Archive for November 6th, 2005

Ballot measures, Working Families, and NJ insanity

Published at November 6, 2005 in nyc and politics/government. 2 Comments

Any other New Yorkers a bit lost when it comes to the ballot measures in this upcoming vote? Here’s a little help from two sources: the Gotham Gazette and the Daily Gotham.

Also, mole333 from the Daily Gotham reminded me to help spread this from the Working Families party:

The Working Families Party: 5 reasons to vote for Freddy Ferrer

The WFP believes elections are about issues, not personalities. Elections are a moment for society to pause and, by the simple act of pulling a lever, say, this is what we stand for.

That moment comes once every four years in New York City. And for us, the choice is clear. On the issues that matter most to working families, Fernando Ferrer reflects our values — equality, decency, opportunity, solidarity, freedom.

Here are five examples – five reasons to vote for Fernando Ferrer:

1. Expanding the Law Requiring Companies that do business with the city to pay a Living Wage. Ferrer supports it. Bloomberg opposes it.

2. Requiring Big Box Retailers in NYC to provide Health Care to their employees. Ferrer supports it. Bloomberg opposes it (and vetoed the City Council’s bill).

3. Building a Cross-Harbor Rail Tunnel, Congressman Jerry Nadler’s extremely smart idea that will reduce traffic, pollution, and asthma. Ferrer supports it. Bloomberg opposes it (and flip-flopped).

4. Postponing the city tax cut for millionaires scheduled to phase in at the end of 2005. Ferrer supports postponing the phase-out.

5. Returning the power of rent control and rent stabilization to the City so more working families can afford to live in New York. Ferrer supports it. Bloomberg opposes it.

On the issues, the WFP endorses Fernando Ferrer and we urge you to vote for him on Tuesday.

Thank you,

Jim Duncan, Bertha Lewis, and Bob Master, Co-Chairs
Dan Cantor, Executive Director

BTW, for those non-New Yorkers or others bored by my city politics blogging – don’t worry, the elections will be over soon!

Also, turning to my home state of New Jersey – WTF is with the governor’s race these days?!? I truly hope that if I ever decide to run for public office, some ex-girlfriend or ex-partner of mine doesn’t decide to go on TV and say that I failed her and I’ll probably fail my constituency, too. Outrageous!

Shut up already, Mike.

Published at November 6, 2005 in mainstream media, nyc and politics/government. Closed

If I hear one more commercial for Mike Bloomberg tonight on 96.3 FM (the classical station), I’m going to throw my stereo out the window. OK, not really – I like my stereo far too much to do such a thing. But I’m so sick of the Bloomberg ads, mostly because they outnumber Ferrer’s ads, oh, maybe 1,000,000,000 to 1. Which is probably because Bloomberg’s dollars outnumbered Ferrer’s dollars by around the same rate.

I know that there are nations where there’s campaign finance laws that reduce this kind of ridiculous and completely unfair edge that personal wealth (and the wealth of one’s political base) gives to some American politicians (Canada, perhaps? Perhaps. I’m too lazy/otherwise busy to do the research right now.) Oh, if we only had such sane, fair campaign finance laws in this country. (Not that much of anything is very fair about US elections these days.)

In related news, I greatly appreciated this post in today’s Wonkster about the way the New York press has basically declared Ferrer’s campaign dead in the water and Bloomberg the premature winner. As Jonathan points out, polls can be wrong, and the one that really matters is the one that will occur on Tuesday. I only hope that the grim outlook given by the media won’t discourage potential Ferrer voters from casting their votes on Tuesday for lack of any hope. It ain’t over ’til it’s over.