Copyright 2008 The New York Sun Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:38:58 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss John P. Avlon :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/authors/John+P.+Avlon istoll@nysun.com (Ira Stoll) webmaster@nysun.com en-us JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/into-the-arena-again/32242/ Fri, 5 May 2006 00:00:00 EST This will be my last column for The New York Sun for some time. I'm going back to work for Rudy Giuliani, as communications director and senior policy adviser for his political action committee, Solutions America. I've been at the Sun since its launch, four years ago, and I have loved being a newspaper columnist, particularly for the Sun. Before that, as many readers know, I spent four years working for Mayor Giuliani. I started out as an advance man for his 1997 campaign, one year out of... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/independent-voters-burgeoning/31852/ Fri, 28 Apr 2006 00:00:00 EST Want to make a professional partisan really nervous? Ask him why the fastest growing demographic in American politics is the independent voter. It just doesn't fit with the play-to-the-base Kool-Aid that political consultants have been drinking the past few years. Old school operatives love the political math that gives party activists disproportionate influence over the democratic process. They are comfortable with the industrial age rules of politics - all smokestacks and silos, party... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/election-reform-negligence/31588/ Tue, 25 Apr 2006 00:00:00 EST New York is criminally negligent on the issue of election reform. At least that's what the Justice Department says, after suing New York for being the worst state in the nation when it has come to adopting the federally mandated Help America Vote legislation. Last week, the New York State Board of Elections, charged with responding to the federal lawsuit, missed its first - self-imposed - deadline to getting election reform back on track in the Empire State. It is a comedy of errors so typical... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/muslims-in-the-military/31393/ Fri, 21 Apr 2006 00:00:00 EST His call sign is "Hadji," meaning "one who has made a pilgrimage to Mecca." "It's a pilot thing," explains Colonel Douglas Burpee, the highest ranking Muslim officer in the U.S. Marine Corps. Now in his 23rd year of military service, Colonel Burpee recently returned from flying helicopters in Afghanistan. "Everyone knows I'm a Muslim. When I fly, attached to my dog tags, I wear a pendant with a passage from the Koran," he says. "I try to set a good example based upon what I believe.... I can be... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/cannibalizing-lieberman/31031/ Fri, 14 Apr 2006 00:00:00 EST Lyndon Johnson used to tell a joke: "What is the difference between liberals and cannibals? Cannibals don't eat their friends and family members." The polarization of political elites is increasing the drumbeat intra-party cannibalism. With the rigged system of redistricting creating a 98% congressional re-election rates, and activist bloggers calling for the electoral execution of any official they deem to be insufficiently ideological, party primaries are fast becoming prime electoral fights... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/west-wing-bows-out/30807/ Tue, 11 Apr 2006 00:00:00 EST At a time when the TV show "American Idol" garners greater levels of voter participation than actual American elections, there is reason to question whether the entertainment industry adds much civic value to our society. But viewers of NBC's "The West Wing," which will be taken off the air after seven seasons next month, know that there is a positive counter-example, making the show's demise all the sadder. Web sites devoted to the show detail the life and times of President Josiah Bartlet's... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/would-goldwater-leave/30647/ Fri, 7 Apr 2006 00:00:00 EST Washington - Would Barry Goldwater be a Republican today? It's a question that might have been considered sacrilegious even a decade ago. But as the Republican Party searches for its soul, post-Tom DeLay and in advance of the 2006 and 2008 elections, it is a question worth contemplating. There are plenty of reasons to suggest that the godfather of the modern conservative movement would find the current Republican Party an inhospitable place. And that says a lot about the drift of the Republican... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/mystery-murder-victim-was-greenwich-politician/30302/ Tue, 4 Apr 2006 00:00:00 EST It was the coldest of cold cases. A John Doe beaten up and left for dead in a park in the Bronx lay in a coma for 10 years, unclaimed and unvisited, shuffled between city hospitals, until his death six months ago. But then the other week there was a breakthrough born of new technology - a national digital fingerprint database. The John Doe turned out to be a young former Greenwich, Conn., city councilman named Henry Davis. Davis had been a novelty act in local politics. His family was from the... