The unluckiest politician in America today is Freddie Ferrer, the Democrat making his third run at the mayoralty of New York City. Yesterday was the Democratic primary. According to city rules, Ferrer needed to win 40 percent in his four-way race to avoid a runoff two weeks from now. With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Ferrer won 39.95 percent of the votes. If this holds up after absentee ballots are counted, which is likely, Ferrer will have to face Weiner in a runoff he would have avoided had he received something like 150 more votes.

So what? you say. So he has to run in a runoff. Well, four years ago, Ferrer also came in first in the Democratic primary for mayor, was forced into a runoff — and lost to Mark Green. Ferrer may be one of the worst politicians alive. He had this race in the bag before bumbling around for months and repeatedly sticking his foot in his mouth — as he had in his two previous races for mayor.

Not that it really matters, since in polling of New York Democrats, Mayor Mike Bloomberg (who is, at least nominally,a Republican) wins nearly 50 percent support. Turnout in the Democratic primary was somewhere between 20 and 25 pecent of the Democratic electorate, indicating the degree to which Dems simply are uninterested in changing mayors. Whoever prevails in this probable runoff is going to get blown out of the water by Bloomberg. Still, Ferrer’s haplessness is kind of sad and funny at the same time.