The Eve of the Primary

Fernando Ferrer's lead is apparently shrinking among likely Democratic voters, says the Political Wire. Nonetheless, barring a major upset, the November election will pit the former Bronx president against Bloomberg. And, barring a major upset, Bloomberg will be spending another four years at City Hall.

New York is overwhelmingly Democratic, however, New York Democrats are mostly unappealing. While it seems that much of the distrust surrounding Democratic politicians comes from unfair stigmas associated with candidates that represent minority constituencies, such as Al Sharpton, none of the Democrats in the primary are in anyway inspirational. Ferrer has dubious friends. Gifford Miller, the city council speaker, spent constituent service money on advertising. Anthony Weiner, a New York congressman, and, more importantly, a huge underdog, has promised large tax cuts for everyone with incomes under $150,000, which seems to be fiscally insane. Virgina Fields, the Manhattan borough president has taken the opposite stance, declaring the need for a stock transfer tax. However, both Fields and Weiner seem to believe that tax hikes on the rich will solve the budget deficit.

It'd be interesting to hear serious commentary on the various Democrats in the race. None of the candidates are currently taken seriously by the media or, more importantly, the voters. In fact, the only opposition to the Bloomberg administration that has appealed to me so far has been from Park Advocates.