“I think our school system is largely stalled right now,” asserted New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, one of the forum’s three undeclared Democratic candidates along with City Comptroller John Liu and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. “We need a very serious reset.”

De Blasio focused on the importance of early childhood education throughout the discussion, an issue which all potential candidates supported. He called for universal pre-kindergarten programs and expanded extracurricular activities across the city, arguing “that’s the kind of investment we need to make, or we’re not serious about turning the corner with our school system.”

Liu emphasized the necessity of preparing students to not only enter college, but to graduate from it as well. To keep students on track, he proposed hiring more guidance counselors and reducing the current system’s heavy focus on standardized testing—another issue that the potential candidates uniformly agreed needs to be addressed—as well as cultivating better communication with students’ families, whose voices, he argued, are too rarely considered.

“We need to engage the public more in terms of what the schools need, what communities need, what families and parents need,” he said.

Quinn, who is considered an ally of current Mayor Michael Bloomberg, agreed that the current administration still has many shortcomings that need to be overcome. She supported an evaluation system that would weed out bad educators, and argued that reducing testing would grant teachers more freedom and creativity in their lesson plans. “For a child who might not learn in the traditional way,” she said, “having that level of attention on standardized testing significantly reduces or eliminates the moments where that child’s mind might get passion or a spark might get set off.”

She noted, “Clearly progress has been made, but not enough.”

Tom Allon, CEO of the forum’s sponsor Manhattan Media and a declared Republican candidate, advocated what he called a “medical model” of teacher training to ensure that they have proper experience before taking over a classroom. Through a tier-track system and mandatory three-year in-class training period, the city would boost its low teacher retention numbers, he asserted.
“What [the Bloomberg administration] has missed is the fundamental problem of education,” said Allon, “which is that we’re just not properly training teachers before they get into the classroom, and we’re not giving them proper instructions once they get into the classroom.”

The only declared Democratic candidate, former city comptroller and 2009 mayoral candidate Bill Thompson, focused his criticism on chronic school closures, the root of a tension between public and charter schools. He spoke of the particular difficulties of the recently popular “co-location” of public and charter schools in the same buildings, where public schools are often inferior in resources and appearances. “The children feel as if they’re second-class citizens,” he argued, which creates disruptive rifts in what is supposed to be a mutually beneficial approach to learning.
Thompson agreed that early childhood education is essential, and that teachers need more professional development opportunities and support. “Education is collaborative,” he said. “The schools that do better are the schools that have individuals who work together with one teacher to help improve another teacher.”

The forum, held at Fordham University, was the first joint appearance of the five mayoral hopefuls since the presidential election earlier this month, and also since Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, a presumed mayoral candidate, announced that he would run for city comptroller instead. The forum was considered an unofficial and symbolic start to the 2013 race, which will conclude next November.

Joe Mendola

Republican Running for City Comptroller
The city comptroller has to manage an $80 billion pension fund for retirees and taxpayers—which makes it key for the person to be independent, says Joe Mendola.

In the past, the city’s chief financial officers have used the office to pave the way for a mayoral bid, Mendola notes, which means the fiscal interests of New Yorkers are not a top priority.

“If you’re managing pension funds and using the office as a stepping stone, you’ll use those funds to placate interest groups,” he said.

Like most Republicans running for office this November, one quality Mendola touts is his independence from interest groups and not being a career politician.

He criticized his Democratic opponent, Queens Council Member John Liu, for being a political insider who will use the comptroller’s office to repay campaign favors from special interest groups. Liu, like his predecessors, will only use the office as a springboard to Gracie Mansion, Mendola argues.

“If you take politics out of the office, I can make investments based solely on what’s responsible,” he said.

A lifelong Democrat who lives in Greenwich Village, Mendola registered as a Republican right before the November 2008 elections. He said he felt more comfortable with Republicans on fiscal issues and called the federal stimulus package a “waste of taxpayer money.”

