“NYC mayoral race to get its first haircut”, Ellis Henican Column, Newsday, September 8, 2013 Let the Bloomberg nostalgia begin! You know it’s coming, right? Nassau Democrats and Suffolk Republicans aren’t the only ones with a busy Tuesday planned. New York City voters will narrow the D and R mayoral fields, putting a worthy mob of also-rans out of their inevitable misery. Quinn, de Blasio, Weiner, Thompson, Liu, Albanese — and then there will, at most, be two Democrats left. Lhota, Catsimatidis, McDonald — a similar winnowing will occur among the Republican wannabes. I’m not bothering to use full names here. With the campaigns most of these candidates have run, they’re lucky to be mentioned at all. Here’s all you need to know as the field gets its first haircut: front-runner Quinn has faded, liberal de Blasio has surged, old regular Thompson isn’t dead yet, plodding Liu probably is, Albanese definitely is and self-destructive Weiner is already icy and stiff. He just doesn’t know it yet. Among the R’s, Lhota got the Rudy aura, Catsimatidis has the bucks and McDonald with his Doe Fund has some actual urban achievement and only the faintest hope in this field. Oh, and Randy Credico, a radical stand-up comedian who will be at the bottom of the Democratic pile, definitely tells the most bitingly honest jokes. The Democratic candidates have almost all been running I’m-not-Bloomberg campaigns, knocking the incumbent mayor from the left. Trashing his stop-and-frisk policies. Bashing his charter-change third term. Portraying the headstrong billionaire mayor as a headstrong billionaire. Not one of them seeming to grasp how he managed to steer the city, mostly successfully, through 12 perilous years. That’s where this conversation is headed next. The 2013 race for mayor of New York has been one long game of musical chairs. The candidates are still running in frantic circles. But the music is about to stop.
ELECTION CYCLE
1. Run. 2. Win. 3. Serve. 4. Disappoint. 5. Miss.
THE NEWS IN SONG
I will stop at nothing “Electioneering” by Radiohead tinyurl.com/radioeering
ASKED AND UNANSWERED
Rocky Point residents are still allowed to speak at school board meetings but are strictly forbidden from mentioning any district employee by name? Did [censored] dream up that new rule? . . . What excuse did George W. Bush give wife Laura for not joining her Southampton Village shopping spree on Thursday? That the Walker Cup at the National Golf Links of America is named for his great-grandfather, George Herbert Walker? And the former first lady bought it? . . . What does Manhattan money man Marc Helie plan to do with the 1-foot-by-1,885-foot strip of Napeague land he just bought from Suffolk County for $120,000? Suck in his gut and walk sideways to the ocean? . . . The new Q70 Limited, 12 minutes to LGA from the Woodside LIRR stop– why didn’t anyone think of this before? . . . If you don’t let me construct an organic recycling plant on Old Northport Road, I’ll build an ugly asphalt plant instead: Is that a promise or a threat from Kings Park industrial businessman Toby Carlson to the Smithtown Town Board? . . . How high will LI lobster prices go between now and Thanksgiving? Marine Fisheries Commission says no lobstering in the Sound until then . . . Was that really Paul McCartney phoning in to Harry Wareing’s McCartney Weekend special on WEHM/92.9? Who did you expect, Ringo?
LONG ISLANDER OF THE WEEK
LAWRENCE HERBERT
In industry as in academia, it’s green that makes the world go ’round. As the brains behind the Pantone color-matching system and a mega-generous Hofstra alum, Lawrence Herbert knows the importance of that particular hue. Herbert’s commitment to the university has piled so high, the School of Communications shall henceforth be named for him. Good for them, good for him. E-mail ellis@henican.com