Elections in New York: Bill de Blasio, Liberal Target for Other Democrats

With less than a month until the New York City mayoral primary, the Italian-American challenges Quinn, Weiner and Thompson. He is progressive, he appeals to minorities and he aims to lower rent in the city and increase the availability of public kindergarten.

The campaigns of the democratic candidates can be summarized like this: All are against Bill de Blasio. Less than a month before the democratic primary, de Blasio — the most liberal candidate among those in position for the nomination — has gained approval and become the preferred polemical target of the other Democrats: Christine Quinn, Anthony Wiener and William Thompson. “Stop lying to the people of New York,” said Thompson to de Blasio during a recent televised debate. The public advocate “is really good at telling other people what to do, but not always so good at getting things done,” said Quinn of de Blasio. The fury of the attacks reveals the fears of the rivals and a simple truth: Bill de Blasio might be the real surprise of an election that for decades has never been so hard fought and uncertain.

De Blasio, a 52-year-old Italian-American with a house in Brooklyn and a political past similar to Clinton’s, is currently a public advocate for the city of New York, an elected position that was created in 1993 to manage the administrative machine and intervene in the event of disruptions and protests by citizens. The role is not one of great power, nor do those who earn it gain a particular political visibility, but de Blasio has personified it with an activism unknown to public advocates of the past. During a recent demonstration against the closure of the Long Island College Hospital, de Blasio came to be arrested along with all of the other activists and democratic politicians. This gesture was marked by the New York Police and his rivals as a way to gain attention from the media, but has been explained by de Blasio’s entourage as a sign of the candidate’s genuine attention to the fate of the weak.

A mixture of decisive progressive inspiration and intelligent propaganda is, furthermore, the key to de Blasio’s sudden leap forward. A Quinnipiac University poll last week revealed that the public advocate has practically doubled his approval in less than a month and is now the favorite among the democratic candidates. The reason for his success, above all, is Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York for 12 years and a figure that is already of the past, for better or for worse. Recently, de Blasio has continued to fight against a divisive policy and has analyzed the differences between the rich and the poor. “A tale of two cities,” is the expression that de Blasio has used most often to describe the economic disparity in the most important city in America, a disparity that the Bloomberg administration would have made even more dramatic and painful.

To counter Bloomberg’s strategy, de Blasio has concentrated primarily on three ideas: Making renting an apartment more affordable in the city, increasing the availability of public kindergarten, making those who make more than $500,000 per year pay for the service and finally putting an end to “stop and frisk,” a New York police program that allows pedestrians to be stopped and frisked on the basis of mere suspicion, which many, including some courts, consider a way of targeting blacks and Hispanics. This proposal has given impetus and perspective to a progressive bourgeoisie that had disappeared from the political scene during the last years of the Bloomberg administration and, at the same time, made de Blasio the candidate who can relate to minorities, who now represent 50 percent of the vote.

In addition to a decidedly progressive political profile, de Blasio was nevertheless aided by the failures and many handicaps of his rivals: The excessive connivance of Christine Quinn with Mayor Bloomberg’s strategies (Quinn remains de Blasio’s most fierce rival), the appeal of William Thompson, the only African-American in the race, to the poor, and the continuous sex-scandals that have accompanied the candidacy of Anthony Weiner. In addition to politics, de Blasio was able to use the instruments of political propaganda in these months with intelligence and sometimes unscrupulousness. His wife, Chirlane McCray, whom he met while they both were working for Mayor David Dinkins, has been fundamental to his success. McCray was a poet and a militant feminist of some renown, as well as an open lesbian. The two fell in love and married shortly after. In recent months, McCray has accompanied her husband to every electoral and political event, revealing the importance of mobilizing African-American votes. She also attacked fellow candidate, Christine Quinn — a lesbian and married to a woman with no kids — accusing her of ignoring the problems of women with children and families.

The other essential pillar of de Blasio’s campaign is his 15-year-old son, Dante, who quickly came into public view in an ad campaign that recounts his father’s opposition to the practices of the racist New York police. This combination of machine politics and family has had the desired effect. De Blasio has taken away from Quinn and Weiner important sectors of the white bourgeoisie of Manhattan and Brooklyn, while at the same time becoming the reference point for Hispanics and African-Americans. His surname assures the support of another important community in the city, the Italians. His rivals may call him an “empty suit” that adapts to situations and exploits demagogically his role as “guarantor of citizens.” But it is he, Bill de Blasio, who at this point they will have to take down if they hope to reopen the field to become the mayor of New York.