Diane Ravitch To Run Against Andrew Cuomo In November?

This bit of political news surprises me:

The Working Families Party is eying education activist Diane Ravitch as its gubernatorial candidate should the liberal minor party decide to withhold its backing of Gov. Cuomo, a source told the Daily News Wednesday morning.

The party has spoken to Ravitch, 75, about possibly being its nominee and she has expressed interest, the source said.

"Either way, she'll have a role at Saturday's (WFP) convention," the source said.

It's still unclear in which direction the party will go.

... 

If she runs, Ravitch's candidacy would put a spotlight on charter schools, one of the issues that appears to be a source of conflict between Cuomo and the Working Families Party.

Like the many of the party's leaders, Ravitch is an opponent of charter schools.

"Billionaires like privately managed schools. Parents are lured with glittering promises of getting their kids a sure ticket to college. Politicians want to appear to be champions of 'school reform' with charters," Ravitch wrote in the Los Angeles Times last year.

"But charters will not end the poverty at the root of low academic performance or transform our nation's schools into a high-performing system.

Working Families Party heads want nothing to do with nominating anybody on their ballot line who doesn't have the name Andrew M. Cuomo - that's quite clear.

It's also pretty obvious that many rank-and-file WFP members despise Andrew Cuomo and do not want the party to endorse Cuomo for re-election.

The problem WFP has with putting a candidate other than Andrew Cuomo on their ballot line is that if they garner less than 50,000 votes, they lose that line on the ballot next time around.

This is one of the reasons that some party leaders give for why WFP should not nominate anyone other than Andrew Cuomo - political expediency.

Putting a high profile candidate like Ravitch on the ballot line might solve that problem for WFP, as parents and teachers opposed to high stakes testing, Common Core, teacher evaluations tied to test scores and other corporate education reforms promoted by Andrew Cuomo and his corporate Democratic ilk could flock to support Ravitch in November.

It's an interesting idea, but I have a difficult time seeing the union heads who help fund the Working Families Party letting Ravitch grab the ballot slot when they have contract negotiations to do with Cuomo and they want to use the WFP endorsement as collateral.

Still, crazier things have happened in politics than WFP nominating an esteemed candidate like Diane Ravitch to run for governor.

After watching disgraced Congressman Anthony Weiner jump into the 2013 NYC mayoral race, grab the lead in at least one poll, then suffer through a second scandal when it turned out he actually hadn't stopped sexting when he said he had, I'm ready to believe just about anything can happen in politics.

So Ravitch on the Working Families Party ballot line to take on Andrew Cuomo in November?

Let's do it!

Bill De Blasio Vows To Have Chancellor In Place By 2015 - 2016 At The Latest

Citing concerns from students, parents, teachers, administrators and education bloggers over his failure to announce a chancellor to replace Dennis Walcott at the helm of the NYCDOE, Bill de Blasio stepped away from having brunch with family and friends at a diner in Park Slope to offer a brief statement.

De Blasio was 25 minutes late to his statement, getting caught up at the mint bowl by the cash register before finally making it to the assembled journalists waiting outside the restaurant for brief press conference without questions.

Here is De Blasio's statement in full:

I know some New Yorkers have expressed concern that I have made very few appointments to my administration as of yet.  By this time in their transition periods, Mayor Bloomberg had made 12 appointments, Mayor Giuliani 25 and Mayor Dinkins 17.  I, by contrast, have made just 9 appointments.  And only 6 of those are high level appointments.  I know that some have expressed concern that we are four days away from the resumption of school in New York City, but I have yet to announce a new chancellor to replace the outgoing Dennis Walcott.  I just want to assure all New Yorkers that I am carefully considering all options for chancellor, am still taking names for the short list and will continue to seriously interview serious candidates for a seriously hard job in the very near future. I can assure New Yorkers that I will be making a serious announcement about my chancellor pick in a very short period of time and I vow that this person will be up and running the New York City Department of Education by 2015 or 2016 at the latest.  And now if you'll excuse me, I have to go back inside and finish off brunch.  God bless New York City.

