Saturday, October 15, 2005
It's Not The Meat,
It's The Motion...
Well, folks, here comes the political Category 5 hurricane everyone was expecting...0 comments
Rival's Largess Meets City Hall Claims in Mayor's Race
Mike's Money has made landfall, and no one should be shocked. We've been tracking this for weeks, if not months, and should be prepared.
But rather, we should all be amazed at just how afraid Mike Bloomberg really is of Freddy Ferrer. And should all just keep pointing to that in "obscene money-spent" terms.
What Would Karl Do?
OK, so Mike has more money than God. And he'll spend every last nickel of it to stay The Mayor.
We knew this. No surprise.
The trick now is fourfold, and right out of the Karl Rove playbook: first, constantly accuse the media of being biased in favor of Mike's Money—make them defend themselves into more balanced coverage; of course, then raise every dollar you can; then wisely maximize EVERY dollar you've got; then make EVERY ONE of Mike's dollars a liability.
Media snippets like this are important (like bulletin-boards clips in football locker rooms):
Next year, the city's budget gap is projected to be $4.5 billion, in part because of rising costs for pensions, health care and debt service, city officials said.
So much for the wise, business-savvy CEO / Mayor.
For his part, Mr. Bloomberg would not promise to spare any city agencies from budget cuts when asked to respond to Mr. Ferrer's comments during a news conference yesterday in Chelsea, where he announced a program to create more low-cost housing.
Instead, Mr. Bloomberg went into detail about his administration's accomplishments in all areas of city life during the last four years.
This is a 3-for-1 quote! It hits three key constituencies.
1.) For Mike's white, well-heeled base, Mike's just told you he's going to chop the hell out of all the services you'll be expecting after paying your $7,000/mo. for your luxury rental or the $1.3 million you've just plunked down on your spacious and/or tacky condo. Even the police, whom you'd expect to keep you safe from all that riff-raff out there, is being chopped to hell. And cops still on the force will be pissed. At you, since they just lost their friends, and none of them can afford to live here anymore. Nor can the teachers in your private schools, or the home nurses for your elderly mother, etc., etc.
All this after the immense tax giveaways he's given to Corporate NY in order to have them bring you all here in the first place. He won't raise corporate taxes, so he'll cut out all the services you'd expect to have already paid for, plus he'll have to raise income and property taxes to cover the shortfall, since there just aren't enough cuts to cover it all.
2.) For those of you in the large civil service employee sector who still live in the city, Mike's just painted a massive target on your backs. No teacher, cop, fireman, librarian, nurse, doctor or white- or blue-collar city employee who work with any of the above should expect to have a job next year under Bloomberg. This is as clear a self-interest vote as you could possibly draw.
3.) For those remaining NYers who make anything UNDER a seven-figure income, you'll notice in rereading the snippet above that decent housing for anyone not increadibly well-heeled comes up only during the sprint for the voting booth—and then gets dumped as soon as a reporter asks a question about The Challenger on another topic. You now clearly see the single, greatest issue currently facing The City of New York, reduced to a sound bite that's easily tossed over. There, folks (if all the luxury high-rise development destroying our neighborhoods haven't already shown you), you have all you need to know about the commitment of one Michael Bloomberg, Rich Guy, towards keeping you in a safe, secure affordable home.
So...
On the one hand you pummel away at Mike's Money, while continuing to use whatever resources YOU DO HAVE wisely, getting the best bang for your money. Wise and efficient will bring down Goliath.
This is a great start:
Still, the Ferrer campaign began running a new 15-second television advertisement that emphasizes what Mr. Ferrer has called a dropout crisis in the city's public schools. The spot, which has a this-is-your-brain-on-drugs simplicity, shows a hand holding an unsharpened pencil against a black screen.
A male voice says, "This is how many students enter New York City's public schools." The pencil goes into a sharpener and then emerges, short and stubby. "This is how many graduate," the man continues. "A system that fails half our children, fails us all."
Brilliant.
Keep this up, Freddy.
And remember:
Your guys always vote; his don't always.
You want turnout. A threatened citizen votes. Always. Your people come out because they are afraid of changes in their lives, on an acute, personal level. Mike's using 9/11—the vague terror threat that worked so well for George W. Bush. Of all the spots his well paid staff already have in the can, all his ad buys in the weeks after the subway threat have been the fear-mongering "A-BOOGA-BOOGA, I'LL KEEP YOU SAFE! SEE RAY KELLY? SEE ALL THE SWAT GUYS?" spot. If run once or twice during the campaign, it would have been hard to counterpunch that ad. Now that he's used it incessantly, he's dropped the "BLOOMBERG = BUSH" angle right into your lap.
And never doubt: New York HATES George Bush.
So, it's not HOW MUCH you can afford to do, Freddy, it's WHAT you do.
Be wise, be smart, be tough. Be a Democrat! Be a NYer!
posted by Gotham 12:05 PM
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