Public advocate hopefuls Mark Green and Council Member Bill de Blasio will face each other. In an upset, de Blasio bested Green, the former public advocate who is trying to reclaim his seat, by a margin of 32 percent to 30 percent.

On the East Side, Green’s main base of support, de Blasio edged out his rival by 385 votes.

Council Member Eric Gioia and civil rights attorney Norman Siegel received 18 percent and 14 percent of the total vote, respectively.

Green, with wide name recognition, was expected to be in the lead, but de Blasio, who enjoys immense union support, pulled ahead. Green is trying to paint de Blasio as a political insider, tying him to the Council’s slush fund scandal. Green said that de Blasio doled out taxpayer money to nonprofits, which then donated the money back to his campaign.

For his part, de Blasio has criticized Green for being absent from city issues since he left office in 2001, after failing to beat Bloomberg in the mayor’s race that year.

For comptroller, Council members John Liu and David Yassky will face off again in the Sept. 29 run-off. Liu nearly avoided a run-off with 38 percent of the vote. Yassky, from Brooklyn, came in second with 31 percent.

Yassky was the clear favorite on the East Side, receiving 7,668 votes. East Siders’ second choice, Melinda Katz, got 3,359. When Katz failed to make it to the run-off, she endorsed Yassky.

Overall Katz got 20 percent of the city’s vote and Council Member David Weprin came in last place with 11 percent.

Liu, from Queens, is seeking to be the first Asian-American elected to citywide office. He has strong union support, including the labor-backed Working Families Party, and he is popular among minority voters. Weprin also threw his support to Liu.

While running third in the polls, Yassky leapt to second place after key endorsements from the New York Times, the Daily News and his former boss, Sen. Chuck Schumer. Yassky has pulled support from his home borough of Brooklyn and Manhattan’s liberal base.

“We’ve had a great first phase of the campaign, and now we’re going to make it count by building on our momentum over the next two weeks,” Yassky wrote in an email to supporters.

Moments after the polls closed, the general election between Thompson and Mayor Michael Bloomberg began, with both candidates lobbing blistering attacks at each other.

Thompson reiterated his claim that Bloomberg favors the wealthy, and that he overturned the will of the voters with his extension of the city’s two-term limit for local office holders. Using the slogan, “Eight is Enough,” the Democratic mayoral nominee began soliciting $8 donations.

Though Bloomberg was unopposed for the Republican nomination, he held a lavish party along the Hudson River in Manhattan. There, the mayor slammed “politics as usual,” which is part of his new ad slogan, “Progress. Not Politics.”

One sign that the mayor might not be a shoo-in for re-election were the results of several City Council elections. Backlash to the term-limit extension appeared to play a role in ousting four incumbents, with two more hanging on by a handful of votes, certain for a recount. Nearly all of the Council members who survived contentious races received less than half of the total vote. Even Council Speaker Christine Quinn only received 52 percent of the vote against two spirited challengers.

“Even though few voters voted, the ones who did spoke loud and clear in turning out and voting against incumbents,” said Dick Dadey, executive director of the good-government group, Citizens Union. “That is a loud shout to the city’s elected leadership.”

The biggest winner in Manhattan on primary night was Cy Vance, who is all but assured to be Manhattan’s next district attorney, with no Republican running for that seat. With 44 percent of the vote, Vance beat 2005 candidate Leslie Crocker Snyder and newcomer Richard Aborn.

In the East Side’s District 4, two Republicans faced off for the right to go against Council Member Dan Garodnick—an uphill battle, considering the incumbent’s popularity and the district’s Democratic lean. Ashok Chandra, a native Texan and member of the New York Young Republican Club, beat the Manhattan Republican Party’s candidate, Neal D’Alessio, 477 to 239.

“My campaign has brought a lot of people out of the woodwork; Young Republicans who in the past haven’t been Republicans. They’re very conservative about fiscal issues,” Chandra said in an interview before the primary.

Tony Avella

Mayor
If going against Mayor Michael Bloomberg is considered a long shot for Comptroller William Thompson, then Council Member Tony Avella is the longest of shots. Avella, from Queens, has spent most of his Council career as a firebrand who often casts the lone-dissenting vote on legislation. He wants to empower community boards to take a greater role in local development, pledges to increase the involvement of parents and teachers in education policy making and supports commercial rent control.

