A virtual (and I DO MEAN VIRTUAL!) firestorm erupted today in NYC when a front-page NY Times article by Michael Barbaro covered a little visit from Mayor Bloomberg's "campaign manager" Bradley Tusk to the home of Fred Newman to size up the NYC Independence Party's proclivity towards giving the Mayor the coveted Column C in the upcoming 2009 mayor's race.
Bloomberg got into office because he was able to strike a deal with the New York City Independence Party for his 2001 run for the top city office. Billionaire "a leader, not a politician" Bloomberg won with the margin of victory coming in on the IP line. Azi Paybarah has become soft on Fulani, but don't expect too much! Jackie Salit credits Bloomberg for moving NY forward, but it's really the voters. (btw -- you can hear Jackie "How the Independent Movement Went Left by Going Right" Salit talk about US foreign policy here)
In 2005, an emerging alliance between black voters and independents gave the incumbent mayor a mandate for nonpartisan governance, something unheard of in this locked-down Dem town...
But I digress from this facinating media extra!
Of course, Tom Robbins of the late Village Voice (could a blog name like "Runnin' Scared" be more untimely, ahistorical and meaningless??? I dunno...) came in first with the perfunctory attacks on the New York City operation of the 3rd largest political party in the state of New York in an article titled "Bloomy Loves Fred Newman" -- they're so POLITICO-SEXUAL over at the VV, aren't they??
Then Richard Winger of Ballot Access News, who received an Anti-Corruption award in 2008 from the NYC IP, posted a note courtesy of Blair Bobier (a Dem operative in California)
But of course, you can't top NY1 (of the extant AOL/Time Warner company) for going to the mat for the status quo! Dominic Carter being the main henchman for same.
And, oh -- while NY State Senator Frank Padavan recognized Queens (my home boro) Independence Party County Committee Chair Molly Honigsfeld at his swearing-in yesterday, (with a quote from Mark Twain: "Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated." Uhh... he's a Republican), somehow the Queens Courier failed to print the names of the Queens IP leadership.... Sen. Padavan has been friendly to the Queens IP Committee, and no doubt won his hard-fought re-election last year because of support from IP voters in his district.
No matter.
It's the 4,000+ duly elected Independence Party county committee members who will decide who gets the IP line for mayor this year. Hmmm... Hey, fellas -- show us the reform! That's what local control is all about. And that's what the IPNYC organization is all about!
-NH
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