Professionally, Mendola is a compliance officer who makes sure that investments are in line with regulation. That experience means he is the only qualified candidate running for the office, he says.

“I know the [Securities and Exchange Commission] laws. I know the funds my company invests in comply with the rules,” he said. “I have the skills the comptroller needs.”

If elected, Mendola said he would increase transparency by posting investment returns online, as well as the names of outside consultants that are used in the office.

“We need to bring accountability and transparency to the system,” he said.

Mendola also wants to aggressively audit city agencies and examine the use of outside contractors.

“They’ve got to go in there with a fine tooth comb and make sure we’re getting our money’s worth,” he said. “The system needs to be cleansed, needs to be reformed.”

Alex Zablocki

Republican Running for Public Advocate
When Alex Zablocki meets a voter who has no clue what the public advocate is, he hands them a business card detailing the position. For the record, the public advocate is an ombudsman, an independent check on City Hall who fields citizens’ complaints.

Zablocki, who at 26 is the youngest person to run for this office, wants the public advocate to be more community oriented. He would open a satellite office in every borough, plus one in northern Manhattan, and promises to be an active member of Council committees.

“The outer boroughs need a voice, someone that will stand up for regular people,” he said.

Zablocki is a Staten Islander and aide to his local state senator, Andrew Lanza, a Republican. Though Zablocki is socially liberal, he is opposed to onerous regulations that he says hurt small business. He criticized City Council bills that impose paid sick leave, require most restaurants to post calorie information and fine stores for leaving the door open while air conditioning is in use.

“All of these things are burdensome on small business at the wrong time,” he said. “The City Council should be looking at making it easier for small businesses to open.”

If elected, Zablocki wants reform the office that was created in 1993, even taking away some of its power. He wants to strip the public advocate from being next in line for mayor, but give the office some teeth by arming the public advocate with subpoena power.

While the public advocate is thought to be a thorn in the side of the mayor, Zablocki also wants to be a check on the Democratic-dominated Council that currently includes his opponent, Democrat Bill de Blasio.

“He also comes from the same City Council that I feel needs to be held accountable,” Zablocki said of de Blasio. “I think we need a voice that will be completely independent from City Council.”

David Casavis

Republican Running for Manhattan Borough President
The slogan for David Casavis’ borough president campaign is “David Can-Save-Us.” And what he wants to save us from is the borough presidency itself.

Casavis, an Upper East Sider, is running for a position that he feels is a useless piece of bureaucracy and a waste of taxpayer money.

The borough presidents, who used to sit on the Board of Estimate, once held great sway over land use and budgetary matters. But in 1989, the Supreme Court ruled that the Board of Estimate gave too much power to less populous boroughs and diverted most of the borough presidents’ authority to the City Council.

“It is a vestigial organ. It’s left over,” Casavis said. “It’s only the bully pulpit.”

His opponent, incumbent Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, might disagree. Wielding policy papers and studies, Stringer has been able to squeeze power out of an office that has little official responsibility. According to the City Charter, the borough president must give an advisory opinion on large developments before they go to the City Planning Commission, appoint half of the borough’s community board members and make appointments to various boards, including those that govern city planning and pension funds.

Casavis, however, sees the borough presidency differently.

“Your job is to keep your face in the camera,” he said.

A Manhattan Republican Party foot soldier, Casavis says he wants to be elected so he can start dismantling the office, ultimately saving the city $60 million. Instead of hiring staff, he would hire lawyers to devise a plan to end the borough presidency, likely through a charter commission.

Though other Republican borough president candidates are rejecting Casavis’ manifesto, he says GOP candidates for City Council are heeding his call. Better yet, voters are open to the idea.

“If I talk to every single voter, I could win with 75 percent. This is enormous, this is universal,” Casavis said. “Everybody I speak with, even people who are loyal Democrats, say, ‘What does the borough president do?’”

If Casavis loses his race, he hopes to continue his crusade. For only a dollar, he would serve on the charter commission to fight against the borough presidency.

