Just two of us are signed up at Fernando Ferrer's Meetup.com site

[quiet.american]

--Me and the person who started it.

The meetup is tonight at:

Victor's Cafe
236 W 52nd Street

I must admit the main reason I'm going is to find a compelling reason to support Ferrer in his own right in his bid for mayor, meaning a reason other than, of course, I don't want to re-elect a mayor who has poured money into Bush coffers.

Would be great to see some Ferrer supporters there, too. Anyone out there familiar with him that can get us fired up about his candidacy?

[Smarmie Doofus]

1. He's better than most progressive DEMS think.

He's from the Bronx. (Me too) The Bronx DEM party broke into two factions back in the late 60's, early 70's: regular and reform.

The regular DEMS, generally conservative, controlled the party machinery and produced assorted hacks and later to be convicted felons. Stanley Friedman was the county leader in the 70s and 80's, Mario Biaggi was the regulars' biggest star.
Both were convicted and did jail time for as assortment of illegal activities.

The reform movement, generally liberal, was at times quite effective at winning major offices from the regulars at the ballot box. The reform movement produced Congressman Jonathan Bingham, Herman Badillo, Robert Abrams and other generally progressive, generally honest politicos.

Ferrer was affiliated with the reform wing of the party ( to the best of my recollection; he was not a "star" on the horizon and did not attract a huge amount of attention) and won a city council seat in the South Bronx against the machine candidate. He served reasonably well in the council... generally progressive record.

Around the time that Friedman and the regular organization was imploding, Ferrer ran and won the Borough Presidency.


I'm not sure there's a lot more to "get fired-up" about. He was an adequate borough president. The people who took control of the Bronx organization after Friedman were also prone to... shall we say...mischief and Ferrer may have reached some kind of accommodation with them. Some of them were indicted and I think, some convicted. Ferrer was never implicated in any illegality.

His website gives a bio that's even more boring than the above. Basically he's a solid, progressive DEM with a reasonably good governmental track record.

He's not my first choice but hes a no-brainer choice over the incumbent... who corrupts every aspect of NYC life with every passing day.

[quiet.american]

2. Thanks for taking the time to check in and respond

What you've written is more than I knew. 'Preciate it!

[AX10]

3. Why is he struggling so much?

[Smarmie Doofus]

4. He'd have more support among DEM activists....

if he weren't from the Bronx... the forgotten Borough. Folks in Manhattan and Brooklyn aren't much interested in... and therefore don't understand much about.... the politics here. They assume that since F is from the Bronx he must be a "machine" politician ( I've heard that so much in relation to Ferrer that I'm thinking it must be fallout from the Green-Ferrer runoff 4 yrs ago. Ferrer has his limitations but being a "machine" politician is not one of them.)

That's why his support is tepid amongst DEM activists. He's struggling against Bloomberg with the GENERAL electorate 'cause Bloomberg has so much friggin' money and F has none.

As the Beatles sang, money can't buy you love, it can't even buy you friends but in politics, enough of it can buy you allies, endorsements and favorable media treatment.