Sen. Dan Squadron’s grassroots campaign for public advocate paying dividends

When it comes to financing his still unofficial campaign for New York City’s public advocate post, Manhattan/Brooklyn Sen. Daniel Squadron is in many ways taking the road less traveled.
With a decidedly grassroots approach to fundraising which favors dainty donations from a diverse field mostly made up of city residents, Squadron, now serving his third term in the city’s 26th Senate District, is getting the biggest bang for the buck out of the five likely candidates.

According to his campaign, Squadron has raised a total of $1.75 million in direct contributions and expected public matching funds, but he has spent only $150,000, leaving $1.6 million in contributions and matching funds to spend on the race between now and the Democratic primary.
The city’s campaign finance board confirms that Squadron has raised more money than any of his four competitors, of whom only one, Cathy Guerriero, a business consultant and teacher, has formally announced her candidacy.

Squadron’s other likely competitors for the office of public advocate are Reshma Saujani, a former deputy public advocate under Bill de Blasio; Brooklyn Council member Letitia James; and Noah Gotbaum, an education activist on the Upper West Side and also the stepson of former Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum.

In a recent press release, Betsy Gotbaum stated she would endorse Squadron instead of her stepson Noah. News reports said that Gotbaum had committed to Squadron’s campaign months before her stepson decided to shoot for the public advocate’s office.

“Daniel Squadron has the passion and the experience to be a great public advocate for all New Yorkers,” Gotbaum, who held the office from 2002 to 2009, said in a release from Squadron’s campaign. “He has always fought for families and those left out and left behind.”

The position of public advocate has only been in existence since 1994 and has been held by just three people: Mark Green from 1994-2001, Betsy Gotbaum from 2002-2009 and, since 2010, Bill de Blasio, who is now a candidate for mayor.

As a voice for all the residents of New York City, the public advocate is similar to the role of watchdog, ensuring that all residents get the services, rights and protections they are entitled to.
“I want to make this a city for more families,” Squadron said. “The advocate is a role really about giving a voice to individuals who need one.” Among the key issues Squadron says he’ll address as advocate are transportation, public housing and development of small business.

“Daniel radiates the kind of energy, smarts and guts that are a perfect fit with the office of public advocate,” said Green, the city’s first public advocate, in a statement.

“He knows when to bring people together and when to stand up to a mayor on behalf of those left behind or out. His record on child care, housing, guns and money in politics reflect the values that the office and city need.”

And Squadron, who prides himself on having never taken corporate or special interest PAC money, has maximized his grassroots support to the tune of nearly 1,500 individual contributors, of whom nearly 90 percent contributed less than $250. In addition, he said that 150 supporters hosted private, small fundraisers.

Most recently, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand attended a dim sum fundraiser in Chinatown in support of Squadron’s campaign. Other small fundraisers were hosted by Paul Newell, Democratic district leader for New York’s 65th Assembly district, and David Gruber, chair of Community Board 1.
“2013 will be a pivotal year of transition for our city—and New York families need a fighter who is ready and willing to stand up for them,” Squadron said. “I’m incredibly honored by this show of support from New Yorkers around our city, and it’s clear we will have the resources to run an aggressive, five-borough campaign.”

Sean Sweeney, director of the SoHo Alliance, said that seeking out many, smaller donations instead of just a few lavish ones, was productive on many levels.

“Strategically, it’s a smart idea to get many smaller donations because that way, you build a base,” he said.

Discussing campaign finance reform, Squadron said the state should emulate the city. “The city’s system is what the state should be using,” he said. “The state system, now and for some time, has been about special interests giving extraordinarily large sums.”

Squadron added that the city system is more about getting thousands of people involved at whatever level of giving they’re comfortable with. “In New York City, the way to be successful is to get lots and lots of people involved.”

Bodegas, you see, are some of the New York City businesses that will clean up at the expense of the “little guys,” like pizza parlors and McDonald’s, if, as expected, Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s new soda policy goes into effect in September. That was just one of several hollow arguments opponents made at last week’s Board of Health public hearing.

The argument, advanced by Council Members Melissa Mark-Viverito and Letitia James, among others, is that because the limit to large sugary drinks applies to restaurants but not many bodegas, supermarkets and candy stores, it sets up an unfair advantage.

Here’s the apparent theory. You go into a shop for a pizza slice. You’re desperate for more than 16 ounces of soda—not so desperate that you’ll buy two or three sodas at the parlor, which would still be permissible, but just thirsty enough to take the slice into the bodega next door and wait on line again to buy a large amount of soda in one container. Or you are so determined to have a Big Gulp that you’ll choose your meal based on the available drink size.

Jimmy Alix, who works at an East Harlem candy store barely wide enough to squeeze in two-liter bottles of soda, is not expecting a rush of business from the pizza shop across the street or the other two a block away from his shop on Lexington Avenue and 124th Street.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “People are going to buy whatever size they have there.”

At least three other nearby places would be permitted to sell large sodas: a small grocery, another candy store and a Pathmark. Large soda consumption would undoubtedly continue, but some people would clearly drink less and, perhaps as important, the debate has likely made many people more aware of how many empty calories they drink.