Joshua Goldberg

Republican Running for City Council District 6

Republicans will always have an incredibly difficult time running a race in the very progressive Upper West Side—Joshua Goldberg, perhaps, even more so.

Goldberg’s brother Jonah is the conservative writer who authored Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning. His mother, Lucianne, convinced Linda Tripp to record her conversations with Monica Lewinsky, which almost brought down President Bill Clinton during his impeachment.

Goldberg, however, says that he never adopted that brand of conservatism.

“I tend to be more moderate than the rest of my family,” he said.

Goldberg, a former double-decker bus tour guide who currently manages his mother’s news website, entered the race at the behest of local Republican district leaders.

“This year there is a big opportunity here,” Goldberg said. “Firstly, people are really upset with the Council knuckling under and taking away term limits without the voters’ consent.”

Though his opponent, incumbent Council Member Gale Brewer, voted against the term limits extension bill, Goldberg criticized her for waiting until the last minute to make her position known. He also knocked Brewer for running for a third term after she voted against the term limit extension legislation.

Other than that vote, though, Goldberg respects Brewer as a public servant and lauded her constituent services operation. In this heavily Democratic district, Brewer is all but assured to be re-elected.

“Believe me, I know this is a quixotic quest, so to speak,” Goldberg said. “I am under no illusions to what I’m up against.”

But he is running to give residents in the district—which roughly covers the Upper West Side from West 56th to 96th streets—a choice between the incumbent and a candidate who will bring down taxes and spending.

Goldberg considers cracking 20 percent of the vote a victory for fiscal responsibility.

“If somebody is concerned about taxes and runaway spending in the city, they should vote for me as opposed to Gale Brewer,” Goldberg said.

Abbi Lee Rogers

Republican Running for City Council District 9
Abbi Lee Rogers has a laundry list of complaints against her Democratic opponent, Council Member Inez Dickens, who represents District 9.

Topping her list of grievances is Dickens’ support for extending term limits; Rogers would have preferred a public referendum to determine any changes to the term limits law.

Next on the complaint list would be the controversial rezoning of 125th Street in Harlem, which Dickens supported and helped shape. Rogers feels the new rezoning plan will drastically change the neighborhood and displace residents.

“I don’t like the fact that 125th Street was rezoned against the will of the people,” she said.

If elected, Rogers said she wants to reallocate discretionary money—known as member items—to organizations that specifically serve the Harlem district. While Dickens has showered money on her district, Rogers feels there are some organizations outside of Harlem that have benefited from the incumbent’s largesse.

“I don’t like the politics in Harlem and I don’t like the politics in the City Council,” she said.

The district covers a sliver of the Upper West Side from Broadway to the Hudson River between West 96th and 110th streets.

Rogers, a fifth-generation Harlemite and second vice president of the Harlem Republican Club, has business and administrative experience as the former head of the United States division of furniture manufacturer Arenson International, which is based in the United Kingdom. She has also managed 50 co-op buildings in Manhattan.

When it comes to education, Rogers wants the cap on charter schools to be lifted and criticized Dickens for limiting their growth.

“If charter schools are succeeding, why are we stifling them?” she said.

Still, she is running an uphill battle in this Democratic district to make a stand against the usual politics in Harlem.

“I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired and watching it go by year after year,” Rogers said.

A Queens native, Council Member Melinda Katz now lives in the house she grew up in with son Carter. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

Melinda Katz

Running for City Comptroller
By Josh Zembik

In front of a phalanx of burly but dapper union members, Council Member Melinda Katz looked up at the threatening skies over City Hall. The smallest person on the steps, nearly a foot shorter than most of the smiling men around her, Katz was ready to collect another endorsement—the support of the 120,000-member Teamsters Union—if only the rain would stay away.

