Former mayoral candidate Mark Green is planning to endorse Manhattan Borough president candidate Julie Menin, the Community Board 1 chairwoman who says she’ll run for BP if Scott Stringer leaves the seat vacant in 2013. Green, who met Menin when he was president of Air America, also plans to host a fundraiser for her with lawyers Richard Emery and Gerald Lefcourt. “It was an easy decision to help Julie,” Green said, citing her managerial experience and personal values as assets in her campaign. “She asked and I’m happy to help in any way, except by starting a Menin super PAC. She’ll have to get someone wealthier and more politically corrupt to do that. You could look through her record and all, but to me of all the things she’s done, I was most impressed by how welcoming she was to the Islamic center and occupy wall street, when both were really hot hot topics,” he said.  ”I’m proud to have the support of a great progressive leader like Mark Green, and proud of the momentum of our borough-wide campaign,” Menin said.

To read more from City & State click here.

Larry Penner
Great Neck, Long Island

Letters have been edited for clarity, style and brevity.

Before the primary, we weighed in on both these contests; we still stand by those choices and reiterate them here to readers, who we hope will go to the polls on Sept. 29 to cast their vote in these important races.

Comptroller
The comptroller can be seen as C.F.O. of the city, responsible for making sure that budgets are tight and inefficiencies are pinpointed. But we also need more than a bean-counting bureaucrat. That’s why we feel New Yorkers should vote for Brooklyn Council Member David Yassky as the city’s next comptroller.

Yassky showed independence by being the only candidate to endorse legislation that will create a new level of pension benefits for future retirees, with the goal of reducing taxpayer costs. He understands the need to have a diverse portfolio that will protect the pensioners and taxpayers when the economy suffers. (Full disclosure: Yassky’s campaign rents separate office space from this newspaper’s parent company, Manhattan Media.)

His opponent, Queens Council Member John Liu, will surely bring the same tenacity to the comptroller’s duties as he does to Council committee hearings, but we’re concerned he’ll be too focused on using the office as a bully pulpit. Yassky is a well-rounded candidate who can balance experience with leadership, and we endorse him in the run-off for comptroller.

Public Advocate
Brooklyn Council Member Bill de Blasio has the most far-reaching vision for the public advocate’s office, and the most detailed plans for executing that vision on a shoestring budget. De Blasio plans to leverage the public advocate’s meager resources by working with organizations like Transportation Alternatives and the Brennan Center for Justice, at New York University Law School. Through the office’s appointee to the City Planning Commission, he pledges to be an aggressive watchdog on development.

There are, however, a few reservations about his candidacy. If elected, he’ll be tasked with policing the large swath of elected officials and unions that have endorsed his bid for office; we hope this doesn’t make him too cozy to be an effective independent check on city government. And we feel that de Blasio should be more proactive in addressing the questionable services provided to his campaign by the Working Families Party and its for-profit company, Data Field Services.

Mark Green, his opponent, did a commendable job as New York’s first public advocate. But he seems too focused on the past to enact a forward-looking agenda. De Blasio strikes us as the candidate most ready to hit the ground running in January, and we endorse him in the run-off for public advocate.

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.

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 shoe-in for re-election were the results of several City Council. 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.
The nail-biter primary races were for public advocate and comptroller, and no candidate broached the 40 percent mark needed to avoid a run-off. The top two contenders in each race will now face each other in a run-off election on Sept. 29.

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.

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

Queens Council member Melinda Katz got 20 percent of the vote and David Weprin, also a Queens Council member, 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 is popular among minority voters.

While running third in the polls, Yassky leapt to second place after key endorsements from the ITAL New York Times ITAL, the ITAL Daily News ITAL 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 e-mail to supporters.

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.

Mark Green

Running for Public Advocate

By Shayndi Raice
Mark Green is back.

Although he swore off politics after losing the Democratic primary for attorney general to Andrew M. Cuomo in 2006, Green has decided he is ready for the spotlight once again. This time, he’s going after his old job: Pubic Advocate of the City of New York.