Mayor-Elect De Blasio's spokesperson told reporters that Mayor-Elect De Blasio would have no other public appearances until January 1, the day he is to be inaugurated at City Hall, unless you count his yoga class at the Yoga Works on Seventh Avenue and his monthly shift stocking dried mango at the Park Slope Co-Op.

Let De Blasio Know Rahm Emanuel's School CEO And DCPS Rhee Acolyte Are Unacceptable For NYCDOE

Gotham Schools posted rumors that Rahm Emanuel's schools CEO, Barbara Byrd-Bennett, the woman who helped oversee the closing of 50 Chicago schools in one fell swoop this year, is on Bill de Blasio's short list to be NYCDOE chancellor.

The NY Times reported that Michelle Rhee's old DCPS deputy, Kaya Henderson, now the chancellor of DC schools, is also on the de Blasio short list to be chancellor.

De Blasio ran a campaign that was opposed to the Bloomberg corporate education reforms and called for a transition away from them.

And yet, there are rumors that two of the people on his list for chancellor are die-hard corporate education reformers who pursue an anti-teacher, anti-traditional public school agenda in their current jobs.

Both BBB and Henderson are unacceptable to run the DOE.

You should let the de Blasio transition team know this and can do so at his transition website:

http://transition2013.com/

Or his transition team twitter feed:

https://twitter.com/BilldeBlasio

I left some tweets myself:

@BilldeBlasio Barbara Byrd Bennett closed 50 schools in Chi, is anti-teacher & anti-student, & is unacceptable for DOE.
— realitybasededucator (@perdidostschool) December 7, 2013

@BilldeBlasio Kaya Henderson, Michelle Rhee's deputy at DCPS, is also unacceptable for DOE...
— realitybasededucator (@perdidostschool) December 7, 2013

@BilldeBlasio ...have you checked into her test cheating scandal? Ask Diane Ravitch - she'll tell you about it!
— realitybasededucator (@perdidostschool) December 7, 2013

@BilldeBlasio Please put someone at Tweed who respects teachers, who respects traditional public schools
— realitybasededucator (@perdidostschool) December 7, 2013

@BilldeBlasio Please move away from the insane test-based policies that make test scores the only thing that matter!
— realitybasededucator (@perdidostschool) December 7, 2013

@BilldeBlasio Finally, please give schools the socio-emotional supports they need to help students
— realitybasededucator (@perdidostschool) December 7, 2013

@BilldeBlasio You said you wanted to transition from Bloomberg ed policies - BBB & Henderson do exact opposite.
— realitybasededucator (@perdidostschool) December 7, 2013

Now I'm off to write a longer email that makes the same case.

Let de Blasio know that voters gave him a 73% election mandate not to get another four years of the Bloomberg reform policies.

Complete List Of De Blasio Inaugural Committee Members

Here's the list, via Politicker:

MEMBERS OF THE INAUGURAL COMMITTEE
Gabrielle Fialkoff, Chair of the Inauguration
Eugenia Acuna, Former Director, Adolescent Reproductive Health Programs, Consultant at NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
Yvette Aguirre, Retired Principal, P.S. 24
Marisol Alcantara, District Leader
Jordan Barowitz, Director of External Affairs, The Durst Organization
Harry Belafonte, Activist and Performer
Barry Berke, Partner, Kramer, Levin, Naftalis & Frankel LLP
Rodneyse Bichotte, State Committeewoman; District Leader, Assembly District 42
Fernando Bohorquez Jr., Partner, Baker & Hostetler LLP
Mili Bonilla, Parent Activist
Steve Buscemi, Actor
Lillie Cariño Higgins, Political Action Fund Director, 1199 SEIU
Raysa Castillo, Attorney, Castillo & Associates, P.C.
Eddie Chiu, Advisor, Lin Sing Association
Dr. Una S.T. Clarke, Progressive Democrats Political Association; Former New York City Council Member
Alan Cumming, Actor
Sonia A.M. Daly, Former Chief of Staff, State Senator Kevin Parker
Matthew W. Daus, Partner, Windels Marx Lane & Mittendorf
Fidel Del Valle, Transportation Consultant; President, Catholic Charities Neighborhood Services
Rabbi Heshie Dembitzer, Bobover Yeshiva B’nai Zion
Janet Dewart Bell, Retired
Junot Diaz, Author
Jay Eisenhofer, Founder, Grant & Eisenhofer P.A.
Bishop Orlando Findlayter, Senior Pastor, New Hope Christian Fellowship; Chairman, Churches United to Save and Heal
Marian Fontana, Board Member, Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, Families Advisory Council
Charlene Gayle, Owner, The Macon Realty
Monsignor Jamie J. Gigantiello, Vicar for Development, Diocese of Brooklyn
Lewis Goldstein, Vice Chair, Bronx Democratic County Committee; 504 Democratic Club; Stonewall Democrats
Arun Govil, President, Ducon Technologies Inc.
Nick Gravante Jr., Partner, Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP
Beth Green, Attorney
Sarah Currie-Halpern, President, SAC Marketing
Bishop Sylveta Hamilton-Gonzales, Founder and Principal, M.A.C.A.D.E.M.Y.
Fred Heller, Partner, Team Systems
H. Dale Hemmerdinger, President, ATCO Group
Louis Hernandez, Former President, NYPD Hispanic Society
Matthew Hiltzik, Founder, Hiltzik Strategies
Lorna Brett Howard, Philanthropist
Jay Jacobs, Chairman, Nassau County Democratic Committee
Joni Kletter, Associate, Kletter, Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein P.C.
Father Alex Karloutsos, Assistant to the Archbishop for Public Affairs, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America
Eric Kumar, Co-Chair, South Asians for de Blasio; President and Partner, American Factoring Group, Inc.
Imam Khlalid Latif, Executive Director and University Chaplain, Islamic Center, New York University
Bishop Doctor Annette Lazarus-Rose, Senior Pastor, Bethesda Healing Center
Yitzchok “Isaac” Leshinsky, CEO, Housing Bridge
Gary Mayerson, Partner, Mayerson & Associates
Morris Missry, Partner, Wachtel Missry LLP
Rud Morales, Primary One, Inc.
Mike Muse, CEO, Muse Recordings
Sarah Jessica Parker, Actress
Don Peebles, Owner, Peebles Corporation
Ronald Perelman, Chairman and CEO, MacAndrews & Forbes
Rosie Perez, Actress
Mark Peters, Partner, Edwards Wildman
Suzanne Peters, Director of Operations, WD Wick Investment
Yuri Radzievsky, CEO, globalWORKS
Diane Ravitch, Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education
Jona Rechnitz, JSR Capital LLC
Jeremy Reichberg, JR Consulting
Bill Samuels, Effective New York
Susan Sarandon, Actress
Michael Schlein, CEO, Accion
Michael Schrieber, Vice President of Strategic Planning, Cassena Care
Alan Sclar, Partner, Sclar Adler LLP
Rajiv Sharma, Owner, Pranna
Grace Shu, Chair, Asian American Voters Coalition
Russell Simmons, Rush Communications
Steven M. Sinacori, Partner, Akerman LLP
Harendra “H” Singh, Owner, Singh Group
Marianne Spraggins, Managing Director, Bond Factor
Estela Vasquez, Executive Vice President, Health System 6, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East
Ocynthia Williams, Parent Leader and Organizer, NYC Coalition for Educational Justice
Steven Witkoff, Owner, The Witkoff Group
HONORARY INAUGURAL COMMITTEE
Rep. Yvette Clarke
Rep. Eliot Engel
State Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson
State Senator James Sanders Jr.
State Senator Bill Perkins
State Senator Liz Krueger
Assemblyman Luis Sepúlveda
Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh
Assemblyman Félix Ortiz
Assemblywoman Joan Millman
Assemblyman Jim Brennan
Council Member Andy King
Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito
Council Member Brad Lander
Council Member Jumaane Williams
Council Member Mathieu Eugene
Council Member Vincent Gentile
Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean
Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Theresa Freeman, President, Manhattan Chapter, National Action Network; District Leader
William Allen, District Leader
Leo Barrile, District Leader
George Gresham, President, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East
Jonathan Westin, Executive Director, New York Communities for Change
Chris Shelton, Vice President, Communications Workers of America District 1
Jill Furillo, RN, Executive Director, New York State Nurses Association
Bill Granfield, President, UNITE HERE Local 100
Dr. Barbara Bowen, President, Professional Staff Congress
Augustino Gagliardi, Associated Musicians of Greater New York/American Federation of Musicians (AFM) Local 802
Dr. Sepideh Sedgh, Committee of Interns and Residents – SEIU Healthcare
Dr. Frank Proscia, President, Doctors Council SEIU
James J. Claffey Jr., International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local One
Mark Carotenuto, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 2013
John H. Marsh III, President, Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association
Tom Shcherbenko, President, Staten Island Democratic Association
Independent Neighborhood Democrats
Lower Manhattan Democrats
Bay Ridge Democrats
New Kings Democrats
Barack Obama Democratic Club of Upper Manhattan
Democratic Club of El Barrio
Haitian American Association for Political Action PAC
Tenants PAC
StreetsPAC

