Bloomberg’s Turn
A positive referendum on the Giuliani years.

By Vincent J. Cannato, author of The Ungovernable City: John Lindsay and His Struggle to Save New York
November 7, 2001 10:10 a.m.

he two photos on the front page of Election Day's New York Times captured the essence of this year's New York City mayoral race. One photo showed Democrat Mark Green with Bill Clinton. The other featured Republican Mike Bloomberg with Rudy Giuliani.

In the wake of September 11th, Giuliani trumps Clinton hands down. That fact — and $50 million — seems to be what pushed Mike Bloomberg past the finish line on his way to becoming New York's 108th mayor.

This was not a great election year for the GOP, which lost both the Virginia and New Jersey governor's races. The New York victory is the one bit of good news for the party. But Bloomberg, with a history of generous donations to Democratic politicians in the not-so-distant past, is a fourth-quarter convert to the Republican party. It's not even clear whether he voted for George W. Bush over Al Gore.

Nor is it likely that Bloomberg spends his free time reading through back issues of the Manhattan Institute's City Journal. One of his policy advisers is lefty Barnard College professor Ester Fuchs, a former Dinkins adviser and constant Guiliani critic.

So it's not surprising that conservatives have been especially ambivalent about this year's mayoral race. The New York Post even refused to endorse a candidate.

Still, Bloomberg's victory is a step in the right direction. In the same way that George H. W. Bush's 1988 presidential victory was a vote for a third term for Ronald Reagan, Bloomberg's win can be seen as a positive referendum on the Giuliani years. Because of term limits, New Yorkers who were unable to vote for Giuliani again could register their support for the mayor's stewardship of the city and his handling of the terrorist attack with a vote for Bloomberg.

Before Giuliani endorsed him, Bloomberg was trailing by double digits, having run an unimpressive campaign characterized only by his willingness to spend millions and millions of dollars. Giuliani's endorsement shot Bloomberg into a dead heat.

Even more encouraging is the political implosion of Mark Green. In the long and sordid history of New York politics, there has rarely been a candidate so thoroughly disliked by people in both parties. Throughout 20 years of running for political office — mostly unsuccessfully — the former Naderite comes off as a smug, self-righteous know-it-all.

Despite spending eight years criticizing Giuliani, Green had the good sense to run as a moderate this year, winning an important endorsement from Bill Bratton, Giuliani's former police commissioner. After September 11th, he also was smart enough to realize, unlike his Democratic primary opponent Fernando Ferrer, that raising taxes, increasing spending, and giving out big contracts to city workers was fiscal suicide.

Yet there was always the gnawing feeling that a Green mayoralty would eventually mean a return to the bad old pre-Giuliani days. His defeat is another blow to the old-guard urban liberalism that Giuliani has been at war with for eight years. It is increasingly clear that in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans 5 to 1, many voters no longer equate strong leadership with liberal Democrats.

New York's liberal coalition has been dying a slow death for 30 years. Not only has it been attacked from the right, but this year many blacks and Hispanics abandoned Green. They were still angry about his attacks on Ferrer and Al Sharpton in the primary. Bloomberg won half of the Hispanic vote, while many black New Yorkers simply sat on their hands.

The continuing disarray of New York's liberal Democrats means that Bloomberg has the opportunity to strengthen Giuliani's center-right coalition. He shouldn't do this by playing the old game of racial and ethnic spoils or by cozying up to Al Sharpton, but by reminding New Yorkers that a safer and more prosperous city benefits everyone.

Whether Bloomberg can succeed is still up in the air. His campaign was full of vague talk about having the business experience necessary to rebuild New York (shades of Ross Perot), but lacked specifics.

His occasional petulance on the campaign trail when veering off-script makes one wonder if he is up for the intense scrutiny that comes with being mayor. He enters office with less knowledge of city government than any other mayor in recent memory.

But to his credit Bloomberg endorsed most of Giuliani's policies, promising to continue the fight against crime. He rejected the idea of raising taxes and should be immune to the natural pressures to expand city government. He is also not beholden to the city's unions, who overwhelmingly supported Mark Green.

These next few years will be some of the toughest the city has faced. Tens of thousands of jobs have been lost and the city faces a $4 billion budget deficit. It will take a Herculean effort to rebuild lower Manhattan, lure businesses back to New York, and preserve the city's fiscal health.

That is Bloomberg's challenge. If he succeeds, then Republicans should embrace him as one of their own.

If he fails to provide adequate leadership during this crisis and the city begins to revert to its old habits, then you can be sure that Rudy Giuliani will be lurking in the background, ready for a return to City Hall in four years.