William Thompson

Mayor
When most prominent Democrats declined to take on Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Comptroller William Thompson was the last one standing, facing only Avella, a long-shot aspirant, in the primary. As comptroller, Thompson’s alternative investment strategies helped cushion the pension fund when the economy collapsed. He knocks the mayor for being overly focused on Wall Street and real estate, a strategy that he says has harmed the middle class, and he promises to diversify. He would create an independent body to study student progress, and wants to mitigate the taxes, fees and fines that he says burden small businesses.

Melinda Katz

Comptroller
In the City Council, Melinda Katz chairs the powerful Land Use Committee, which oversees all development projects that need zoning changes. That has helped her raise campaign cash from real estate interests, but Katz says she has also pushed for affordable housing, fair labor wages and buildings that fit within a community’s context. Before her Council election, she worked in the Queens borough president’s office and she was a State Assembly member. As comptroller, Katz promises to invest a portion of pension funds in successful but debt-strapped companies that do business in New York, to help spur local job creation.

John Liu

Comptroller
John Liu is a reserved City Council member from Queens, but he also has a reputation for being a pit bull during committee hearings. As chair of the Transportation Committee, he claims to be the first elected official to discover the now-infamous “two sets of books” the MTA was using. Liu promises to use his tenacity when auditing city agencies, which the comptroller must do every four years. He also wants to audit and track stimulus funds coming to the city. On pensions, Liu wants to return to traditional, low-risk, low-yield investment strategies.

David Weprin

Comptroller
David Weprin wants voters to understand that he knows the buck. The Queens Council member chairs the Finance Committee, which must pass the city’s budget. He was also Gov. Mario Cuomo’s state superintendent on banking. His position in the Council has baggage, as he was partly blamed for not catching the slush fund scandal sooner. Nonetheless, he is touting his experience and his willingness to stand up to the mayor when appropriate, as he did when opposing the term-limit extension. Weprin plans to open satellite comptroller offices that would focus on financial literacy and assistance programs.

David Yassky

Comptroller
In a field of comptroller candidates from Queens, David Yassky is the lone Brooklynite. He is also the only candidate who supports the creation of a new level of pension benefits that would ease the city’s budget woes, but that remains unpopular with unions. Yassky points to his record in the City Council, where he worked to eliminate waste in the Housing Department, assisted in closing a tax loophole used by luxury developers and supported creating gas-electric hybrid taxis. He promises to invest a small portion of pension funds into biotechnology companies and increase transparency; during the campaign, he put the city’s budget online, at www.ItsYourMoneyNYC.com.

Bill de Blasio

Public Advocate
Council Member Bill de Blasio became Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s chief antagonist during the fight to extend term limits. The successful extension ruined de Blasio’s plans to run for Brooklyn borough president, but he found a spot in the public advocate’s race. He was quickly endorsed by most of the city’s elected officials. As the city’s ombudsman, de Blasio said he would stand up to a powerful mayor when necessary and promises to work collaboratively with other elected officials to get results.

Eric Gioia

Public Advocate
This two-term Queens Council member built a network of support from unions and young professionals, winning his first term without the backing of the borough’s Democratic organization. Gioia is capitalizing on this “outsider” status in his bid to be the city’s ombudsman and is touting his effective use of publicity to drive policy change. In 2007, he went on food stamps for a week, then pushed for legislation that would put applications online. He says he will continue working to improve schools, fighting for economic justice and holding government accountable.

Mark Green

Public Advocate
Voters may remember Mark Green as the city’s first public advocate who served during the Giuliani years, when he sued the mayor for withholding information on racial profiling and police misconduct, and he served as a general foil to many administration policies. He promises to continue that “aggressive progressive” platform, standing up to City Hall and helping government better serve New Yorkers. Since his unsuccessful bid for mayor in 2001, he has been president of Air America Radio, the liberal talk radio network that was owned by his real estate mogul brother, Stephen.

Norman Siegel

Public Advocate
This is civil rights lawyer Norman Siegel’s third bid for public advocate, following his unsuccessful challenge of incumbent Betsy Gotbaum in 2005. Siegel, who says the public advocate needs to be visible, a big mouth and a fighter, points to his record representing groups like the 2004 Republican National Convention protestors and West Harlem tenants in their battle against Columbia University. He plans to recruit hundreds of volunteers to be “surrogate public advocates” in each community, and create an “Institute of Advocacy” to help New Yorkers make themselves heard.