Rosie Perez the only ed deformer I can see on that list.

And even then, she's one of those "actor deformers" who they roll out on Oprah to sell "Won't Back Down" or some TV special pushing deform.

I see some really good names on that list.

Am I missing anybody on that list we should be concerned about?

Sheriff Andy Cuomo In A Huff Over All The De Blasio Attention

You can tell the mark of a man by how he handles the success of someone he considers a friend.

Sheriff Andy says Bill de Blasio is a friend of his from their Clinton days, but boy, he doesn't seem to be happy about the success de Blasio is enjoying these heady, post-election days:

NY1′s Zack Fink sent the following dispatch from the Somos el Futuro conference in San Juan:
I have a handful of friends who used to cancel plans with me all the time at the last minute. Used to drive me crazy. And it’s fair to say they are no longer my friends.

On Friday, at roughly 3 p.m., organizers here at Somos in Puerto Rico were informed that Gov. Andrew Cuomo would not be attending after all. It was in their words, “a cancellation.”

Cuomo was even planning to hold his own reception here. The food was ordered. The drinks on ice. So needless to say, this was a bit of a shock to some of the members.

When I asked Assemblywoman Amy Paulin about it, she simply said: “The governor is not coming? I didn’t know that.”

Publicly, most of the members wouldn’t say much beyond the obligatory “well, I am disappointed.”

But privately you hear a different sort of chatter. Last night, after all, was NYC Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio’s big night. Never one to be upstaged, some believe Cuomo had no interest in sharing the spotlight.

There is a deeper concern too, one that some people are uncomfortable talking about and that is a “tale of two Democrats.”

De Blasio and Cuomo are from the same party, but they represent very different wings. While the mayor-elect is promising to tax the rich to pay for services for the poor, Cuomo is traveling the state talking about the tax cuts he plans to deliver in this critical re-election year.

This is technically Cuomo’s last fall Somos conference before he must stand for re-election. Many are surprised he would snub the Latino members by not showing up – particularly when he will be counting on their support in 2014.

As we noted earlier what’s also quite interesting is that Westchester County Executive and possible 2014 GOP gubernatorial challenger Rob Astorino WAS here.

I guess he understands the Spanish words for “we are the future.”

Won't share spotlight.

Kind of thing you learn to do in kindergarten - graciously share with others.

Sheriff Andy never learned that lesson.

A Strategy For The First Year Of De Blasio's Term As Mayor

Lorenzo St DuBois in a comment here at Perdido Street School:

In 2008 I could not believe what I was hearing out of a presidential candidate: thoughtful, intelligent, scornful of soundbites, refreshing rhetorical breaks from tepid democratic compromises. Talking about a more nuanced foreign policy, bringing back constitutional checks, bringing back regulation and a focus on the middle class, skepticism towards educational testing, bold talk on the environment and health care.

Turns out Obama's words didn't matter. I'm sorry, but DeBlasio's don't either. If we let him, he is primed to be NYC's Obama.

I admit it's nice that a progressive and anti-big business message is popular. So were Obama's messages, and it didn't matter. Deblasio's already starting cozying up to the policies of Rahm, Cuomo, and other monstrosities.

