Met Council Endorses Mark Green for Mayor, Norman Siegel for Public Advocate
By Kenny Schaeffer

Met Council on Housing endorses Public Advocate Mark Green for mayor against Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer in the Democratic primary runoff on October 11, for the right to run against Republican billionaire Michael Bloomberg in the general election on November 6.

In the runoff for public advocate, at press time it appears all but certain that civil-rights lawyer Norman Siegel will edge out Councilmember Steve DiBrienza and Assemblymember Scott Stringer for the right to face Betsy Gotbaum, formerly parks commissioner in the Dinkins administration. Met Council enthusiastically endorses Siegel, subject to his official certification as the runoff candidate, but should the numbers somehow change, we would be equally pleased with DiBrienza or Stringer as far superior to Gotbaum.

Mark Green has been a staunch supporter of tenants; rights throughout his years as public advocate and, before that, consumer affairs commissioner in the Dinkins administration. Earlier, as an associate of Ralph Nader, he headed Congress Watch, and demonstrated how Democratic and Republican congressmembers alike allowed themselves to be corrupted by accepting large campaign contributions from the corporations they were supposed to regulate. Green’s advocacy for campaign-finance reform led the city to adopt pioneering legislation. Over the past eight years, while his mayoral rivals were usually silent, Mark Green challenged the worst excesses of the Giuliani administration, including the infamous police "blue wall of silence." This year, when Mayor Giuliani and city Comptroller Alan Hevesi reacted to proposed Rent Guidelines Board increases of up to 13% by saying it would be "unfair," it was Mark Green who boldly joined Met Council’s call for an across-the-board rent freeze for rent-stabilized apartments, a call later joined by Ferrer, Hevesi, and Manhattan Borough President Virginia Fields, among others.

Norman Siegel, as head of the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), has waged a spirited and successful defense of our civil rights and liberties which, it is clear, will remain under persistent attack in the coming years. Siegel and the NYCLU went to federal court to guarantee Met Council’s right to protest at City Hall and Gracie Mansion against Giuliani’s unconscionable rent increases. His commitment to affordable housing and to the strengthening of rent and eviction protections has been a cornerstone of his campaign, and is consistent with his prior service as director of MFY Legal Services in the 1970s and 1980s.

We had earlier endorsed Stephen DiBrienza in the Sept. 25 primary, based on his admirable work as chair of the Council’s general welfare committee for the past eight years, including advancing a broad housing agenda, but he appears to have come up just short of qualifying for the runoff, as did Scott Stringer, who has been an effective and progressive member of the Assembly, and who also made affordable housing a cornerstone of his campaign. Betsy Gotbaum, while eminently qualified to be parks commissioner, is an ally of former mayor Ed Koch and has not demonstrated the ability to be a gadfly on behalf of the millions of working families in New York City whose needs are neglected in the interaction between the permanent government and special interests, particularly the real-estate industry, which have dominated NYC politics for the last century.

Of Met Council’s other endorsed candidates, we are delighted that Marty Markowitz was successful in his bid to win the Democratic nomination for Brooklyn borough president. Steve Banks lost a spirited Council race to former federal housing official Bill deBlasio, who also chaired Hillary Clinton’s senatorial campaign.

The endorsement of Mark Green, originally voted on in the summer, was put on hold pending clarification of remarks by Green in a New York Times interview on Aug, 2 regarding rent and eviction protections. However, a complete transcript of the answer showed that Green told the Times editorial board that rent regulations, like minimum-wage laws, are a necessary nonmarket device to bring about a more just society. He also reiterated his longstanding support for strengthening rent and eviction protections, and pointed out that he had opposed the Vallone amendments in 1994 imposing $2,000 vacancy decontrol and high-income/high-rent decontrol. When the Met Council board reconvened on Sept. 14, it voted to reaffirm the earlier endorsement of Mark Green, provided that he publicly reaffirm his commitment to massive new affordable housing as part of the effort to rebuild New York’s economy, as well as his support for strengthening rent regulations and repealing the decontrol amendments. He readily agreed to do that.

Mark Green has earned our support with a clear record as a progressive over the past decades. While Fernando Ferrer has run a populist campaign, we cannot ignore the fact that he is a part of the corrupt Bronx Democratic machine, which has betrayed tenants by allying itself with the real-estate industry, from the gutting of rent and eviction protections in 1997 to the weakening of lead-poisoning protections by the Council in 1999. Judged against his lackluster record, Ferrer’s inspiring words carry little weight--we have learned to watch a politician’s hands more than his lips, particularly in view of the fact that Ferrer articulated reactionary views (pro-death penalty, anti-abortion) in his abortive mayoral race in 1997, and his main backer is not, as some in the media imply, the Rev. Al Sharpton, but Bronx Democratic boss Roberto Ramirez.