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/kadima-shows-strength-of-the-center/30205/ Fri, 31 Mar 2006 00:00:00 EST The centrist Kadima Party's victory on Tuesday sent shock waves through Israeli politics by relegating the conservative Likud to fifth place in the Knesset, down from winning 38 seats in 2003 to just 11 this week. It was a dramatic display of the electoral strength of the center. But the results of the Israeli election should reverberate on this side of the Atlantic as well, because it exposed the degree to which conservative parties depend upon their more centrist leaders and supporters to get... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/grandchild-of-an-illegal-immigrant/29910/ Tue, 28 Mar 2006 00:00:00 EST As our country undergoes its once-a-decade debate over immigration, it is still helpful to remember a truism articulated by President Kennedy: "We are a nation of immigrants." From our birth we were unique among the family of nations. All Americans embody the genius of immigration and assimilation. It is in our DNA. I am no exception. I am fiercely proud of being the grandson of immigrants. A footnote in their entry to America gives me a personal perspective on the current debate over illegal... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/bushs-credibility-gap/29782/ Fri, 24 Mar 2006 00:00:00 EST WASHINGTON - With President Bush's poll numbers mired in the mid-30s on the third anniversary of the war in Iraq, some Republicans are running away from the increasingly unpopular chief executive as midterm elections approach, while Democrats gleefully count down the thousand days left in his presidency. Despite his campaign in 2000 as a "uniter, not a divider," President Bush has been a polarizing figure since reaching the White House. What is different in his difficult second term is that... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/indelible-digital-disgrace/29362/ Fri, 17 Mar 2006 00:00:00 EST Integrity is what you do when no one is looking, or so the saying goes. And if character is destiny, the indelible digital impact of email has given that truism new teeth. From criminal court cases to the court of public opinion, e-mails are delivering inadvertent self-incrimination to unwitting culprits. These off the cuff comments have a way of revealing the writer's true character, providing rare insight as well as a cautionary tale for the digital age. For example, the Jack Abramoff... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/fines/29085/ Tue, 14 Mar 2006 00:00:00 EST We swore that we would never forget. And for those still counting, today marks four and a half years and three days since the attacks of September 11, 2001. Yesterday will be remembered as a minor milestone in our city's process of grieving and healing for another reason. It was the day that construction formally began at ground zero - as a dozen workers contracted by the Bovis Construction firm quietly showed up to work in the pit at 6 a.m. to prepare the site for the foundation of the... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/fight-for-redistricting-reform/28691/ Tue, 7 Mar 2006 00:00:00 EST Redistricting reform: the wonkishness of the term alone causes some folks to fall asleep - as it apparently did to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who reportedly face-planted on her desk for 15 minutes during a Supreme Court hearing last week on the constitutionality of Tom DeLay's 2003 district-packing plan. But the fact that the fight over redistricting reform has again made it to the Supreme Court indicates the vital importance of this policy debate. And now, with the confluence of a Supreme... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/usna-mom-and-senator/28532/ Fri, 3 Mar 2006 00:00:00 EST Kathleen Troia "KT" McFarland, a 54-year old mother from Manhattan and the highest-ranking female Pentagon official in the Reagan administration, is on the verge of making it official - she's going to run for the Senate against Hillary Clinton. It would be easy to describe her as Jeanine Pirro without the baggage, but there is more substance behind the similar cosmetic political appeal - KT McFarland possesses more real world national security experience than any New York Senate candidate since... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/post-katrina-mardi-gras/28280/ Tue, 28 Feb 2006 00:00:00 EST NEW ORLEANS - When the guy rolling the giant wooden cross down Bourbon Street passed the "Pimps and Ho's" party on the balcony of the Hustler Club, you knew that juxtaposition-rich New Orleans was getting back to business. In this first post-Hurricane Katrina Mardi Gras, there is a willful effort to look forward instead of back at the structural and psychological scars left by what a recently released White House report calls "the most destructive natural disaster in American history." The... