Manhattan Borough Party

The Villager, the local newspaper for Alphabet City and much of the surrounding neighborhoods, has a wonderful piece on the ten candidates running for Manhattan Borough President this Fall. Yes, you read that right. Ten Canidates. And that is only the Democratic side.


The candidates spoke at the April Meeting for the Village Independent Democrats to seek its endorsement. Since there is such a large field, the V.I.D website has an online poll to get your opinion. The results show Margarita Lopez winning with 29.1% of the vote and I honestly think, with the responsibilities of the BeeP position, Ms. Lopez would likely do a fine job. Scott Stringer comes in second with 27.1% and in third is Brian Ellner with 14.9%.


At this time, I don't believe Republicans have a candidate, which is unfortunate. There was one in 2001, when David Berkowitz ran against the incumbant, C. Virginia Fields and garnered 8% of the vote. It's sort of silly to run a candidate against a strong incumbant in 2001 and not run someone when the seat is open, but this is New York, right? Maybe someone will turn up for the Republicans. In fact, last week, David told me he would consider a run again, but he hasn't decided yet.


It is quite possible some of the losers in the Democratic Primary may seek a ballot line for November from one of the other parties. We have the Republican Party, the Working Families Party, the Liberal Party, the Libertarian Party, the Conservative Party and the Independence Party all for the taking from any of the nine candidates that don't win the September vote. In all honesty, if you raise quite a bit of money and wind up losing, why not seek some other ballot line for November? It doesn't hurt. Especially when you have independents and Republicans looking for candidates other than the one picked by the Democratic Party.


In a way, I'm hoping something like this happens in Council District 2. There are seven Democratic candidates running for my district, all raising money and all wishing to represent the area. It would be nice to see the field expanded for November. Of course, it wouldn't hurt to seek a second or third party line myself. :)