Post-Primary: Politics STILL Before People

Primary Day saw the biggest turnover of City Council members in many years - with more possibly still to come.

Some ousted Members took their losses gracefully, while others are being dragged kickin' and screamin' out of office. The people spoke loud and clear. Some incumbents lost, while others were given quite a scare - even the Speaker of the City Council, Christine Quinn wasn't immune from the brave new world of voters angry about what their government hath wrought as of late. Speaker Quinn still isn't out of the woods - she has a leadership battle looming in the future.

Beyond the city's primary elections, voters are standing up to be heard. No matter which side you fall on the national health care debate, you cannot deny that the people of this country are letting their voice - no matter how shrill it may be - be heard.

The rules of "the game" are changing. The people are speaking loud and clear. The message is that WE set the agenda. WE set the priorities.

Now that Primary Day is over, the election scene shifts to our area. I know I've evaluated our campaign's game plan to listen to what the people's priorities are - I"m sure the Councilman has as well... or maybe not.

If his actions are any indication, it seems like Lew's priorities are different than the people's - again.

Some people just never learn.

Lew's been too busy stumping for other buddies of his, like Bill Thompson (the same Bill Thompson who stole my slogan!) and Mark Green - while at the same time ripping his favorite target, Mayor Bloomberg - or he's counting votes for Darlene Mealy (whose claim to fame in City Council is giving discretionary funds to a "nut job") or any number of other tasks that have nothing to do with our district directly.

Once again - politics before people.

(Here's one of my famous tangents - we desperately need REAL reform of discretionary funding that rewards organizations based on merit and need. Lew Fidler thinks that a system based on such fairness cannot exist because Manhattan will dominate the funding - I say that's a scare tactic to keep the broken system that he "works" so well in place. Talk about seriously underestimating the power of reform!)

And then we'll hear an occasional story about legislation, and how Lew is sitting on the fence.

Lew's priorities have been to further HIS agenda - the Democratic Party's agenda. Like I said earlier, some folks never learn.

On November 3rd, give Lew another Civics lesson - one he won't forget.