That Katz snagged the union’s support wasn’t necessarily a surprise, even in the hotly contested four-person race for City Comptroller. As a Council member, Katz’s most high-profile position—which supporters trumpet and detractors flag—has been her tenure as chair of the City Council’s Land Use Committee. In that position, she has had a direct role in regulating virtually all public and private land use across the city, putting her at the center of major zoning decisions.

She is now second when it comes to fundraising, having raised $173,000 during the last filing period, with $2.4 million in her campaign chest overall. Liu is in first place, with $3.2 million in his coffers.

The city comptroller is tasked with ensuring the five boroughs’ financial health, and a big part of that is managing city pension funds. At a candidates’ forum convened last month by sister publication City Hall, Katz and her opponents—fellow Council Members John Liu, David Weprin and David Yassky—all agreed that the current system is bankrupting the city. Katz is alone, however, in wanting to invest in companies that will benefit the city while upholding her responsibility as steward of the pension fund. She says this will allow her to get concessions that will benefit New Yorkers, promote job creation and bolster the local economy.

“If you’re a big corporation and want millions from hardworking men and women, what are you doing for New York City?” Katz asks. “Where are your corporate offices? What will you do to train people being laid off?”

Tapping into her early career as a mergers and acquisitions attorney, Katz has also proposed investing a small part of the pension in companies that can make a profit but that are saddled with paying off debt. This investment strategy, skewed toward helping New York City companies, would allow businesses to restructure and emerge as a new company, debt free.

The proposal has gotten flack from challenger Liu, who argues that the pension fund should stay away from assessing the viability of struggling companies and providing taxpayer funds to help them get out of debt.

Since her first foray into elected office when she won a seat in the State Assembly in 1994, Katz has molded an “Everywoman” agenda. She has authored and pushed for legislation that improved access to healthcare, assisted the prosecution of child abusers, and increased safety standards at daycare centers. She has also placed kitchen table issues, like the economy, jobs and school performance, at the top of her agenda.

On the East Side, Katz helped broker a plan for the East River Realty project that guaranteed public access to open spaces and included significant height reductions on several of the project’s buildings, satisfying many neighborhood critics. But she has also been at the center of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s rezoning push, in which he rezoned more land than the previous six administrations combined.

The debate over rezoning often revolves around which neighborhoods are affected and how. Critics of the Bloomberg and Katz have argued that their efforts, including the rezoning of 125th Street, disproportionately affect working-class neighborhoods, giving developers free reign at the expense of small business owners and longtime residents.

Katz has benefited politically and financially from her perch on the committee, raising campaign cash from an array of developers and real estate bigwigs. Her critics charge influence-peddling, but Katz is quick to swat down any such notion.

“Look,” she said, “our role [on the Land Use Committee] is protecting the city. We try to make applications better for the community, and it’s my responsiblity to work with all parties involved. That’s what I do.”

When Katz was 3, her mother died; her father died 18 years later when she was in college at UMass Amherst. Perhaps not surprisingly, she’s been a strong advocate for children, and a strong opponent of regressive taxes that largely affect middle- and low-income families. Last year, she voted against Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan, which she called “an unfair tax on commuters,” and this past June, she was one of 10 Council members who opposed a 0.5-percent citywide sales tax increase.

“My father was a public high school teacher, and he raised four children by himself after my mother died,” Katz said. “I’m a product of the public school system, and where I come from, you need to work hard to get ahead. With the sales tax, I saw a tax that would disproportionately burden middle-class New Yorkers, and I couldn’t support it.”

A Queens native, Katz and her son Carter still live in the same Forest Hills house where she was raised. She says her policy decisions, progressive streak and populist stands were molded by her upbringing, and it’s that kind of perspective that’s needed in the comptroller’s office today.

“I get a real sense out there from a lot of New Yorkers that people don’t have faith in their political system anymore,” Katz said. “Frankly, I’d like to restore that. I see part of the job as restoring that. I’ve got a 14-month-old son, and I know what it means to make this city better, not just for him, but for all New Yorkers.”
–
With additional reporting by Dan Rivoli.

