New York City votes (barely) [Updated]

New York’s primary election brought a welcome rebuke to the City Council members bought and sold by our plutocrat mayor who decided that term limits were fine in theory but should not apply to him just because a majority of mere voters decided on them. Last year Bloomberg asked the 51 members of that undistinguished body to override both city-wide plebiscites that had established a two-term limit for city pols and give him—as well as themselves—the chance to be whatever-for-life. Surprise, surprise, they said, Sure! by a vote of 29-22.

Twenty-three of those who supported Bloomberg would have had to find new jobs otherwise. It’s hard to understand how something like that could even be legal. Talk about voting yourself a public benefit.

However, at least three of the 29 who joined this nose-thumbing at the voting public have been defeated in their respective primaries, a historic first. Even Council president Christine Quinn—who shamelessly backed Bloomberg when her own mayoral ambitions imploded—barely managed to rack up 50 percent against two non-entities in her downtown district.

I regret to say that my own councilman, one of the 23, will be back although I’m not sure who will notice, even among the other 50.

There were more developments of interest. We may finally get a city-wide official of Asian origin, John Liu, a Taiwanese immigrant, who came in first for the Comptroller’s office and now faces a run-off. It’s a relief to live in a place where a candidate’s foreign birth is a non-issue.

The Working Families Party also scored big yesterday, seeing its endorsements and electoral machinery translate into impressive results. WFP is an interesting third-party model—it’s an activist/union coalition that carefully avoids the trap of splitting Democratic votes and putting total assholes in office. Instead, they cross-endorse favored candidates and concentrate on primary elections like yesterday’s. In a city with 48 Democratic council members and only three Republicans, they have significant weight.


A major yawn is in order as Manhattan D.A. Robert Morgenthau [left] successfully anointed fellow blueblood and old-boy networkee, Cyrus Vance, Jr., to star in the next 22 seasons of Law & Order.

Now we have to slog through two more months before Mayor Mike closes on his latest real estate deal: the throne at City Hall. He’ll pay whatever it takes.

UPDATE: Make that FOUR members of the City Council ousted for their cynical override of voters’ wishes (now including Maria Baez of the Bronx who rarely shows up at the meetings for which the city pays her $112,000 a year) and a fifth hanging on by seven votes pending a recount. For a particularly lackluster primary season, this counts as nearly an uprising and suggests that the race for mayor might be just a tad more interesting.