Richard Aborn

Manhattan District Attorney
Richard Aborn, a former assistant district attorney under Robert Morgenthau, stormed into the district attorney race as a dark-horse candidate. Yet his campaign has gained momentum after most of the borough’s elected officials, including Rep. Jerrold Nadler, endorsed his campaign. A gun-control advocate who was behind the federal assault weapons ban and the Brady Bill, Aborn is running on a platform of providing alternatives to incarceration, rehabilitation for nonviolent offenders and expanding the use of technology in the office.

Leslie Crocker Snyder

Manhattan District Attorney
This year, Leslie Crocker Snyder is mounting her second attempt to be Manhattan’s top prosecutor. In 2005, the former State Supreme Court judge ran against incumbent Robert Morgenthau, who had been in office since 1974. Snyder, a former assistant district attorney, was the first woman to prosecute homicides, founded Manhattan’s Sex Crimes Bureau and co-authored the Rape Shield Law. As district attorney, she would create a Second Look Bureau to address wrongful convictions and connect prosecutors to local law enforcement, civic and religious groups.

Cyrus Vance, Jr.

Manhattan District Attorney
Retiring prosecutor Robert Morgenthau chose Cy Vance, his former assistant district attorney, to be his successor. Vance, the son of President Jimmy Carter’s secretary of state, has been a defense lawyer in Seattle, Wash. for most of his career, litigating white collar crimes at a national firm. He plans to develop a community-based justice model in neighborhoods to better attack problems such as domestic violence and discrimination against immigrants. If elected, Vance would tackle the criminal court backlog and form special units for mental health issues and hate crimes.

Borough President Scott Stringer and Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal threw their support to John Liu, a Council member from Queens.

Liu has racked up most of his support from unions and the city’s black and Latino lawmakers. Stringer and Rosenthal’s endorsement gives him a boost in the Upper West and East Sides, where Democratic primary voters come out to the polls in droves.

Stringer cited Liu’s independence and work on education and transit issues as chair of the Council’s Transportation Committee.

“John has been a consistent and progressive voice on issues that matter most to middle-class families,” Stringer said in a statement.

Council Member David Yassky of Brooklyn has added State Sen. Tom Duane, who represents parts of both the East and West Sides, to his list of endorsements. Duane called Yassky a “true progressive” on affordable housing, civil rights and government reform.

“As comptroller, David will continue his progressive fight to root out wasteful spending, demand accountability and results and get our city’s economy back on track,” Duane said in a statement.

The support from Duane came on the heels of Yassky landing the coveted backing of the New York Times, a powerful endorsement in what is expected to be a low-turnout Democratic primary.

But breaking with Duane’s fellow politicians, the State Senator endorsed Cy Vance for district attorney over Richard Aborn, who enjoys immense popularity among Manhattan’s elected officials.

Duane met with all candidates, which also includes Leslie Crocker Snyder, but cited Vance’s 25 years of experience on both sides of the justice system, calling him the “people’s prosecutor.”

Vance also won the Times’ backing.

Comptroller-hopeful David Weprin, a Council member from Queens, called on the NYPD to stop towing cars if owners cannot retrieve them on the same day. And Council Member Melinda Katz, a comptroller candidate from Queens and chair of the Land Use Committee, was endorsed by four labor unions that represent the city’s painters, elevator constructors, bricklayers and pavers.

D.A. CANDIDATES ROLL OUT NEW PLANS—In the run up to the Sept. 15 primary, the three district attorney candidates are unveiling a slew of new plans that cover everything from terrorism to transit.

Leslie Crocker Snyder and Cy Vance released dueling plans to combat terrorism—an area not completely foreign to the Manhattan district attorney’s office. In 2006, District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, retiring this year, used financial transactions made in Manhattan to investigate money laundering that helped finance terror organizations.

Snyder’s plan calls for a counterterrorism bureau that would be led by a trained assistant district attorney with specific security clearance to access classified information. The bureau would also coordinate with other units in the office to share information about related investigations.

The plan was endorsed by Michael Palladino, president of the Detectives Endowment Association.

