NEW YORK — In their final days of campaigning for the New York mayoralty, Democrat Mark Green and Republican Michael Bloomberg are appealing to voters from starkly different vantage points.
The former is a seemingly permanent fixture in New York City politics, currently the public advocate, who insists he’s earned the top job. The latter is a financial news mogul and proud political novice who believes his corporate experience and management skills are just what New York needs at a time of fiscal uncertainty. Both are Jewish.
To prevail in Tuesday’s election, both men have to make their cases before a population distracted by the Sept. 11 attack and the threat of future attacks. But observers give an edge to Green, who is more of a known quantity, whereas Bloomberg — who touts his freshness as an asset — must contend with wariness of change at a time of upheaval.
“Mark Green has been on the political scene for several decades,” says political science professor John Mollenkopf of the City University of New York Graduate Center.
“People aren’t in the dark about what kind of person he is and what he stands for. On the other hand, Bloomberg is a clean slate trying to fill himself in through advertising. He seems to say things that upset people far more often than things that rally people to his cause.”
Bloomberg is hoping to defy recent political history by being the second consecutive Republican elected mayor in a town where four out of five voters are Democrats.
“I will win if I can convince two out of every five Democrats to vote for me, and all the Republicans and independents,” Bloomberg said at a community forum sponsored by the Jewish Week Monday at the Park East Synagogue in Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
An Oct. 24 poll by Quinnipiac University placed Green well ahead of Bloomberg, 51 to 35 percent. But only 34 percent of voters said they “strongly favored” Green, compared with 46 percent who “strongly favored” Bloomberg. Forty-eight percent of Green voters said they backed the Democrat — whom some view as cocky and flippant — “with reservations.” That suggests an opportunity for Bloomberg, who is expected to saturate the airwaves with commercials in the homestretch.
Fielding questions at the forum, Green hammered away at Bloomberg’s lack of government experience, calling his rival a “capable, excellent philanthropist,” but adding that “he hasn’t had one day, one minute of public service.”
Bloomberg, for his part, did not mention or even allude to Green in his comments, but defended his own expenditure of some $41 million as of Monday to win the mayoralty.
“There’s only one way for an outsider to possibly come in and get his record mentioned and name out and that’s to spend an awful lot more money, more than anyone else,” said Bloomberg. “Doing it myself means I have no obligation to anybody.”
He added that the sum would amount to about $10 million per year in office, if he wins, “for a chance to help the people of the city. Last year I gave away $100 million [to charity] to help the people of the city, and next year I’ll probably give way more. You betcha it’s worth it, every penny.”
When asked to comment on his endorsement by the Amsterdam News, in which publisher emeritus Wilbert Tatum attacked Green for winning with the aid of a “Jewish mafia in Borough Park,” Bloomberg said the language used was “inappropriate, divisive, disgraceful and despicable.” An aide had called the paper to say so, he said, but he didn’t know what would be gained by rejecting an endorsement.
Addressing a recent claim by city Comptroller Alan Hevesi that Bloomberg had criticized his work in helping secure reparation funds from Swiss banks and others, Bloomberg pointed out that Hevesi — although defeated in the Democratic mayoral primary — remained on the ballot as the Liberal candidate. “In the last week before the election, you expect these kinds of things,” he said.