NYC-WTC_000230657

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

THE NEW VOEKTIMES, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2001 In America BOB HERBERT

First Person Singular This year's mayoral race was and it angered many New Yorke^. Mark Green’s to lose. including former Mayor Ed Kodh, He’s trying io lose it. . who endorsed Mr. Ferrer and bitrer- I Mr. Green is a libera! whose cam- ly attacked Mr. Green on Tuesday. paign was based on his professed abil- But Mark Green’s problems are ; ity to unify New Yorkers. But some- more complicated than one or two I how he has managed to become the gaffes in the past couple of weeks . candidate who can win the Democrat- And Mr. Koch’s opposition to the ic nomination only if he can draw the Green candidacy is instructive.- votes of moderate and conservative a lot of people in this I Whites who dislike his liberal politics J^wn - public officials and, increas- , but are even more repelled by the , Rev. Al Sharpton, who is backing Mr. Green , until this week Mr. Koch had been campaigns, Mr. Green - the only harshly critical of the Ferrer cam­ candidate known to have double-dat­ ed with Mr. Sharpton (they went to see "Judgment at Nuremberg") — has been outmaneuvered and put on Mark Green on the defensive by Mr. Ferrer, who the defensive. was not initially seen as a formidable candidate but has turned out to be surprisingly agile. This has left the Green camp un­ T nerved. "Freddie” Ferrer was sup- paign. He recently told me tliat^l^e posed to have been a pushover. believed Mr. Sharpton would be enV -, On Sept. 11, when New Yorkers tied to some of the “spoils" in® il started voting in the election that was Ferrer administration. "I certainly aborted by the terrorist attack, Mr. wouldn’t want him to have the righ'fl Green had reason to hope he might of a veto of the police commissiorPl win the nomination outright by pull- er," said Mr. Koch, "which I’m c^bd ing more than 40 percent of the vote, tain he will have." ooud And he believed that the winner of the ■ So why endorse Mr. Ferrer? fNIrp Democratic primary this year was Koch said he did it because the "presumptive mayor.” Green "folded” rather than stand,upj To say that he was confident is an to Mr. Giuliani. But he also said,Q|j understatement. He was all but pick- Mr. Green, "He’s obnoxious — thaf’^s ing out the fabric for new drapes at the heart of it.” ; Gracie Mansion. If you speak privately with pilbiK? I Butthere were two things standing officials who know Mr. Green . in the way. The surprising agility of will hear that again and again. He-k' Fernando Ferrer. And the hubris of obnoxious, they'll say. He’s arrogafitfl Mark Green. And ihai tendency of Mr. Greeiyto) Mr. Green’s strategy through most Strut, to speak and behave coodett of the primary season, when he was scendingly, to turn off friend andfop) leading in nearly all polls, was to alike with his compulsively self-s^fj^ keep a low profile. The past several ing comments and activity — days have shown the value of that profession notoriously tolerant^gp^j strategy. The more attention Mr. self-serving activity! — gets veyy Green draws to himself, the worse close to the heart of the political’ off he seems to get. difficulties Mr. Green is having now^ His biggest gaffe, of course, was Mr. Green needs to regroup. AhcP immediately knuckling under to Ru- there’s a model he can follow close aV* dolph Giuliani when the mayor de- hand; Rudolph Giuliani. Mr. Giuliahll manded an extension of his term in has been praised to the hilt tor his office. That willingness to go along performance since Sept. 11 nol pri-I with the mayor (even as Mr. Ferrer marily because of the managerial was telling the mayor no) backfired, competence he has displayed, Mr. Green was widely seen as weak, because he has made New YorltejS| if not unprincipled. And he worsened feel that he genuinely cares abojji, the damage by asserting on Monday them and the city. that he would have done "as well or Mr. Green will enhance his chances, better” than Mayor Giuliani in guid- of winning the mayoralty if he ,cmI’ ing the city through the World Trade somehow relinquish his obsessi’dfi’’ Center crisis. with the first person singular. He has It was not exactly a grace note, time to do this. But not a lot of timin'

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NYC-WTC_000230657