YM Endorses Andrew Rasiej; Even Plans To Vote
Got an email from a friend who actually follows local politics and he offers his picks for tomorrow's Democratic primary. They look as good as any I would randomly pull a lever for so I'm going with them all -- except his public advocate choice. Young Manhattanite is giving its one and only genuine endorsement to Andrew Rasiej for Public Advocate. There are plenty of specific reasons, none of which I'll go into now except that incumbent Betsy Gotbaum is wretched and awful. I say that without bias, vengence, an agenda, or any real knowledge of the issues but I'll never forgive her for not answering my request to do a Gawker Interview way back when I soiled that blog with them. So Mr. Rasiej, these were written in August 2004 and if you're MAN ENOUGH (that's right, let's advocate it out, bitch) then I would love to know how you would answer these.
1. Talk on the man. How is Bloomberg doing?
2. There's all this clamoring about noise pollution like the car alarms, horns, booming stereos, ear-deafening motorcycles, street corner lovers quarrels, and musical ice cream trucks. Isn't the real problem all these complainers or do you have a better idea of what needs to be done about obtrusive noise?
3. It's no secret your predecessor, Mark Green, is pretty full of himself. How do you approach the humble-pie position of NYC's Public Advocate?
4. The rap group Public Enemy wrote the song "911 is a Joke" which struck a chord with many people, of all colors and gun wound severities, in the early 90's. Of course the city-wide hotline 311 is far less controversial but do you think it's worthy of musical praise or scorn?
5. What's your biggest fear of the West Side Highway Stadium? That maybe the Jets will eventually win the Super Bowl again and the streets would be covered in more green and white vomit than the last 10 years of St Patrick's Days strung together?
Holy helliot shitzer, now I realize how much those sucked and maybe that's why she never answered. Oh well, good luck either way. As for the rest of you limp-dixies, here's that email I was talking about:
Hi all -- tomorrow, Sept.13, is the Democratic primary in NYC. Since I managed to leave for CA without voting absentee, I'll miss all the fun of voting. To make up for it, I'm passing on to you my recommendations for various offices in hopes of compensating for my lapse. Take these as you will. If you're registered to vote -- please vote!
Mayor -- I'm for Freddy Ferrer, doesn't really matter, Bloomberg will romp in November. I'd like Freddy to win the primary without a runoff (requires his winning 40%) to save the city the expense of another primary runoff election.
Public Advocate -- Norm Siegel, progressive activist and head of NY Civil Liberties Union. The incumbent, Betsy Gotbaum, sucks (in a word), her NY Times endorsement notwithstanding.
MANHATTAN BOROUGH PRESIDENT --- SCOTT STRINGER. If you do nothing else, vote for Scott. No other candidate is viable in that race except the obnoxious Eva Moskowitz. Skip the mayor's race if you like, but vote Scott if you live in Manhattan. Endorsed by NY Times, leader of a successful effort to reform the state legislature in Albany, a visionary leader.
Manhattan District Attorney -- Re-elect the great Robert Morganthau, stop the obnoxious death penalty supporter Leslie Crocker Snyder.
Manhattan Surrogate Judge --- Kristin Booth Glen, I've met her, she's great.
City Council District 2 (E. Village, LES, Gramercy): Gur Tsabar, endorsed by NY Times and best chance of stopping Rosie Mendez, who is heir to the Margarita Lopez/Scientology organization.
City Council District 5 (Upper East Side): Jessica Lapin