Vance would appoint a counterterrorism coordinator who would report directly to the district attorney. This coordinator would expand the office’s relationship with federal agencies and the police department. Vance also said he wanted to designate a team of prosecutors and investigators to work with police to link related crimes, such as money laundering and false identification, to larger terrorist operations.

Snyder also wants to introduce a housing bureau that would create a database of complaints received about landlords to identify a pattern of criminal behavior. The bureau would coordinate with city and state housing agencies. Snyder would also assign an assistant district attorney to each of Manhattan’s public housing developments to help residents with criminal justice issues.

Meanwhile, Richard Aborn released a workers rights platform that promised criminal prosecutions of wage law violators, and detailed an education and outreach campaign to prevent violations.

Aborn, who is endorsed by the labor-backed Working Families Party, said he would designate a member of his leadership team to work with other bureaus to identify wage theft.

“We need to do more than just issue the equivalent of traffic tickets to businesses that steal the wages of their workers,” Aborn said in a statement.

Pollster Matthew Weaver, of Bronstein & Weaver Inc., broke down the borough’s 2005 Democratic primary and noted how areas with a lot of bus commuters, train riders and car drivers voted in each election district. Weaver did similar studies in other races throughout the country, he said, but found that the pattern is prominent in Manhattan.

“This is a level deeper, to try to categorize people who otherwise may be very similar in their demographics, but very dissimilar in other areas of their lifestyle, such as commuting and how far you commute,” Weaver said.

In the 2005 race between District Attorney Robert Morgenthau and Leslie Crocker Snyder, Weaver saw that bus and train commuters preferred the challenger whereas the incumbent scored with voters who have a 30-minute commute.

In the 2005 mayoral primary, victor Fernando Ferrer was popular among bus and train commuters while runner-up Rep. Anthony Weiner was a hit with car drivers.

“It should force [candidates] to redefine to what they see as relevant interest groups, and relevant target strategies in terms of spending,” Weaver said.

John Liu

Running for City Comptroller
By Josh Zembik

Before running for City Council, John Liu worked at PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

He doesn’t have the faintest hint of a Boston accent, and he doesn’t summer at Hyannis Port, but City Council Member John Liu has a bit of Kennedy mystique coursing through him. When Liu’s family moved to the United States from Taiwan when he was 5, his father, Chang Liu, changed the son’s name from Chun to John in honor of President Kennedy. Appropriately, Chang changed his own name to Joseph, and John’s younger brothers became Robert and Edward.

Now, nearly 50 years after Kennedy became the first Roman Catholic President of the United States, Liu hopes to do a little trailblazing of his own. Already the first Asian-American to be elected to legislative office in New York City, Liu is running for city comptroller.

“My dad was a big Kennedy fan,” Liu said, “and when he suggested I change my name to John, I took him up on his advice. But that’s as far as I’d dare go in terms of likening myself to President Kennedy.”

This is a story the Council member has told many times before, so much so that it’s become a joke among the city’s political insiders. But the Kennedy connection and immigrant story is perhaps one way Liu hopes to distinguish himself to Manhattan primary voters, a critical bloc being wooed by all four outer-borough candidates vying for comptroller. All of the candidates serve on the City Council, and three hail from Queens: Melinda Katz, David Weprin and Liu. The fourth candidate, David Yassky is from Brooklyn. The glut of candidates from Queens made that borough’s Democratic Party endorsement of Liu all the more notable: he won 49 votes to Katz’s six and Weprin’s three.

Prolific in his press releases, and known for asking tough questions during Council committee hearings, Liu was at first considered a public advocate contender before he became the last entrant in the comptroller’s race. He staked out a high-profile role opposing Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s term limit extension bid, though the effort was unsuccessful.

He says he has great concern over the city’s financial health. Liu has suggested a small tax increase targeted at the city’s wealthy to replenish the depleted coffers; the idea has been seconded by Katz, but rejected by the other two candidates.

“New York City’s income tax simply is not progressive,” Liu said. “It tops out at about $80,000, and it doesn’t seem fair that the teacher pays the same city income tax rate as a filthy rich person like Mike Bloomberg. We should be graduating our tax rate and combining that with the need to make up the [budget] shortfalls by at least temporarily asking the very high income earners to pay a slightly higher percentage.”

