech decision because of our criticism of the president,” Mr. Ellner said.

“It’s untenable and in my view it’s anti-American.” He added that the rejection of the ad was “disrespectful to voters.”

After giving the story big play, the Times, to its credit, calls a spade whatever they call spades:

Mr. Ellner, 35, a lawyer who advised Mark Green’s mayoral campaign in 2001, is not considered a favorite to win the borough president’s race and his advertisement was devised in part to jar voters into paying attention to his candidacy in a field of nine Democrats running for Manhattan borough president in next Tuesday’s primary. Mr. Ellner’s team devised the spot in large part to appeal to gays and lesbians, and the borough’s more liberal voters in general. Fox’s refusal to run the ad is likely to help Mr. Ellner’s aims.

Where’s Bernie Goetz — post-vigilante, shorthand for loopy public relations stunts — when you need him? Oh, that’s right, he’s running for Public Advocate, too!

Posted: September 6th, 2005 | Filed under: Political

Good While It Lasted

After tapping out the public relations benefit of having his home phone number listed, Hizzoner announced yesterday that in the future, calls to his home would be routed directly to 311:

As the Daily News exclusively reported yesterday, Bloomberg has hooked up his home phone to the city’s 311 nonemergency hotline because of the large volume of calls flooding his home number.

Bloomberg said the deluge of calls began last month after media reports chronicling how he responded to a constituent call at home. His home number is listed in the white pages.

“What happened was people started from all over the world calling. We were getting 100 calls an hour,” Bloomberg said. “And no matter how much I’d like to help the people of this city, I just couldn’t keep up with answering them and you have to get some sleep.”

“So, what we’re doing is: We forwarded it to 311 and if they can help – which, generally, they can – they will do so,” Bloomberg said. “The most important thing is to make sure that anybody that needs help in this city can get it.”

If the number of calls eventually tapers off, Bloomberg said he hopes to begin picking up the line again.

I only called a couple of times, I swear!

Posted: August 23rd, 2005 | Filed under: Political

The Important Issues!

City Council Member and Manhattan Borough President hopeful Eva Moskowitz is on your side, citizen, looking out for your interests and addressing the important issues:

Researchers disagree about the relationship between cell phone use and brain cancer, and many scientific studies find no evidence supporting the link. Still, critics are concerned about radio waves from the phones, and in 1996, the federal government established a limit for the amount of radiation cell phones can emit.

One of the highest-emitting models is the popular Motorola V.120E – which exposes users to 1.59 watts per kilogram out of the maximum allowable 1.6 watts, according to Eva Moskowitz (D-Manhattan).

. . .

“I didn’t want to be alarmist. I just wanted consumers to be educated and to make their own decisions about the possible health risks,” Moskowitz said.

Moskowitz said her list will be available beginning today at www.nyccouncil.info/. Moskowitz also called on phone companies to put SAR listings on the phone as well as the packaging.

Posted: August 22nd, 2005 | Filed under: Political

The Easy Answer

Much has been made of Council Speaker and Mayoral hopeful Gifford Miller’s surly refusal to answer — yes or no — whether he would send his kids to public school. The Times notes that it’s a prickly topic for many upper-income (read: “rich”) New York families:

It is a question that many upper-income parents in New York City wrestle with, and one that can make a politician with young children wince: Will your children be going to public or private school?

On Tuesday night, the issue arose in the mayoral race, with Gifford Miller, the City Council speaker, publicly agonizing over how to answer the question in a yes or no fashion during a debate with three Democratic Party primary rivals. He chose not to answer it, saying he had not decided, and, amid boos from the audience, looked helplessly toward his wife – asking “Pam? Pam?” – when asked to explain where his children would be sent.

Of course, if the prospect of using your children to score cheap political points seems sleazy, you could always find a different way to answer the question. Just fib (read: “lie”) a little:

Another candidate for mayor, Fernando Ferrer, gave a less-than-complete answer about his own daughter’s education during Tuesday’s debate. He said his daughter, Carlina, who is now grown with her own children, graduated from public school. In fact, she attended public schools but graduated from a Catholic high school.

Posted: August 18th, 2005 | Filed under: Political

Well, That Was To Be Expected

After the Mayor revealed that his phone number was listed, and media outlets everywhere ran with that fact, Hizzoner is receiving more calls than he can handle:

“One reporter put my phone number – my home phone number – on television, and that quickly got it onto the Internet,” said Bloomberg during a town hall meeting in Whitestone, Queens, last night. “And, so, people from around the world started calling. And there was roughly 100 calls an hour 24 hours a day from around the world.”

Hizzoner said the volume has become so great, he needs help answering the line.

“We’ve got a bunch of people answering the phone because I just couldn’t possibly keep up with it,” he said. “No. 1, I needed some sleep. And, No. 2, they were coming in faster than I could direct them.”

There is such thing as “voice mail,” you know . . .

Posted: August 18th, 2005 | Filed under: Political
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