Former Gov. David Paterson tried to talk truth to powerful bodegas and others a few years ago with a soda tax, but Big Sugar beat him. An industry ad back then showed a small grocery owner saying his customers calculate their food bills down to the penny. It was meant to trigger outrage that working-class people would pay more, but it really showed that the tax would lead to healthier choices.

Another of the absurd arguments by lobbyists and opponents is that it limits free choice. Although not a goal of the Bloomberg plan, it would actually expand choice in places like movie theaters.

The misnamed group leading the opposition backed in part by movie theater chains, New Yorkers for Beverage Choices, didn’t have anything to say about their effort to keep limits on consumer choice.

At least one opponent “expert” said there’s no proof that people will take in fewer calories. It shouldn’t take an Ivy League professor to point out the obvious—people tend to drink all that they are served—but it did.

“The science on this is quite clear:  As people are served larger portions, they generally consume more food,” said Kelly Brownell, director of Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity.

The Council members do care about the problem—James said she sees obesity in her Central Brooklyn district every day and it sends her to too many funerals. They’re right that the policy is not a complete solution, and other measures, like youth fitness programs, may be more helpful. But it seems they’re saying that if you don’t do everything you can to battle obesity, don’t do anything.

David Jones, a plan supporter and CEO of the Community Service Society of New York, said he has spent too much of his career trying to improve social services to wait for the perfect idea.

“I have to do something now,” he said at the hearing, “because this is really ripping through poor communities.”

Josh Rogers, contributing editor at Manhattan Media, is a lifelong New Yorker.

Bloomberg Says Beware - photo by DeusXFlorida

It was welcomed by many New Yorkers when it was brought to our attention in May, but Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to restrict the purveyance of 16 oz. sodas has, with no surprise, angered soda companies, movie theaters, and restaurants.

Major companies like Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola, in conjunction with many stores in the New York area created the New Yorkers for Beverages Choice to combat the mayor’s latest efforts, and has a large following.

The coalition, according to its site, is comprised of 434 members, and has 12784 supportive petitioners.

Sponsored by the American Beverage Association, the coalition released a series of television and radio ads emphasizing a New Yorker’s right to choice.

“This is New York City. No one tells us what neighborhood to live in, what team to live in, or what deli to eat at,” the television ad begins. “So are we going to let our mayor tell us what size beverage to buy?”

“This is about protecting our freedom of choice.”

“It’s unbelievable, once again (the mayor) is telling us what we can and can’t have,” the radio ad echoes.

“I’m perfectly capable of choosing what size beverage to get.”

The sentiment isn’t alone, either.

Councilwoman Letitia James is also against the ban.

“After talking with business owners and residents… I believe the ban would be arbitrarily and unfairly applied,” James said, according to the Prospect Heights Patch.

James says that the city should combat obesity with parks, not bans.

The New York City Board of Health, whose members are appointed by the mayor, will vote on the ban on July 24, which could go into effect in March 2013.

–Nick Gallinelli

After years of struggling to get the bill passed, the mood was gleeful, full of prayers and hymns.

“By overriding Mayor Bloomberg’s veto, the City Council is siding with the overwhelming majority of New Yorkers who want this legislation to move forward!” said RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum, a leader of the movement.

There was one rather amusing moment at the end of the event. More than a half hour into the press conference and following a slew of other speakers – including Council Member/Public Advocate candidate Letitia James – a speaker named Kwasi Akyeampong from the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition came to the podium. He denounced Mayor Michael Bloomberg in some language that has recently become famous in New York politics.

“The Kingsbridge Armory is not of a pharaoh. It’s not a plantation. The Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act is a fair wage for all New Yorkers. This is not a plantation,” he said.

Bloomberg has also said he will use legal action to try and undo the living wage legislation.

“Our mayor promises to use the courts – just like the generals in Egypt,” Akyeampong added.

A different person named Carlos Pacheco famously yelled out the “Pharoah Bloomberg” line at a living wage press conference in late April, prompting New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn to storm out in the mayor’s defense. No mayoral candidates were on hand to take offense at the rhetoric this time around, and many of the people in attendance were already milling around and chatting by the time the remarks were made.

To read more from City & State click here.

Photo courtesy of Whiskeygonebad

From City & State’s Heard Around Town:

The Bloomberg administration is looking to cut in half the amount of parking required in downtown Brooklyn residential developments, an attempt to address a glut of off-street parking in the area and encourage more affordable housing. The Planning Department this afternoon is launching a public review of the proposal, which would also provide more parking for residents, employees and visitors. “Most of the parking garages in downtown Brooklyn are under capacity and oftentimes a significant number of them are just empty,” said Councilwoman Letitia James, who said requiring less parking space would incentivize developers to build more affordable housing units. “When it gets to the City Council, I’m going to take a leadership position because I believe that downtown Brooklyn desperately needs more affordable housing because there’s a crisis in affordability for middle-income and moderate-income families. The issue will come down to whether or not we should gently encourage developers to build affordable housing or mandate it.” Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden said that downtown Brooklyn has “some of the best transit infrastructure and one of the lowest rates of auto ownership in New York City” and that the proposal aims to “rationalize the parking regulations.”

To read more from City & State click here.