As manager of the city’s financial health, the comptroller oversees city pension funds. At a June candidates’ forum, Liu and his opponents all agreed that the current system is bankrupting the city. However, while Katz has suggested investing some of the fund in successful local businesses that are strapped with debt, Liu has erred on the side of caution.

“I believe that restoring confidence in the pension fund is of paramount concern, and the way to do that is not to go into all sorts of risky investments,” he said. “There are plenty of buy opportunities in the stock market, and there should be traditional investments that get us back to the basics.”

Liu has also taken a keen interest in New York City schools. A member of the Education Committee, he has called for infrastructure and high-tech upgrades, as well as a reassessment of standardized testing. While all four candidates have criticized Bloomberg for what they see as too much emphasis on test scores, only Liu and Weprin joined Comptroller William Thompson in calling on the mayor to fire Schools Chancellor Joel Klein.

“I’m for change and some level of business discipline,” Liu said. “A move like this is perhaps necessary to give things a jolt. [Klein’s] approach has outlived its usefuless.”

Liu attended New York City public schools, and graduated from SUNY Binghamton. A Flushing resident since his family moved from Taiwan, he and his wife, Jenny, have a young son, Joey.

Before running for Council, Liu worked as a manager at the financial consulting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers, where he says he gained experience in oversight and rooting out waste.

Those skills have served Liu well as chairman of the Transportation Committee, which deals with the MTA, Department of Transportation and Taxi and Limousine Commission. Liu has been a major critic of the MTA, opposing fare increases and congestion pricing fees, and pushing for faster and better-appropriated bus service, especially for outerborough residents.

Although his base is among the black and Hispanic community and unions, including 1199 SEIU, DC 37 and the Transit Union, Liu has also snagged the backing of Rep. Charles Rangel. According to the latest data, Liu has a substantial fundrasing lead, pulling in $3.2 million to date, almost $1 million more than his next closest competitor, Katz.

He is proud of his fundraising edge, but knows it doesn’t make him a shoo-in.

“The only poll that counts is the one on September 15,” Liu said, referring to Primary Day. “That’s all that matters.”

Leslie Crocker Snyder

Running for Manhattan District Attorney
By Danielle Friedman

Leslie Crocker Snyder was one of two women in her Case Western Reserve University class. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

On the steps of City Hall, Leslie Crocker Snyder is flanked by nearly a dozen burly men. Many wear navy T-shirts emblazoned with “FDNY.” Snyder is polished and youthful-looking, dressed in a pinstriped pantsuit, her blond hair perfectly straight and styled. Her gaze is steady.

The group has convened on a sunny morning in July to announce that the Uniformed Firefighters Association, New York’s largest firefighters union, is endorsing Snyder for Manhattan District Attorney. It’s one of more than a dozen law enforcement organizations that have pledged support to the former Criminal and State Supreme Court judge, who is known for doling out formidable sentences.

“For 35 years, Judge Snyder’s work has made our streets safer and our city a better place to live, work and visit,” said UFA president Steve Cassidy.

The lone woman in this sea of men, Snyder began breaking gender barriers in law school, where she was one of two women in her Case Western Reserve University class. If elected to fill the well-worn shoes of current District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, the 67-year-old will become Manhattan’s first female D.A. and one of only a handful in the country.

Snyder seems at ease standing alone. She earned her tough reputation presiding over cases involving some of the city’s most dangerous criminals, including violent street gangs and mobsters; for years, her family needed 24/7 bodyguard protection. While she was lauded for helping to protect the city during some of its most tumultuous years, some critics have singled her out as ruthless. She once, now famously, told a defendant that she’d be willing to give him a lethal injection herself, a comment she says she now regrets (she’s since changed her position on the death penalty, saying she is opposed to it under any circumstances, a move her opponents have characterized as pandering to progressive Manhattan voters).

Snyder stood alone in 2005, too, when she became the first candidate in decades to challenge Morgenthau for his seat. The attempt to dethrone her former boss led Morgenthau to vilify her—he’s attacked her in the press ever since.

Now, weeks before the Democratic primary, Snyder is standing out again—this time for beating competitors Cyrus Vance, Jr. and Richard Aborn in polls by double digits. She’s also ahead in fundraising; she had raised $1.45 million by mid-July. Her campaigners have been working hard, and she believes her experience wins voters over.