Green’s first foray into public service began in the 1970s, when he worked for Ralph Nader, running Public Citizen’s Congress Watch. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

“I was the public advocate. I know the job because I’ve done the job,” Green said at a recent candidates’ forum at Young Israel of the West Side. “And I have ideas to do it better.”

His history as—in his words—an “aggressive progressive” should be proof to New Yorkers that he has what it takes to stand up to City Hall and serve as an ombudsman for New Yorkers.

“Government has to do for an individual what he or she can’t do for themselves,” Green said firmly from the podium at the forum. “That’s not just a slogan. That’s my life.”

Indeed, Green’s first foray into public service began in the 1970s, when he worked for Ralph Nader, running Public Citizen’s Congress Watch, a consumer advocacy lobbying group in Washington, D.C. In 1981, he founded and ran the Democracy Project in New York City, a public policy institute. From 1990 to 1993 he worked for Mayor David Dinkins as the Commissioner of Consumer Affairs. Then, after the 1989 New York City charter revision created the office of the public advocate, Green ran and served as the first City Hall watchdog from 1993 to 2001. He unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 2001, losing a close battle for the post to Michael Bloomberg. For the last few years, he has been president of Air America Radio, the liberal talk radio network that was owned by his real estate mogul brother, Stephen. This January, he released Change for America: A Progressive Blueprint for the 44th President, a book he co-edited with Michele Jolin.

Green’s history is important because his campaign has essentially been built around it. He’s been out of public office for eight years, but that doesn’t mean he’s letting anyone forget his contributions from the 1990s.

“I meet candidates who say, ‘I stood up to this one, I fought that one’,” Green said to a group of Upper West Siders at Young Israel. “Listen to those words. What did they get done? All of us can brag about certain accomplishments. But eventually you have to look at someone’s head and heart and say, ‘Is this person going to be on my side because they’ve shown their values over time?’”

Green’s values, and accomplishments, include going after tobacco companies for directing advertising toward kids, suing former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani for withholding information on racial profiling and police misconduct and, most importantly for the group he addressed at Young Israel, forming a “kosher coalition” made up of organizations, wholesalers and retailers who pledged to restrain the price of kosher for Passover food products.

“Every candidate is ardently pro-Israel for reasons of morality,” said Green to the Jewish congregation. “But how many candidates can say they saved you money on matzoh?”

He is also focusing on his New York roots. Born in Brooklyn in 1945, Green lived with his family in Bensonhurst before moving to Great Neck, Long Island, where he graduated from Great Neck South High School. He left New York to attend college at Cornell and law school at Harvard. Today, he lives in Manhattan with his wife, Deni Frand. In his stump speech and on his website, he makes a point of noting that New York City welcomed his immigrant grandparents a century ago, just as it welcomes his two children, Jenya and Jonah, today as they begin their careers.

According to an Aug. 26 SurveyUSA poll conducted for WABC-TV, Green is leading his opponents with 38 percent, compared to 19 percent for City Council Member Bill de Blasio, 11 percent for civil rights lawyer Normal Siegel and 10 percent for City Council Member Eric Gioia. Nineteen percent of voters were still undecided. He is significantly behind his opponents, however, in fundraising efforts; Gioia leads in that category with more than $2 million. Green only qualified a few weeks ago for public campaign funds by raising $150,000 in private donations, trailing the other candidates significantly for matching funds.

If elected, Green promises to return to his old ways, going after City Hall and holding officials accountable for their actions. He is especially focused on Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s decision to lower the budget for the office of public advocate by 40 percent. While he acknowledged that across-the-board budget cuts are necessary, given an approaching $5 billion deficit, he said that other city agencies were only cut by approximately 4 percent, a significant and stark contrast.

“Why did he cut only the watchdog by 40 percent? I think I know the reason. I think you know the reason,” he said. “To have such an unjustified, unprovoked, disproportionate reduction is absurd and indefensible.”

But even with the decrease in funds, Green said he’ll make do. He pledged to reach out to seniors, students and out-of-work lawyers to volunteer to make the office effective.

That does not mean he has any plans to let the mayor and speaker get away with the budget cuts, though. Although he almost always supports transparency, he is keeping quiet on how he plans to reinstate the public advocate’s budget.

