Progressive NY Mayor?

NY Mayor Race a Reality or What?

By Norm Scott

New Yorkers are on the verge of voting in a real progressive that would have the ruling class taking notice in our country's biggest city.  Bill de Blasio, who won the NY mayoral primaries, is against charter schools, the corporate school reform, he wants to tax the rich, supported the Soviet-backed Sandanistas in Nicaragua - wooaa, am I still in Kansas or the Land of Oz. Here is a perspective from one of the best education minds in the Big Apple.  And why did the United Federation of Teachers not support this guy?

(New York) - We are in a complex situation with lots of analysis going on here. One of our best teacher/political bloggers here is Reality Based Educator, a Manhattan HS teacher who blogs at http://perdidostreetschool.blogspot.com.

Some of his analysis is spot on.

None of us on the left trust de Blasio to actually come through with much, but at least he is not Bloomberg. It will be hard for him to sell us down the tubes completely on education, though he will on housing etc. Too many of our people have ties to him- and I feel we can penetrate the wall to get points across.

We will know a lot by who he appoints as chancellor and to the school board.

Actually, the candidate I really like is Leticia James for public advocate, though she is in a touch run-off with a charter supported slug.

Now as to why the UFT supported Thompson despite the fact his campaign finance manager is billionaire and NYS Regent head and chief ed deformer Merry Tisch has made for interesting discussions. Thompson was Bloomberg's fave for running against him in 2009 and barely campaigned, yet came within 5 points --not due to him.

Even though some of us view de Blasio as a potential Obama c. 2008 - offering all things to all people - the ruling class seems to be in a panic and are hoping there will still be a runoff so Thompson can  run and drain the democratic coffers to allow a Republican pal of Giulianni to win.

UFT had long time ties to Thompson and feels comfortable with him -- and it was interesting that Randi endorsed him before the UFT did, which made it so obvious that despite their claims to be doing the democratic process, they had pre-decided to go with Thompson, but then manipulated what appeared to be a democratic process in choosing Thompson. Many teachers just ignored the recommendation and they spent well over a million dollars on the campaign which I calculate is about $15 a vote.

While they are being made a joke due to the fact that their muscle could only deliver 26% of the vote, in fact their muscle helped raise Thompson from the low teens and knocked Quinn out of the potential runoff. And since she was the most favorable candidate towards Bloomberg, that was important.

UFT sees the writing on the wall and wants to switch over to de Blasio we think but is waiting for the count.