We got a guy in better than Bloomberg, now we have to hold him accountable. Whether he's some magical angel, or just another corrupt pol, we have to make his life hell if he doesn't do what is necessary to give this city back to the people.

This guy does NOT deserve your support. Not yet. Support must be earned. And words mean less than nothing. History should have taught you that.

In short, nice words, soaring speeches and great ads mean nothing if the Bloomberg policies continue post-Bloomberg.

De Blasio must earn our support with actions and deeds, not words.

How'd That Ballot Line Thing Work Out For Students First?

The corporate education reform group Students First had their own ballot line this year - Joe Lhota was on it.

How many votes did Lhota get on the Students First line?

765 votes.

Not exactly a rousing success for either Students First or Joe Lhota.

Bill de Blasio was on the Working Families Party line as well as the Democratic ballot line.

De Blasio received 40,000 votes on the WFP line.

How De Blasio And His Team Ran A Very, Very Savvy Campaign

Good summary in the Daily News on how de Blasio and his team crafted a message of change, stuck with that message, and rode it all the way to Gracie Mansion, with the help of his some affecting ads using his family and the ineptitude of his opponents.

Nothing surprising in the article, but it does show how deft a campaigner de Blasio is.

Whether he shows the same skill at governing is another matter.

Barack Obama is a terrific campaigner.

Governing?

Not so interested or competent at that (Race to the Top, Obamacare, etc.)

Don't Get Too Excited

So we have a new mayor, a so-called progressive mayor, who won yesterday's election by an overwhelming margin over his GOP challenger.

Exit polls showed 3 out of 4 New Yorkers want the city to go in a different direction from where Bloomberg took it in his 12 years.

And Bill de Blasio ran as just that candidate and was rewarded for it at the ballot box.

Yet, I feel a tinge of concern over this de Blasio fellow.

His friendship with corporatist Democrat Andrew Cuomo, his working for corporatist Democrat Bill Clinton, his running corporatist Democrat Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign, his reaching out to Rahm Emanuel for transition advice, his calling Rahm Emanuel a "great mayor" who he looks forward to working with "very closely" - all are red flags that give me pause in my celebration of last night's de Blasio victory.

Especially the visit with Rahm Emanuel and the declaration of Rahmbo as a "great mayor."

The optimist in me tells me to ignore the red flags and just "believe" the progressive platform de Blasio ran on in the election will be the blueprint for his mayoral administration.

The cynic in me tells me the red flags are something to be concerned about, something to watch very, very closely as de Blasio now turns to his transition team and begins to choose members of his administration.

Right now, I'm leaning toward listening to the cynic inside telling me to watch this guy very, very closely.

Yeah, he talks a good game in his speeches.

But those meetings he has behind the scenes with pals like "great mayor" Rahm Emanuel have me wondering how much of that speech stuff is real.

Couple de Blasio's praise of Emanuel with Tish James's reaching out to DFER-favorite Reshman Saujani for her transition team and I can already see the signs of the two "progressives" who were elected last night turning rightward after the election.

By all means, let us celebrate the end of the Bloomberg Era.

But let's not get too excited about the de Blasio Era just yet.

De Blasio Calls Rahm Emanuel A "Great Mayor," Vows To Work Closely With Him

In case you missed this quote from earlier in the day:

De Blasio was coy on his transition plans, but did say that a meeting last week with Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel had been helpful.

"I won't go into detail, I'll say I think he's one of the great mayors of this country and obviously as having been the chief of staff at the White House and having played a key role in President Obama's transition into office, he had a lot to say that was very, very helpful and I look forward to working very closely with him," he said.

How "progressive" is de Blasio if he thinks Emanuel is a "great mayor"?

Will de Blasio run the school system the way Emanuel runs it in Chicago?

Will de Blasio have a similarly antagonistic relationship with the unions?

This statement from de Blasio is troubling.

Very, very troubling.

More later - after the coronation.

Vote De Blasio, James, No To Gambling

Let's go back to last April as Anthony Weiner was getting ready to enter the race for City Hall.

Christine Quinn was firmly in front of all other candidates, the Anybody But Quinn group had just launched their advertising campaign against Quinn but the ads had yet to do real damage to her, Thompson and de Blasio were well behind Quinn in low double digits.