“I would ask Mike Bloomberg to take the high road,” he said. “If he doesn’t agree, I have alternatives. You will have to stay tuned.”

David Weprin

Running for City Comptroller

By Zara Kessler

“I actually find the comptroller race very exciting,” said Council Member David Weprin as he took the podium at a forum hosted by the General Contractors Association of New York and the New York Building Congress.

David Weprin comes from a family of public servants, including his father and two brothers. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

Weprin, known for his focus on the esoteric details of the office, was taking the stage at the July 29 forum after two of his opponents—fellow Council members Melinda Katz and John Liu—had joked about the dry nature of an 8:30 a.m. comptroller discussion. (Council Member David Yassky, the fourth comptroller candidate, had yet to give his introduction.)

Weprin’s Manhattan campaign headquarters, a barebones storefront on West 54th Street, also seems to reflect that image: the focus is less on appearance and more on getting work done.

“I don’t think you need flashiness as comptroller. I think you need competence,” he said.

But at least some flashiness may be needed, as an Aug. 26 SurveyUSA poll conducted for WABC-TV noted that while 22 percent of voters are still undecided, Weprin is currently last in the comptroller’s race, with only 11 percent of Democratic voters’ support (Katz leads with 27 percent).

Luckily, campaigning is nothing new for Weprin. His father, Saul, was elected Democratic leader of his Queens Assembly District in 1962, and rose to become Speaker of the State Assembly until his 1994 death. Weprin succeeded his father as Democratic District leader that year, and in 2001, he was elected to the City Council. Older brother Barry did a stint as a town councilman in Mamaroneck, N.Y., and younger brother Mark represents their father’s former district in the Assembly; Mark is currently running for Weprin’s Council seat.

Born and raised in Holliswood, Queens, Weprin graduated from Jamaica High School, SUNY Albany and Hofstra Law School. He and his wife Ronni have five children.

Weprin became an associate in a litigation law firm and later joined Gov. Mario Cuomo’s administration as deputy superintendent of banking. But the section of his resume he stresses the most when it comes to comptroller qualifications is his work as a senior investment banker, which involved underwriting municipal bonds for infrastructure needs. This is the perfect background for the comptroller’s debt issuing responsibilities, he argues, as well as the office’s role in managing the city’s pension funds.

Pension funds have been a major point of contention among the candidates, especially in light of the pay-to-play scandal that led to the indictment of political advisers close to former city and state comptroller Alan Hevesi. Weprin believes that the city, as a huge client with a major portfolio, should only be dealing with principals or senior executives of firms, rather than the middlemen or political consultants who have been linked to the pay-to-play scheme. His opponents have a more tempered view of placement agents, arguing that they should be used in a more transparent fashion, or only for smaller funds that don’t have adequate resources.

Weprin promises to bring the comptroller to the people by opening up five borough-wide offices. Such community-oriented offices would deal with predatory lending, financial literacy issues and mortgage foreclosures, as well as pension and contract issues. Moreover, he promises to do a self-audit of the comptroller’s office to eliminate waste, and to invest in businesses that create jobs within the city.

Support for the campaign, which has raised about $2.3 million, comes from former Mayor David Dinkins, former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer and former Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden. Other prominent endorsements include seven DC37 locals and the New York City Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association. Weprin’s dance moves at a recent Brooklyn event gained him YouTube stardom, as well as the support of the organizers of the Soul Summit music festival.

In the Council, Weprin chaired the Finance Committee, where he sponsored the Autism Initiative, which funded programs for young children on the autism spectrum, and pushed to set aside $2.5 billion of surplus funds to pay for future retirees’ health care benefits.

But much criticism has resulted from the fact that Weprin was babysitting the Council’s finances throughout the recent slush fund controversy, which revealed the Council practice of assigning money to fake nonprofit organizations before it went out to legitimate groups, which were sometimes linked to friends and family. The scandal took down two ex-aides to a Brooklyn Council member, and led to a guilty plea for misusing public funds from Council Member Miguel Martinez, who resigned. Martinez should go to prison, Weprin says, but he notes that the Finance Chair does not police the speaker’s office, which was the source of the dispersed funds.