All three candidates are alumni of the Manhattan D.A.’s office, and Vance has scored Morgenthau’s endorsement. The son of President Jimmy Carter’s Secretary of State, Vance touts his decades as a litigator and defense attorney. Aborn drafted two major pieces of gun-control legislation and has worked as a technology consultant to law enforcement agencies. But Snyder believes her experience trumps her opponents’. She’s earned the endorsements of big names like Ed Koch and Geraldine Ferraro, and she points out that she’s been advocating for reform for four years now, while her competitors only recently stepped up.

Snyder, who grew up in New York and Baltimore, said she knew she wanted to be a criminal lawyer since the age of 5.

“My parents used to tell me that I argued about everything,” she jokes.

In 1968, she landed a job as an assistant D.A. under Frank Hogan, becoming the first woman in the office to prosecute homicides (Hogan initially told Snyder she’d need a “letter of permission” from her husband). She also founded Manhattan’s Sex Crimes Prosecution Bureau and co-wrote its Rape Shield Law, which prevents a rape victim’s sexual history from being used against her, and repealed a requirement that witnesses corroborate a victim’s testimony. She joined a private practice in 2002.

Now Snyder hopes to invigorate an office she’s said has become stale under Morgenthau, who began when Gerald Ford was president. She also hopes to build on its strengths. Her vision includes transforming the office into a more proactive one, in which assistant D.A.s form partnerships with educators, religious leaders, social service agencies, law enforcement and others, working together to prevent young people from becoming first offenders. She believes that “far too many” have been incarcerated, and that early intervention is the solution.

Other top priorities include fighting for the rights of minority groups and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, and prosecuting white-collar crime “vigorously and fairly.” She also hopes to form a so-called Second Look Bureau to examine possible wrongful convictions and learn from past mistakes. And she wants all New Yorkers to develop greater confidence in the legal system.

“People on 125th Street feel like they’re getting a very different kind of justice than people on Wall Street,” she said.

An Upper East Sider for four decades, Snyder raised two sons in the area. She and her husband, a retired pediatrician and artist, can sometimes be spotted walking their dog through the neighborhood.

Snyder has honed a tough reputation, but surely a thick skin and steely resolve are necessary for the role of top prosecutor. As for the animosity from Morgenthau, she’s not dwelling on it: she’s more interested in focusing on the positive—and on the changes she hopes to bring to the city.

“I’m looking forward,” Snyder said, “not back.”

Norman Siegel

Running for Public Advocate
By Danielle Friedman

Norman Siegel, a civil rights lawyer, came of age during the civil rights movement. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

On a drizzly Monday night, the Brown Memorial Baptist Church in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, is buzzing. More than 100 locals have turned out for a public advocate candidate forum. Steel-drum calypso music blasts from speakers as the mostly black audience takes its seats.

Three of the five candidates vying to replace incumbent Betsy Gotbaum, who opted out of a third term, are participating. After brief introductions, they take the floor. When Norman Siegel addresses the crowd, he sounds more like a preacher than a lawyer.

“Good evening,” he booms, then smiles.

The 65-year-old holds the mike a little too close, causing his words to rattle in the speakers. He paces, getting in the audience’s face.

“Up to this point, this office has not fulfilled its potential,” he says. “When I’m public advocate, people will know who the public advocate is.”

The other candidates at the forum, Council Members Eric Gioia of Queens and Bill de Blasio of Brooklyn, offer eloquent opening remarks (the fourth Democratic candidate, Mark Green, and Republican contender Alex Zablocki said they could not participate.) The Council members are more polished, more specific. But they don’t rouse the audience like Siegel does.

While all city offices represent and serve the people, none are quite as direct as public advocate. The post is meant to provide a voice for New Yorkers. Or as Siegel describes it: to be visible, a big mouth and a fighter.

The public advocate is also next in succession for mayor, making it the second highest elected office in the city. Yet few New Yorkers know what the office is or does. Siegel plans to change this.

A high-profile civil rights lawyer and former head of the New York Civil Liberties Union, Siegel says he has represented New Yorkers for 40 years. In many ways, he embodies the city. A graduate of Brooklyn College, he’s loud, outspoken and a little zany (he has mentioned organizing a doo-wop singing contest among the candidates; he grew up on the music in Brooklyn). He’s passionate and a little angry. He quotes Clint Eastwood, telling corrupt officials they can “make his day.” And he’s a dreamer. When he talks about becoming public advocate, his eyes gleam. He came of age during the civil rights movement—during law school at New York University, he spent summers in the South, fighting for equal rights—and the zeal of that era continues to propel him.