Then Weiner jumped into the race, the ABQ ads did real damage to Quinn, and Weiner went in front in a couple of polls.

At that point, we were looking at a Quinn/Weiner runoff to take on Joe Lhota in the general election.

It was a nightmare if you were looking for some kind of break from the Bloomberg years - Quinn was Bloomberg Mach IV, Weiner's big platform was sticking it to the unions on health care and ratcheting up the suspensions in NYC schools, and Lhota bragged he would double the number of charter schools and add even more reforminess to an already over-reformy NYC school system.

And then came another Weiner scandal and suddenly he was destroyed as a viable candidate.

The race was wide open again - Quinn had been exposed as a Glass Tiger Frontrunner, Weiner had been exposed as a serial perv, and Thompson and de Blasio now had an actual shot to win the race.

De Blasio, having staked out the left positions in the race, particularly on stop-and-frisk and the economy, began to make headway in the race.

His ads helped a lot - especially the Dante ad.

But the weakness of the opposition helped too - Quinn had a dedicated following of protesters and negatives as big as her ego, Weiner had a sex addiction and Thompson had staked out the middle ground in the race like he was already the Dem nominee looking to win GOP votes in Staten Island.

Thompson's stance of stop-and-frisk was so muddled that Al Sharpton said he had no idea where Thompson stood on the issue - and that hurt Thompson badly and helped de Blasio as well.

De Blasio ran the best campaign by far - he staked out savvy positions that put him in opposition to Bloomberg  (a good place to be after three Bloomberg terms), he stuck to those positions, he didn't panic when he got little traction in the race through July, he used his family to great advantage in his ads, and he got a lot of help from the opposition.

And now Election Day is upon us and we look upon a de Blasio mayorality.

The polls have de Blasio up somewhere between 35 and 40 percentage points.

Go out and vote for Bill de Blasio anyway, just to run the score up as much as you can for de Blasio.

Let's see a 30+ percentage point win for de Blasio, the "progressive" candidate.

While you're at it, vote against Cuomo's gambling initiative, vote for Tish James the progressive public advocate candidate, and let's enjoy an Election Night like we haven't enjoyed in a long, long time.

Perhaps like we haven't enjoyed since 2008.

That "progressive" candidate we voted for in 2008 turned out to be a neo-liberal corporatist who talked a good progressive game but governed like a winger.

There are no guarantees that won't happen with de Blasio.

He did meet with anti-union, anti-teacher, pro-Satan Rahm Emanuel over the weekend to talk "transition and urban affairs," something that gives me pause to wonder just how de Blasio will govern post-Election.

But we'll hold him accountable if he turns out to govern like Obama or Emanuel and make him pay for that kind of betrayal.

For now, be happy that we got the very best candidate this election cycle, one we had no expectation we would get back in mid-July when the race looked like it was Weiner or Quinn to take on Lhota.

Happy Election Day - enjoy your PD, then enjoy the returns.

We'll be here for Election Night coverage, of course.

And we'll definitely be here for Inauguration Day and that last Bloomberg flight out of NYC to Bermuda.

De Blasio Still Up Big

Joe Lhota never closed the gap:

Bill de Blasio is poised to win the race for mayor of New York City by a historically large margin, powered by optimism that he will bring about change and by overwhelming voter disapproval of the Republican Party. 

Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat who is currently the public advocate, leads his Republican opponent, Joseph J. Lhota, a former chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, by 45 points among likely voters, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll. That lead, which has remained remarkably consistent in multiple polls over the last six weeks, suggests that Mr. de Blasio could win the most sweeping victory in a mayor’s race since 1985, when Edward I. Koch was re-elected to a third term with a crushing 68-point margin of victory over his opponents. 

Mr. de Blasio’s overwhelming lead in poll after poll has sent students of local politics scrambling for the history books. Although Mr. de Blasio is unlikely to surpass Mr. Koch’s re-election margin, he is flirting with a record win for a non-incumbent; that record is currently held by Abraham D. Beame, who won election in 1973 with a 40-point victory margin, the largest in an open race since five-borough elections began in 1897.