“Look, I mean, all 51 members of the Council who voted on the budget, who were part of the process, can take some blame. You know all my opponents are also Council members. Could we have done better? Absolutely. Have we done a lot to change the process to make it more transparent, to put in the safeguards to prevent certain things from happening again? Absolutely we have,” Weprin said, highlighting the many good organizations to which discretionary funding goes.

Nice guy that he is, a Mets fan and movie buff who eagerly hands out his cell phone number to a reporter in case of further questions, Weprin has pinpointed perfect jobs for his peers.

“John Liu would make a great MTA chair, Melinda Katz would be a great chair of the City Planning Commission and David Yassky would be a great head of the Environmental Protection Committee,” he said at a recent debate.

That, of course, would leave the comptroller’ seat wide open for Weprin.

Gioia, an ambitious Queens Council member, has been cultivating a grassroots campaign for more than seven years. De Blasio, a Brooklyn Council member who entered the race late, has tapped into his political and union connections to build a formidable campaign. Siegel is a rabble-rousing civil rights lawyer who ran twice for the post in 2001 and 2005. And Green is running on his long history in progressive politics—and name recognition.

Each wants to succeed Betsy Gotbaum, who is leaving the office after two terms, even though the term-limit extension would allow her to run for a third. After all, despite voter confusion about the office (see sidebar), the public advocate is a citywide position, like comptroller, and is therefore considered a stepping-stone to running for mayor. And in the city charter, the public advocate is first in the line of succession.

Candidates Bill de Blasio, Mark Green, Norman Siegel and Eric Gioia, poised atop the official public advocate chair in the City Council chambers. Photo illustration by Monica Tang

But without a strong Democratic mayoral contest to draw out primary voters, the Manhattan electorate may play a crucial role in the outcome of the public advocate race. All four public advocate candidates have a claim to the Upper East and West Sides, home of the Democratic primary faithful, whether they live in the neighborhood, have secured endorsements from the local political establishment or received campaign donations from residents. And the outcome of this citywide race may very well depend on who can best leverage that connection, according to Richard Fife, a political consultant from the Upper West Side.

“It’s which candidate can best excite these people and get people motivated has the best advantage,” Fife said.

Official powers of the public advocate include presiding over Council meetings, introducing legislation and being a member of all Council committees. There is also a role in shaping development projects, through the office’s appointment to the City Planning Commission. But the day-to-day job of the public advocate usually involves troubleshooting: directing residents to public services, or pushing a city agency to remedy issues like school overcrowding, construction complaints or public safety problems. When focused on larger issues—or individuals—the public advocate can have a very public and very powerful bully pulpit.

Just ask Mark Green. Green, in his previous two terms, was a constant foil to Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, and named the mayor in two successful lawsuits over racial profiling and police brutality.

After leaving that office, he was the favorite to become mayor in 2001 but was defeated in a close race by Michael Bloomberg. Trying again for elected office in 2006, he was clobbered by Andrew Cuomo in the attorney general race.

Green swore off electoral politics after that defeat. He became president of liberal radio station Air America and a fixture on NY1 as a political pundit. He also co-authored a book, Change for America: A Progressive Blueprint for the 44th President.

But with three decades of involvement in New York’s political arena and seven campaigns under his belt (but only two wins), he is no stranger to city voters.

“I know you and you know me,” Green told members of the Upper West Side’s Ansonia Democratic Club, trying to capitalize their familiarity with him.

At the club, Green hits on the highlights of his public career: proposing 311, running the city’s Consumer Affairs agency and his propensity for being outspoken—“or abrasive, depending on whether you like me or not,” he joked to club members.

“If you think I was a successful commissioner and public advocate, If you think I was a successful progressive Democrat,” Green said, “I promise I’ll be no less effective.”

Green can rely on name recognition, but lags in fundraising. Given the city’s strict campaign finance laws, he has to tap into his old donor base instead of his family’s personal wealth. He has currently raised $268,143 for his campaign. By contrast, fundraising leader Gioia has nearly $2 million and de Blasio has $1 million.