Among the candidates, Siegel is also the only non-career politician, something he often points out. Yet while his outsider status could help him, it could also serve as a disadvantage. He’s rougher around the edges than the other Democratic candidates, arguably with less name recognition. And while it’s his third bid for the office, he’s still honing his campaigning skills.

“I believe I’m the only one of the four who can transform this office,” he says, so that it “makes a huge difference in people’s lives.”

Throughout his career, Siegel has fought for outcasts and radicals, the privileged and destitute. During the Republican National Convention in 2004, he successfully lobbied to release protestors who’d been arrested and held inappropriately. He fought for public access to the steps of City Hall and the right to protest on Central Park’s Great Lawn. And he represents tenants in West Harlem in their fight against Columbia University and eminent domain. Siegel and his wife, Saralee Evans, an acting justice in the State Supreme Court for New York County, are residents of the Upper West Side. They have five grandchildren.

Siegel has far-reaching plans for the office. He hopes to recruit hundreds of volunteers to be “surrogate public advocates” in each community—every week they’d meet with residents and report back to him. He also wants to create an “Institute of Advocacy” through which he’d train New Yorkers to make themselves heard.

Other priorities include helping New Yorkers navigate the recession and improving public education and literacy for all ages. He also wants to address race relations head-on, particularly within the law enforcement community.

If a city agency isn’t serving the public, he says he’ll use the “bully pulpit,” as the office has been called, to its full advantage. He’ll embarrass whoever’s responsible via the media, and if he has to, he’ll sue.

In the latest Marist Poll, Siegel placed second to Green, who’s running for the office again after being the first to hold it in the 1990s (Green scored 39 percent of the vote, while Siegel had 16 percent). Yet Siegel has raised more money than in his previous two campaigns—$134,000 of matchable amounts, totaling more than $800,000—thanks largely to phone calls and house parties. He’ll now be able to advertise widely.

Still, Green has the advantage of name recognition. And Gioia and de Blasio have long records to show for their own public advocacy.

In the end, Siegel’s chances will, in part, come down to whether New Yorkers are ready to take a leap of faith on an outsider. Of course, if Siegel had his way, the race would likely be decided by a doo-wop sing-off. In that contest, Siegel would surely project his voice above the rest.

But in the months before the September primary, each has highlighted a different background to illustrate why they are the right person to run the highest profile district attorney’s office in the state.

Leslie Crocker Snyder, Cyrus Vance, Jr. and Richard Aborn are all vying to succeed Morgenthau. One of them will likely face Greg Camp, a liberal Republican running in the general election.

Morgenthau’s presence is still felt in the primary campaign, as his 2005 primary opponent, Leslie Crocker Snyder, is making her second bid for district attorney.

Leslie Crocker Snyder challenged Morgenthau in 2005. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

The 2005 race was highly personal and contentious: Snyder criticized Morgenthau’s tenure and said the office had been stale for a decade. In turn, Morgenthau’s campaign characterized Snyder as a supporter of the death penalty, a position that does not gel with most of the Manhattan Democratic primary electorate. Snyder lost with 40 percent of the vote.

Snyder’s 2005 talking points are still prevalent in the 2009 campaign. But she points to her first run for office as proof that she has been promoting change in the district attorney’s office for more than four years now, unlike her opponents, who are only now calling for reform.

“If they were eager for change, why didn’t they run until they got permission from Morgenthau?” Snyder said. “It makes people question whether they can effect change, whether they have the courage to take on big challenges.”

Snyder said she witnessed the strengths and weaknesses of the Manhattan district attorney’s office as a judge on the Criminal and State Supreme courts. During her time on the bench, she earned a reputation for doling out harsh sentences, but she said she also used alternatives to incarceration—“not what I’m known for,” she added. That practice is something she would continue as the borough’s top prosecutor.