Richard Aborn lives on the Upper West Side with wife Ingrid, the twin sister of actress Isabella Rossellini, and their daughter. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

Richard Aborn

Running for Manhattan District Attorney
By Josh Zembik

Although he is gunning to be Manhattan’s next district attorney, Richard Aborn actually may be more popular outside the borough. Referred to as both a long-shot and a dark-horse candidate when he entered the race, Aborn, 56, kicked off his campaign to be Manhattan’s next D.A. by collecting endorsements at a torrid pace. Praise came from City Hall, Albany and as far away as California, along with a surge of campaign cash and instant credibility. According to the latest fundraising data, Aborn raised nearly $1 million during the January-to-July filing period, putting him on nearly even footing with his two rivals when it comes to cash on hand.

Aborn attributes his rise as a first-time candidate to his innovative approach to fighting crime.

“We’re speaking to issues that the voters of Manhattan care deeply about,” he said. “We are delivering a message that we can make the criminal justice system better. We are willing to address the fact that four out of five young people who get arrested cycle through the system over and over again, and I find that not to be a hopeless situation.”

Still, early endrorsements from across the political establishment have clearly helped. Aborn has the backing of a slew of gun-control groups, former New York City—now Los Angeles—Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, Democratic clubs and elected officials, including those from the East Side. Aborn’s records on guns earned him the endorsement of Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, the Long Island Congresswoman who was propelled to office on an anti-gun platform in the wake of her husband’s death during a shooting on the Long Island Railroad.

Aborn has spent much of his adult life working on gun issues. After earning his J.D. from the John Marshall School of Law in 1979, he worked as an assistant D.A. in Manhattan, prosecuting violent felonies under Robert Morgenthau, the man he’s seeking to succeed. When he left the office in 1984 to start his own practice, he began volunteering for the state gun-control lobby.

The part-time gig grew into more full-time work when Aborn started working for Handgun Control, Inc., now known as the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. His tenure as president of the campaign reached a high point with President Bill Clinton’s 1993 signing of the Brady Bill, which required a five-day waiting period and a criminal background check before a person could purchase a handgun.

Aborn doesn’t have the courtroom experience of his rivals, Cy Vance Jr. and Leslie Crocker Snyder (both of whom last tried cases in 2007), and he hasn’t tried a case to verdict since he became president of the Brady Campaign. His opponents have pounced on that fact, and Snyder has referred to him as a “consultant” during campaign stops.

But Aborn sees his background as an asset. He is quick to point out that he’s been a prosecutor and a defense attorney and that his work as managing partner at the law firm Constantine Cannon involves overseeing roughly 190 employees, a task that’s akin to the daily job of district attorney.

While he’s been cast as the dark horse, Aborn has also been referred to as both a progressive and a candidate of big ideas. He has in fact worked as a consultant, helping police departments and transportation agencies from Los Angeles to London improve and streamline operations. In 1999, at the request of then-Public Advocate Mark Green, Aborn investigated the NYPD’s disciplinary system following the shooting death of Amadou Diallo.

Aborn has carved out strong positions on issues like capital punishment, arguing that not only should the death penalty be outlawed in New York, but that it has no place in the United States—a not-so-subtle shot at Snyder, who, when she ran for D.A. in 2005, said she supported the death penalty in some cases. She has since come out fully against it. In a time of relatively low crime, Aborn has proposed using the office’s resources to stop crime at its roots, providing programs to help nonviolent offenders and putting a new focus on young people, victims and families.

“I continually think about this question: How do we break up the pathway to violence?” Aborn said. “When you look at the system through that lens, you see lots of places where you can lead people off the path to a violent life. That includes things like a much greater use of treatment for those with problems with drugs. It means a very deep commitment to honestly looking at the intersection between mental health and criminal offending. It means working with kids in targeted, innovative ways that are progressive and effective, that are designed to get kids out of a life of crime and back home and back in school where they belong.”