Poor fundraising might hamper his campaign in the last leg of the primary, especially if there is a run-off election. A run-off is triggered if any one candidate fails to get a majority of the vote—a real possibility in a four-way race—and candidates need cash for a get-out-the-vote operation, television and newspaper advertisements, and campaign mailings.

“He’s been asking for money since the ‘80s,” said a campaign veteran familiar with public advocate races. “So Mark’s blessing is high name recognition. His curse, if it is one, is that voters, and especially donors, are tired of him.”

Eric Gioia, however, has cultivated a donor base for years in preparation for this race. Drawing on his experience as a successful insurgent candidate for Council, he leads the pack with $2 million from 5,558 contributions. Nearly a fifth of his total donations came from the East and West sides, according to recent campaign filings.

Without institutional support from elected officials or the Democratic Party’s local organizations, Gioia can use this volunteer base to help him get on the ballot and campaign in neighborhoods outside his native Queens.

“We have the support of real people, thousands of people on East Side and West Side,” he said.

Plus, Gioia has a knack for drawing attention to his candidacy. In 2007, he lived on food stamps for a week. Last year, he pledged to run the first carbon-neutral citywide campaign, partly through the purchase of carbon credits. That plan failed when the city Campaign Finance Board rejected his proposal to buy the costly credits with campaign donations.

Critics call these maneuvers stunts, but Gioia said they highlight a neglected problem. After his one-week food stamps challenge, he lambasted the red tape that blocks families from getting public assistance. That led him to introduce legislation that would put food stamp applications online.

“That’s both advocating with legislation and policy change to attack an issue,” he said. “You have to be creative, tough and willing to stand up, no matter what the odds.”

Gioia has certainly shown he can use the bully pulpit. When Costco announced its new East Harlem location, he took the wholesaler to task for refusing to accept food stamps. Under pressure from Gioia and other politicians, Costco reversed the policy altogether.

“We need someone who is independent, who can stand up for people, no matter who they are fighting against,” he said, “even if they are standing up against government agency or big corporations, like I have.”

The attention-grabbing campaign may be the stuff of headlines, but it has seemingly done little for legislators in Manhattan, who have mostly rallied behind Bill de Blasio. His endorsements include Reps. Jerrold Nadler and Charles Rangel, Borough President Scott Stringer and other East and West side legislators.

De Blasio’s backers say his Council record shows he can make the best use of the office.

“He’s progressive, more substantive,” said State Sen. Tom Duane, who met de Blasio when he worked in City Hall. “The public advocate position can be used to actually make policy changes and help people.”

In a Democratic primary without a strong mayoral contest at the top of the ticket, de Blasio said such endorsements will bolster his name recognition in a low- turn-out race.

“It’s been an incredible boost,” he said. “Some people told me it would be very hard to gain support in Manhattan.”

De Blasio has deep ties to these elected officials, thanks to gigs with the Clinton and Dinkins administrations. He has also worked as Rangel’s 1994 campaign manager and a Senate campaign aide for Hillary Clinton.

Supporters point to de Blasio’s ability to work both with and against the powers that be, depending on the situation. There are the various bills he championed as chair of the Council’s General Welfare Committee: legislation that banned discrimination of people with Section 8 housing vouchers, guaranteed housing for domestic violence victims and supported electronic waste recycling. But de Blasio was also one of the earliest and most vehement opponents of extending term limits, taking on both Bloomberg and Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Working with a group of fellow Council members, good government groups, certain labor unions and the Working Families Party—which endorsed his candidacy—he organized opposition to the proposal, which failed.

“You can get the process to work effectively for you,” he said, but “sometimes the only way is to shine a light on the issue and be very public and vibrant.”

Norman Siegel, former executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, would also probably call himself “public” and “vibrant.” A civil rights attorney for more than three decades, his clients include opponents of Columbia University’s West Harlem expansion and families of 9/11 attack victims.

Because the public advocate’s two main responsibilities are protecting civil rights and holding city government accountable, Siegel said he has already been doing the job.