 A little more than three months ago, we were still looking at a Weiner/Quinn runoff.

My, how things changed.

Quinnipiac Poll: 53% Say Do Not Add More Charter Schools

Buried in the crosstabs of the Quinnipiac poll on the NYC mayoral race released tonight is this question:

As you may know, charter schools are operated by private or non-profit organizations.The schools are paid for with public funds and do not charge tuition. Do you think the next Mayor should increase the number of charter schools, decrease the number of charter schools, or keep the number of charter schools the same?

The response - 39% say increase charters, 18% say decrease charters, 35% say keep the number the same.

For those of you scoring at home, that would mean that 53% of those polled want the number of charter schools to either stay the same or decrease, 39% want to see the number increase.

On rent, we get this question:

Do you think charter schools should be required to pay rent when they are located in New York City public school buildings or not?

47% say yes, charter schools should pay rent, 43% say no, they shouldn't pay rent, 10% responded with don't know.

The NY Times had similar questions in their poll a while back and framed their story about that poll as "NYer's like de Blasio, don't like his stances on education and other issues."

From this Quinnipiac poll, you can see that a majority of NYers agree with de Blasio's position to halt the spread of charter schools in the system and a plurality agree that charters should pay rent.

Overall in the poll, de Blasio leads Lhota by 44 percentage points.

Election Day is in two weeks.

Joe Lhota Says New Yorkers Will Die If Bill De Blasio Is Elected Mayor

No, seriously - that's what he says in a new ad:



So vote for Joe Lhota so we all can be safe - like back in the day.

This day, for example::


There, don't you feel safer already?

I know I do.

Lhota sounds a little like Benito, doesn't he?

He certainly puts out the propaganda like Il Duce, that's for sure.

De Blasio Has 44 Point Lead Over Lhota In Marist Poll

Still a blowout:

Democrat Bill de Blasio has a powerful 44-point lead over Republican Joe Lhota in the race for mayor, according to a Wall Street Journal-NBC 4-Marist poll released Thursday.

"It's about as lopsided as you can envision," Marist's Lee Miringoff told the Journal. "Lhota is not a force at this point."

43% have an unfavorable view of Lhota, only 32% favorable.

De Blasio has a 65% favorable rating.

2/3rds of New Yorkers want the city to go in a different direction from where Bloomberg took it.

A bad poll for Bloomberg, a bad poll for the GOP.

The Wall Street and real estate criminals have given up sending money Lhota's way.

This poll won't change that.

How You Will Know If De Blasio Sold Out To Rupert Murdoch

Democratic mayoral nominee Bill de Blasio, he of the "Tale of Two Cities" campaign, spent all yesterday meeting with the oligarchs of the city, including having a private and secret meeting with NY Post publisher Rupert Murdoch, NY Daily News publisher Mort Zuckerman, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and other members of the New York plutocracy.

The de Blasio campaign is sending out the message that de Blasio was simply meeting with the plutocrats to tell them he will not back down from his campaign pledge to break the inequality that has brought about the "Tale of Two Cities" divide in New York, a problem he has spoken so eloquently about all during the mayoral campaign.

But some of us wonder if that's what he was doing, why keep the meeting with Murdoch, Zuckerman, Blankfein, et al. secret?

What's to hide if he was simply laying down the law to the plutocrats that the times they are a changing and they either get with those changes or get swept away?

Might it be that de Blasio didn't actually send that message to the plutocrats, that instead there was another message sent which was meant to assuage the nervousness and anxiety of a bunch of rich white guys who have had their own way with the city for the last 20 years?

Call me a conspiracy nut if you will, but I have to admit, my "Hmmm..." meter goes up when I hear de Blasio has been having secret meetings with Rupert Murdoch and Mort Zuckerman even as he's holding fundraisers with the rich and well-heeled across the city, hitting them up for the maximum contributions while they have tea and crumpets with Dante and Dad.

Now I don't know what was discussed at the de Blasio/plutocrat meeting, but I suspect there were no policy particulars talked about.

Rather, I suspect that the boys at that meeting (and they were all boys unless Kathryn Wilde was there too) had a frank and honest discussion about what the phrase "campaign rhetoric" means and how campaign rhetoric often gets forgotten in the heat of governing.