She also wants to create a so-called Second Look Bureau, an office to investigate cases in which the district attorney’s office has made a mistake. This stemmed from the wrongful conviction of a man for the slaying of a nightclub bouncer, known as the Palladium case.
“If we do make a mistake,” Snyder said, “we’re going to admit to the mistakes and share training we got from that with every other district attorney.”

Despite any blowback from her 2005 challenge, Snyder is picking up support from judicial and law enforcement unions and organizations.

Cyrus Vance, Jr., however, has been getting behind-the-scenes support from Morgenthau, who is widely known to prefer the litigator and defense lawyer.
Morgenthau is not allowed to outright endorse Vance due to a rule by the state District Attorney’s Association. The district attorney can, however, express a preference for a candidate publicly and tacitly.

On May 6, Vance unveiled the endorsements of prominent former assistant district attorneys from Morgenthau’s office.

Cyrus Vance, Jr. has been getting behind-the-scenes support from Morgenthau. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

“They believe that I can best steward the traditions of this office and deliver public safety and fairness at the head of it,” Vance said. “To me it’s the most significant endorsement, not the police unions.”

Vance was also endorsed by former Mayor David Dinkins and Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum.

Vance, the son of President Jimmy Carter’s Secretary of State, was a civil and criminal litigator who spent 16 years of his post-Morgenthau career in Seattle, Wash. Snyder hits Vance on this frequently, but Vance said he and his family have roots in Manhattan. And in starting a law firm in Seattle, “I acquired a lot of experience in doing a lot of complex and interesting work,” Vance said. “That gives me perspective and insight that is useful for me as D.A.”

Vance touts his current and extensive experience as a litigator and defense attorney. He’d like to expand the discovery phase of cases and ask the Office of Court Administration for more judges to process cases faster—efforts Vance said will foster a better sense of fairness for defendants.

Vance is also arguing for restructuring the Manhattan district attorney’s office to revolve around community organizations rather than the court system. He wants to pair senior assistant district attorneys with junior attorneys to tackle backlog, pair assistant district attorneys with police precincts and base a reward system for prosecutors on developing crime prevention strategies rather than the number of convictions.

“The only candidate who has talked about prevention in terms of the office’s structure is me,” Vance said.

While Vance is stressing structure, attorney Richard Aborn has become the candidate of big ideas. He drafted two major pieces of gun-control legislation—the Brady bill and the assault weapons ban—and has been a technology consultant for police departments and law enforcement agencies.

Aborn feels the district attorney’s office could coordinate with other law enforcement agencies throughout the country to share information. This, he said, would be useful in preventing illegal firearms likely to be used in crimes from entering the city.

Richard Aborn drafted two major pieces of gun-control legislation. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

Aborn is pushing his background in technology to prove he can update how the district attorney’s office tracks and deters crime. He feels the new district attorney needs to be well versed in the latest crime fighting techniques to implement them effectively.

“Voters want a D.A. who has a broad vision of the office and the broad experience to implement that vision,” Aborn said.

Aborn said this strategy has captured the endorsement of seven elected officials, including the bulk of Manhattan’s office holders.

“The elected officials, in part, understand the critical roles of the district attorney, particularly in Manhattan,” Aborn said. “That office has to be a vibrant participant in the public discussion around criminal justice and I’ve done that for years.”

Aborn points to his role in the gun-control movement as proof that he can shape and frame the debate around criminal justice and build coalitions.

“We were able to push back against the NRA [National Rifle Association] and defeat them,” Aborn said. “We did that at a time where we really defied the odds.”

At a recent forum for West Side Democratic clubs, he said the same strategy could work for the death penalty. While his opponents are all against the death penalty—now unconstitutional in the state—he told voters that he would use the office as a bully pulpit to quell any attempt to reinstate it.

“There might be a drum beat to bring it back,” Aborn warned. “I will build and lead a coalition to stop it.”

At that same forum, however, Snyder brushed aside the death penalty debate.
“Let’s get real. It’s being used by my adversaries,” she said. “Ask yourself what are the real issues in this race.”

Candidates nonetheless seem eager to pass progressive litmus tests, even though most issues may not fall in the jurisdiction of the district attorney’s office. Such issues will engage the Manhattan electorate in this low-turnout election, said political consultant Norman Adler.

“Everybody’s against the death penalty, everyone’s for gay marriage. Everybody’s going to sound the same,” Adler said. “The question is, who has the most name recognition and who gets out the vote?”