What I Wish John Liu Would Do

I really like Comptroller John Liu.

I think he has been an excellent comptroller, holding the mayor's feet to the fire on contracts and fiscal matters very effectively.

I think he has an excellent political platform and would make an excellent mayor.

I would be happy working under his leadership as a NYCDOE employee.

I also know he cannot win the race.

The campaign finance fraud case that his aides were embroiled in has ensured that.

Anthony Weiner has very high negatives and probably cannot win the race.

John Liu has negatives that, while not as high as Weiner's, are higher than anybody else's in the race - including Christine Quinn's.

He cannot overcome these negatives and the albatross that hangs around his neck from the campaign finance fraud case is too heavy (never mind that Bloomberg bribed Independence Party officials with millions of dollars three times to get on the ballot - for some reason, Bloomberg is seen as "clean" while Liu is seen as "dirty.")

Liu received DC 37's endorsement, and that is a big thing, but that will not help him overcome the disadvantages he has in this race.

He will ultimately lose the race.

I wish he would see the futility of his running, decide to drop from the race, and ask his supporters to vote for the next most progressive candidate in the race, Bill De Blasio.

De Blasio is languishing at 11%-14% in the polls and hasn't made any movement upward.

If Liu were to drop from the race and throw his 6%-8% support to de Blasio, it's possible that de Blasio could actually catch a little momentum, leave Bill Thompson in the dust and get close to Weiner for second place in the race.

It's hard to know how much support Weiner is taking from de Blasio, as they are different kinds of candidates (Weiner is, despite his MSNBC appearances, quite conservative while de Blasio is more liberal.)

It may be that Weiner is taking some outerborough support from de Blasio, however, since they both are from Brooklyn (although Weiner now lives on Park Avenue South.).

If some of Liu's support went to de Blasio, that really could help offset the Weiner entrance in the race and give de Blasio a shot to make the runoff.

As things stand now, we are looking at a Quinn/Weiner runoff.

There is a lot of time between now and September, of course, and a lot can happen in that time.

Weiner is having a good week so far, but you never know when some skeleton from his Twitterverse will surface and put an end to that.

Still, I think if you're Thompson or de Blasio, you have to worry that Weiner is going to suck up a lot of the excess air in the race and make it much more difficult to gain some momentum.

Liu dropping out and throwing his support to de Blasio could change that.

I don't think Liu is going to drop out, but I really wish he would.

Not because I don't want him to run - I simply think he cannot win but he could help the next most progressive candidate to win.