“The many years I’ve been an advocate and civil rights lawyers gives me credibility specifically for this office,” Siegel said. “This office is unique and should have a civil rights, social justice mind-set.”

Siegel, an Upper West Sider by way of Brooklyn, ran for public advocate in 2001 against Gotbaum and several other candidates. He was able to force a runoff election with Gotbaum but did not have the cash necessary to cross the finish line. After running for the seat again in 2005,  says this will be his last bid.

“By doing it a third time, it shows I really do want this job,” he said.

That means this particular job and nothing else, he stresses, not even mayor. Siegel, who proudly embraces his outsider status, considers that an important distinction from his three opponents, all past or present elected officials.

“If you look at it from the outside, you raise substantive questions,” he said. “Insiders are not prepared to ask the tough questions.”

Siegel has also been the only candidate to criticize Gotbaum’s eight years as public advocate. That has led him to propose sweeping changes to an office he has lambasted as invisible and ineffective. To give the public advocate a larger presence in city government, he wants to create new satellite offices in each borough, train volunteers in the “art of advocacy” and develop a “social justice network.” Such plans are necessary, he said, given that most voters are unfamiliar with the actual responsibilities of the position, much less know who holds the office.

If elected, Siegel said, “No one would raise the question of who’s the public advocate and what the public advocate does. We haven’t gotten close to the potential of what this office could do.”

The Public Who?

By Zara Kessler

All public advocate candidates tend to face one common hurdle when campaigning: no one knows what the office is, or what it’s supposed to do. And that’s exactly why some critics want to get rid of it.

Officially, the public advocate is supposed to be a watchdog for the city’s officials, agencies and municipal service providers, which is why the office has been characterized as a bully pulpit. But stark differences in attitude and approach between the two officials who have held the position show that the role of city’s ombudsman is in the eye of the beholder.

While the office is only 16 years old, some form of public advocate has existed for almost two centuries, whether as the president of the Board of Alderman or, more recently, as the City Council president. When the Council president position was dissolved in the 1989 charter revision, the role of ombudsman survived, thanks to incumbent Andrew Stein, a mayoral aspirant who lobbied hard to keep the position.

“It is not the most well constructed citywide elected office because it was hatched as a result of a political deal,” said Dick Dadey, executive director of the good government group Citizens Union.

Mark Green, the first public advocate from 1994 to 2001, was a vociferous and progressive counterweight to Republican Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

Betsy Gotbaum, Green’s successor and the current public advocate, adopted a less public approach. Gotbaum defends her tenure and says she’s been the leading voice on child welfare, education and “helping the most vulnerable New Yorkers who have no place else to turn get what they need.” She says her office has received 60,000 requests for her public benefits immigrants guide. And a call from someone who was illegally denied food stamps led her to push for policy changes regarding food stamp accessibility.

But the office has been weakened due to the mayor’s control over the public advocate’s budget, which both Giuliani and Mayor Michael Bloomberg have cut repeatedly. Gotbaum believes there is a misconception about the taxpayer cost of the office, which has plummeted to $2.8 million and continues to decrease.

“It’s really important that people understand that I think you get, for less than three million dollars, a tremendous bang for your buck,” Gotbaum said.

Critics, however, argue that New York City also has a Congressional delegation, state legislators, borough presidents and City Council members to advocate on their behalf.

“There really is no way to make an argument that a public advocate is needed,” said Joseph Mercurio, a political consultant.

Hank Sheinkopf, a consultant who ran Gotbaum’s 2001 campaign, said there is a need for the office “in a city where people oftentimes get lost.” But to be effective, the office needs to be beefed up.

“They need a larger budget and more staff to do the job that they should be doing,” Sheinkopf said. “It’s very hard when you have no people.”

If the office continues to run without the staff or funds needed to make a difference in people’s lives, the argument for nixing the position could gain traction during the next charter revision. For Gotbaum, that means thousands of New Yorkers could be shut out of government in a time of need.

“To the people who say abolish this office, okay, talk to the 12,000 people that we’ve helped in a year,” Gotbaum said. “See what they think.”