Aborn has lived his entire adult life in New York, and currently resides on the Upper West Side with his wife Ingrid—the twin sister of actress Isabella Rossellini and daughter of Ingrid Bergman—and their 18-year-old daughter.

Bill de Blasio worked in the Dinkins Administration as an assistant to the deputy mayor, where he met his wife, Chirlane McCray. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

Bill de Blasio

Running for Public Advocate
By Clara Martinez Turco

All four public advocate candidates say they want to be a strong check on the mayor they will serve alongside in 2010, and in their campaign rhetoric, they frequently talk about standing up to Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Council Member Bill de Blasio’s opponents have touted their large personalities or fiery language that gets results. But de Blasio, who represents Park Slope and Carroll Gardens in Brooklyn, prefers to balance that out with effecting change from the inside.

As chair of the City Council’s General Welfare Committee, de Blasio has authored legislation that banned discrimination toward people with Section 8 housing vouchers, and reformed child welfare services after the public outcry over the death of Nixmary Brown. The Council also passed his electronic waste recycling bill over the objections of the Bloomberg administration. The bill will require electronics manufacturers to take back their products.

“I have seen the legislative process [produce] a workable compromise,” de Blasio said. “When you see the potential for a positive result, you engage that.”

He used that strategy when the Council passed a budget earlier this year that slashed the public advocate’s office by 40 percent. De Blasio, his competitors and incumbent Betsy Gotbaum held a rally decrying the cut. Afterward, de Blasio proposed legislation that would take away the mayor’s power to fund the office of public advocate, comptroller, the Civilian Complaint Review Board and the Conflicts of Interest Board.

“The public advocate is supposed to be independent and a watchdog; it really should be independently funded, as it should be [with] the other elected offices so they’re not being held hostages by the mayor,” de Blasio said.

His record of working amiably with colleagues to pass legislation has in part earned him endorsements from the city’s elected officials and unions, including Reps. Jerrold Nadler and Charles Rangel, Borough President Scott Stringer and the powerful labor-backed Working Families Party.

Before term limits were extended, de Blasio was a candidate for Brooklyn borough president. During Bloomberg’s push for a third term, the Council member became one of the most fervent leaders in opposition to the proposal.

Although he lost the fight, he decided on the office of public advocate as his next step.

“A public advocate has to be the voice of the people and an opponent of the mayor when he is wrong and someone who can organize people all over the city,” de Blasio said. “That experience led me to feel that I was the right person to take on that particular role.”

De Blasio, a native New Yorker, graduated from New York University and received a master’s degree in public affairs from Columbia University. He has a lengthy history behind the scenes in electoral politics, landing his first political gig as the volunteer coordinator during David Dinkins’ first mayoral race in 1989. De Blasio then joined the administration as an assistant to the deputy mayor, where he met his wife, Chirlane McCray. He went on to run Rangel’s 1994 re-election campaign and Bill Clinton’s 1996 presidential bid in New York, and he managed Hillary Clinton’s 2000 U.S. Senate campaign. Outside of politicking, de Blasio has served as the regional director for U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“It was clear that the electoral process frames everything, so I got involved in supporting candidates,” he said.

De Blasio has built a formidable campaign despite his relatively late entry to the race. Although he is currently third in the polls, behind former Public Advocate Mark Green and Norman Siegel, he is second when it comes to fundraising, with $1,279,150 in his campaign war chest. That money will be crucial for expensive get-out-the-vote operations in the days leading up to the Sept. 15 primary. Queens Council Member Eric Gioia leads the pack in fundraising.

As public advocate, de Blasio says his record of solving problems legislatively will come in handy, but he says he will also use the office as a bully pulpit, which is where most of the public advocate’s power lays. A hallmark of his style will be to build coalitions with neighborhood groups.

“The advocate has to be community organizer-in-chief,” de Blasio said. “There are so many issues that come up on the local level.”
–
With additional reporting by Dan Rivoli.