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Liu, de Blasio Run Away With Runoff

by: phillip anderson

Tue Sep 29, 2009 at 22:37:15 PM EDT

In the end, Liu and de Blasio crushed.

De Blasio, Liu Claim Victory In Primary Runoff

City councilmen Bill de Blasio and John Liu have beat out their opponents in today's Democratic primary runoff for public advocate and city comptroller, respectively.
With 85 percent of the precincts reporting, de Blasio soared past former public advocate Mark Green with 63 percent of the vote.
With his on-the-job experience, Green was once considered the favorite in the race. But that changed two weeks ago when de Blasio outgained Green in the primary, forcing the runoff.
Come November, de Blasio will face Republican Alex Zablocki in the general election.
Meanwhile, in the race for city comptroller, John Liu defeated fellow City Council member David Yassky with nearly 56 percent of the vote.
Following Tuesday night's win, Liu is expected to become the first Asian-American elected to citywide office.
He is heavily favored against Republican Joe Mendola when the two go head to head in the general election.

I don't usually do this (the flu meds make me bold), but I will just say that I voted for both the winners.

phillip anderson :: Liu, de Blasio Run Away With Runoff

Tags: John Liu, Bill de Blasio, David Yassky, Mark Green, Public Advocate, NYC, New York City, (All Tags)

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Liu, de Blasio Run Away With Runoff | 3 comments

There is something... (0.00 / 0)

About John Liu that I like. I really hope to see him move up the ranks and become a leader at a high level in this state. We could use it.

A lot of great candidates down ticket in New York City. If only we had someone to beat Bloomberg.

by: robert.harding @ Wed Sep 30, 2009 at 03:14:38 AM UTC

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Agreed (0.00 / 0)

I think he needs to polish his oratory abilities a little bit (especially in the debate format) but he's very inspirational and really gets the issues.

by: BingChester @ Wed Sep 30, 2009 at 03:16:33 AM UTC

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John Liu speaks (0.00 / 0)

Every time I heard him speak, I liked him less. He had a tendency to say nothing in the most general terms possible.

Frankly, I believe we should look at making the Comptroller an appointed, rather than elected, position. Virtually nobody really understands the job (I don't, although I could explain most of the responsibilities). The debates in which the Comptroller candidates participated were a farce; few if any questions dealt with the responsibilities of the job, even indirectly.

Part of the Comptroller's job is to oversee the finances of agencies, so we need someone who is not appointed by the chief executive to do that. In NYC, we have the position of Public Advocate; unfortunately, that position has not been filled for the past eight years by someone who understood the full reason that position was created. In addition, we need a system where the Public Advocate's office budget is a fixed percentage of the total budget, and not under the control of the Mayor and/or City Council.

One partial solution is to amend the City Charter to require the Public Advocate to perform oversight activities, rather than merely allow it.

With a strong, independently funded Public Advocate, the Comptroller can be appointed; this way, we will still have independent oversight, and the Comptroller can be someone who has been properly vetted.

by: Dan Jacoby @ Wed Sep 30, 2009 at 04:09:17 AM UTC

[ Parent ]