While we can't know exactly what was discussed at the de Blasio/plutocrat meeting, we can get a sense of how the plutocrats received the message.

The NY Post, owned by Rupert Murdoch, has been hammering de Blasio heavily for the last few weeks, calling him everything from Sandanista Bill for his work with a Jesuit-relief group in Nicaragua in the 1980's to going after his father's suicide.

If the tone of the de Blasio coverage in the Post changes from heavy hammer job to a softer, more gentle approach, you will know that what Rupert Murdoch heard de Blasio tell the plutocrats at the de Blasio/plutocrat meeting made Rupert Murdoch feel better about Bill de Blasio.

The Post coverage of Cuomo often follows this trajectory as well.

They run suck-up pieces about Cuomo when he's doing what they want, they go after him when he's doing stuff they don't like.

Now that de Blasio has met and had a frank discussion with Rupert and his fellow plutocrats, that pattern of Post coverage will play out with Sandanista Bill.

If we suddenly get more measured coverage from the Posties, you will know that de Blasio sold you out.

De Blasio Calls Himself A "Fiscal Conservative"

Turns out that Bill de Blasio the "Marxist" is also Bill de Blasio the "fiscal conservative" - at least that's what he told a group of business leaders today:

De Blasio's ascension has created a sense of nervousness within some corners of the city's business community, which prospered during Mayor Michael Bloomberg's 12-year reign and is fearful of more liberal policies emanating from City Hall.

The candidate has acknowledged the tension, sending reassuring signals to leaders in a series of closed-door meetings and fundraisers, and praising Bloomberg far more often than usual in his Friday speech.

De Blasio Up 50 Percentage Points In Q Poll

I thought the race would tighten, especially after all the attacks on de Blasio.

Judging by thenumbers in the new Q-poll, I was wrong about that:

Democrat Bill de Blasio is leading Joe Lhota 71-21% among likely voters in a Quinnipiac Poll released Thursday morning, a stunning 50-point lead that could prove difficult to overcome with just weeks to go in the mayor's race.

De Blasio Very Skillfully Ties Lhota To The Tea Party

Last night I posed that I thought de Blasio should attack Joe Lhota for his temperament rather than his past allegiance to Barry Goldwater and William F. Buckley Jr., saying that many New Yorkers may not care about Conservative icons from the past and what Lhota's allegiance to them says about his candidacy.

But de Blasio managed to hit Lhota over this yesterday very skillfully:

Times, Post, and DN Newspaper Endorsements - NYers Didn't Care About Them

Blake Zeff:

Politicians thought voters cared what the top papers thought. That may not be the case any longer.

In New York, the city’s three largest papers – which each happen to also be among the nation’s top ten in circulation – suffered huge collective whiffs in recent weeks. For the office of mayor, the entire trifecta of the New York Times, Daily News, and Post, all endorsed Christine Quinn in the Democratic primary over Bill de Blasio. This was notable because the papers rarely agree on much (though all supported Michael Bloomberg). And the editorial consensus was viewed as a significant, possible turning point in the campaign for Quinn.

In reality, of course, the papers’ candidate was trounced, failing to make it into a runoff and trailing the winning primary candidate, Bill de Blasio, by nearly 25 points. One could argue that the margin might have been larger without their endorsements, which is hard to disprove. But polls at the time the papers weighed in showed Quinn with a fighter’s chance at squeezing into the primary. It just didn’t happen.

Fortunately for the editorial boards, there would be a second chance just weeks later. The primary for Public Advocate, the second-ranking office in the city, resulted in a runoff, leaving two candidates: Daniel Squadron and Letitia James.

As they did in the mayoral primary, all three papers of seemingly disparate ideological bents – The Times is generally seen as liberal, the Post conservative, and the News somewhere in between – went for Squadron. And last night when the runoff results came in, their chosen candidate…  was defeated by twenty points.

The next time the newspapers look to mock the UFT for their poor endorsement record - well, the newspapers aren't doing so hot lately either.

Few people want to listen to the Voice of God on the editorial page anymore.

Thank God.