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/and-now-the-suburban-revolutionary/28155/ Fri, 24 Feb 2006 00:00:00 EST The coronation has been called off. This Saturday, the Nassau County executive, Thomas Suozzi will announce his candidacy for governor of New York, pitting him against the former consensus candidate on the Democratic side, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. It promises to be the rare high-stakes primary fight between two eminently qualified candidates. Mr. Spitzer's activist tenure as attorney general has revived the office, but his blunt and some say bullying style - with its emphasis on... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/democrats-misfire-as-well/27832/ Fri, 17 Feb 2006 00:00:00 EST Accidentally shooting a party fundraiser and then delaying telling the press: Regrettable. Intentionally shooting down the career of one of your party's rising stars: Really stupid. Vice President Cheney's hunting accident last weekend struck a nerve not just because of the inherent sensationalism of a second-in-command this side of Aaron Burr firing a gun at someone, but because for critics it served as a microcosm of the administration - insularity and incompetence resulting in people getting... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/texas-gets-kinky/27579/ Tue, 14 Feb 2006 00:00:00 EST MEDINA, Texas - A two hour drive from Austin into the strangely zen Hill Country of Texas lives a man who may redefine politics in 2006. He's a former country singer and recently retired mystery writer who is now aiming for that rare third act in American life: to be elected the first independent governor of Texas since the state's patron saint Sam Houston. If anyone can do it, Kinky Friedman can. Since his days as the lead singer of the original alt-country outfit, "The Texas Jewboys," to his... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/ideological-intoxication-is-ending/27417/ Fri, 10 Feb 2006 00:00:00 EST "Great ideology creates great times," promised at least one great leader. And enthusiasm for this concept among domestic ideologues shouldn't be dampened just because the statement happened to spring from the mouth of the North Korean dictator, Kim Jung Il. The basic premise remains intoxicating - sharply polarized political combat will lead us to light and truth. Ideology has long been the opiate of political elites. The appeal is understandable: insecurity and uncertainty are immediately... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/buy-danish/27170/ Tue, 7 Feb 2006 00:00:00 EST As Danish embassies come under attack around the world in misplaced retaliation for the four-month old decision by a Danish newspaper to publish satirical cartoons of Islam's prophet, Mohammed, it is a time for choosing. It is a choice between freedom of speech and violent intimidation. It is a choice between tolerance and intolerance. It is ultimately a choice between civil society and theocracy. Fear is the only argument for neutrality. But what can the average American do besides shake their... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/morality-and-the-deficit/27014/ Fri, 3 Feb 2006 00:00:00 EST Budgets are ultimately moral documents. They establish our priorities and reveal our values. Despite a brief flirtation with fiscal responsibility in the 1990s, for most of the past several decades our government's economic actions have been marked by pious words and profligate spending. It's been a succession of free lunches paid for by passing the buck on to the next generation. But the bill is coming. The baby boomers begin to turn 60 this year, as President Bush pointed out in this week's... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/waiting-for-golisano/26783/ Tue, 31 Jan 2006 00:00:00 EST Rochester billionaire Thomas Golisano spent the weekend trying to decide whether he would run for governor a fourth time - this time on the Republican line. While Empire State politicos and the journalists who cover them wait for a statement before the expiration of Mr. Golisano's self-imposed January announcement deadline, the wisest course of action would be for Mr. Golisano to sit out this self-aggrandizing, self-financed political adventure. He would at best be an odd fit for the New York... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/electoral-shock/26631/ Fri, 27 Jan 2006 00:00:00 EST JERUSALEM - On Wednesday morning, I watched dozens of Palestinians gathered outside a Palestinian Authority police office surrounded by campaign posters across from the walls of Old Jerusalem on the road to the Garden of Gethsemane. One day later, the expectant atmosphere had turned to shock as the terrorist organization Hamas triumphed in the first Palestinian elections held in 10 years. Election Day itself had been surprisingly peaceful amid high turnout, but the revolutionary results are... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/natural-versus-the-professional/26399/ Tue, 24 Jan 2006 00:00:00 EST Hillary Clinton's now infamous Martin Luther King Day comparison of Congress to a plantation has resuscitated many centrist Democrats' concern that their early front runner for 2008 may not be made of the same stuff as her husband. Bill Clinton was christened "The Natural" by Time magazine's Joe Klein in a biography of the same name. He was a political thoroughbred, energetic and brilliant if undisciplined, possessing intuitive emotional intelligence. He was always able to connect with his... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/signs-of-de-alignment/26251/ Fri, 20 Jan 2006 00:00:00 EST As Washington awaits the full impact of the Abramoff scandals, public approval of Congress stands at 27% - the lowest number since the Republican Revolution of 1994, according to the Gallup Poll. We've got an angry electorate on our hands, pumped up by years of hyper-partisanship. The mutual hate society of the far-left and right has been good for the proliferation of partisan media in the intervening years - opposition to President Bush has been a bonanza for once-floundering liberal magazines... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/testing-time-for-the-twu/26078/ Wed, 18 Jan 2006 00:00:00 EST Just when you thought it was safe to ride the subways without thinking about politics ... Get ready for the other shoe of the transit strike to drop, as New York State Supreme Court Justice Theodore Jones on Friday reconvenes his court to decide whether to uphold the more than $3 million in fines against the local Transport Workers Union for its illegal strike last month. The same date has been set by the union as the final day for workers to vote on the contract negotiated after the end of the... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/where-is-king-of-the-middle-east/25858/ Fri, 13 Jan 2006 00:00:00 EST Where are the Martin Luther Kings of the Middle East? In a land where millennia-old resentments routinely erupt into violence, the selective amnesia about the more recent example of Martin Luther King is striking - it is a part of the world that pretends as if the non-violence movement never existed. Six months ago, a survey by the Pew Global Attitudes Project on Islamic Extremism found that 57% of Jordanians, 39% of Lebanese, and 25% of Pakistanis felt that violence against civilian targets... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/straight-talk/25708/ Wed, 11 Jan 2006 00:00:00 EST It's ideological Armageddon time on Capital Hill, as anti-abortion and pro-choice activists fall into formation for their fight over life. Everyone's so tangled up in their talking points trying to claim "mainstream" status for their side in the Judge Alito hearings, that no one seems interested asking what the American people consider a mainstream position on abortion. The answer might surprise them. Because Americans aren't nearly as divided on choice as the warring political elites would... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/persistence-of-permanent-government/25483/ Fri, 6 Jan 2006 00:00:00 EST The permanent government in New York is unelected. Deals are made and votes are traded, not on the floor of the City Council but far away in the club houses of Brooklyn and Queens. This week, one of New York City government's most powerful officials - the speaker of the City Council - was elected in a council vote without opposition. Initially, there was a crowded and competitive field, but just days before the final vote was scheduled, all the other candidates miraculously dropped out to leave... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/second-honeymoon/25240/ Tue, 3 Jan 2006 00:00:00 EST The second honeymoon of Mayor Bloomberg and the city of New York is in full swing after his New Year's Day inauguration. More than four years after the attacks of September 11th, New York City is enjoying a period of prosperity and apparent peace. Two-and-a-half years after Mr. Bloomberg seemed to be floundering in office with a 31% job approval rating, he was returned to City Hall by a historic margin. He is now seen as a unifying consensus figure. Neither revolutionary nor reformer, he has... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/bush-tr-and-the-road-to-2008/25180/ Fri, 30 Dec 2005 00:00:00 EST Sometimes you need to look back to get a sense of where you're going. With his administration settling into late middle age and the Republican Party staring nervously at mid-term elections, President Bush occupied himself during his Christmas holiday in Crawford by reading a biography of President Theodore Roosevelt's post-presidential years by Patricia O'Toole titled "When Trumpets Call." This slice-of-life leak from the Western White House provoked a ripple of chattering class analysis unseen... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/gen-xer-joins-the-usmarines/24995/ Tue, 27 Dec 2005 00:00:00 EST This is a story about friendship, unexpected evolutions, and stepping up to the plate. But first a prologue: A few days before the attacks of September 11th, I was sitting at dinner in New York and the conversation stumbled on to the subject of courage, how our generation had never been taught to value it. Instead, our education system focused on the virtues of multiculturalism and the cultivation of individual sensitivity, but not the value of physical courage, of facing your fears and rising... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/bankruptcy-of-the-unions/24929/ Fri, 23 Dec 2005 00:00:00 EST The Christmas-time transit strike of 2005 has proven at least two things: the moral and now actual bankruptcy of the union, and the resilience of New Yorkers. The streams of people trudging miles from home to work and back in the cold - bundled up, iPods on, feet-aching and fog-breathing - were not uncomplaining, but they were defiantly upbeat, in that "at-least-we're-all-in-this-together" way. Our sometimes fractious city rallies when times get tough. We are best when things are at their worst... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/remembering-the-good-occupation/24725/ Tue, 20 Dec 2005 00:00:00 EST It is remembered as the Good Occupation after the Good War. Even among the crowd that can't find anything right in Iraq, the American military occupation of Germany and Japan is mistily regarded as an unqualified success. With good reason: Within five years, the conquered countries were largely stabilized and recast as liberal capitalist democracies. Within 15 years they had thriving national economies that would soon compete alongside the United States. In remarkable time, our bloodsworn... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/hostage-for-the-holidays/24597/ Fri, 16 Dec 2005 00:00:00 EST Every three years, New Yorkers are held hostage during the holidays by the transit workers of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. It is a time-honored negotiation technique but a dangerous game that brings our city to the brink of functional shutdown. And the simple fact is that New Yorkers are getting fed up with it. The benefits of 38,000 transit workers do not outweigh the rights of 8 million New Yorkers. And yet the old school left-wing Transport Workers Union sees only its own... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/landmarking-historic-businesses/24384/ Tue, 13 Dec 2005 00:00:00 EST What do the Sky Club, CBGB's, and Billy's 1870 have in common? All three iconic New York destinations have faced extinction during our city's recent economic boom. Some people believe that business closings are inevitable functions of the always-wise market. But even in a city defined by commercial ventures and constant change, some businesses carry unquantifiable value that adds to the character of New York. Some classic restaurants become important destinations for tourists and residents who... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/looking-for-direction/24228/ Fri, 9 Dec 2005 00:00:00 EST Closed and corrupt - that's how political parties die in New York. The Democrats in New York City lost legitimacy because the club-house process for climbing the political ladder weeds out the best citywide candidates. Now Republicans in New York State are facing a similar crisis. Their success since the early 1990s has made the party soft and insular, which has led to in-fighting. On Monday, the Republican Party county chairmen will meet in Albany to decide its slate of preferred candidates... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/unacceptable-lack-of-urgency/24045/ Tue, 6 Dec 2005 00:00:00 EST 'Unacceptable." That's what the Captain of Rescue 1, Terry Hatton, would say when the New York City firefighters he was training would drop the ball in potentially life-threatening situations. And that's what deserves to be said about U.S. government's failure to implement the public safety improvements recommended by the 9/11 Commission - it's just unacceptable. More than 4 years after the attacks and more than a year after the commission's exhaustive 567-page report, 9/11 commission members... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/dying-for-some-compassion/23904/ Fri, 2 Dec 2005 00:00:00 EST What does it means to fight for a culture of life? Conservatives often direct the sentiment toward the unborn, but what about actionable compassion for folks facing the other side of life? Two recent cases have thrown this issue into sharp relief - one concerning the extension of pension benefits to a dying police officer's domestic partner and the second regarding a conservative Christian group's opposition to a cervical cancer vaccine on the grounds that it might promote promiscuity. In the... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/stakeholders-approach-to-higher-ed/23690/ Tue, 29 Nov 2005 00:00:00 EST A glance at the obituary pages over the past month marked the departure of two people with very different views of higher education. The first was Peter Drucker, the legendary management guru who warned that a high standard of public education was essential if countries want to remain competitive in the knowledge-based global economy. The second was a more local figure, Julius Edelstein, a long-time leader of City University who in the mid-1960s moved to create open admissions, a... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/where-have-you-gone-ed-murrow/23412/ Tue, 22 Nov 2005 00:00:00 EST The news industry is in chaos. Newspaper circulation is nose-diving. The reign of the iconic network anchors ended over the last 12 months. "Nightline" as we know it will end its 25-year run tonight. The expansion of the Internet has resulted not just in the free flow of information but also of misinformation and political self-segregation. Partisan skirmishes are on the rise and trust in media is on the decline. To paraphrase Simon and Garfunkel, "Where have you gone, Ed Murrow?" The World War... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/pursuing-seamless-cities/23066/ Tue, 15 Nov 2005 00:00:00 EST Last week's election did not offer much good news for Republicans. But the brightest spot came from urban mayors who seem to have broken through the racial polarization that has too often held back the Republican Party. In New York City, Mayor Bloomberg almost doubled his percentage of African American support to 46% from four years before, according to the Pace Poll. In St. Petersburg, Fla., an even more impressive milestone was reached, as Mayor Rick Baker won reelection in what local papers... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/capitalizing-on-the-landslide/22929/ Fri, 11 Nov 2005 00:00:00 EST Mayor Bloomberg's historic landslide victory this past Tuesday marks a new era in New York politics. After voting for the Republican in four consecutive mayoral elections, this town with 5 to 1 Democrat registration advantage has said decisively that the person running matters far more than the party. Independent individuals who get results will be judged fairly, regardless of party label - but having $75 million on hand doesn't hurt either. The Democrats need to confront the fact that party... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/blending-the-red-and-blue/22716/ Tue, 8 Nov 2005 00:00:00 EST Election 2005 is upon us, and not only in New York City. There are highly competitive races in neighboring New Jersey and Virginia, while states such as California and Ohio are voting on ballot referendums that would bring redistricting reform. Amid an avalanche of campaign money and attack ads, it is easy to miss the real story - partisan fights may be hitting a fever pitch, but a popular backlash is brewing. Electorates are growing less predictable in their politics and the red state-blue... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/profiles-in-cynicism/22581/ Fri, 4 Nov 2005 00:00:00 EST The ads have been running on cable stations for weeks now: Patriotic footage. American flags. An earnest-sounding announcer calling for a common sense citizen's revolt to impose fiscal responsibility on Albany under the name of "Budget Reform Now!" It sounds like a good and virtuous idea backed by citizen's groups. But it is a cynical power grab by the state legislature funded exclusively by union and corporate cronies to pay off political debts. Proposition 1 wants to look like a reform when... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/bloomberg-beyond-ideology/22372/ Tue, 1 Nov 2005 00:00:00 EST One week from today, when New Yorkers go to the polling booth, they will see on the first line of the ballot Michael R. Bloomberg running for mayor as a candidate of both the Republican and Liberal parties. Two lines below, his name will appear beside the Independence Party label. This might come as a surprise to voters accustomed to the mayor's avalanche of television ads to date, in which he has studiously avoided describing his political affiliation, preferring instead to stress his - lower... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/confronting-the-crisis-of-affordability/22253/ Fri, 28 Oct 2005 00:00:00 EST Beyond all the campaign trail chronicles, the poll numbers, the advertising buys, the perceptions of the candidates, one factor overall dominates the voter's decision process - the state of the city. New York City was heading towards bankruptcy in 1977 when we tossed out incumbent Abe Beame in favor of Edward Koch. In 1993, after suffering consecutive years of more than 2,000 murders, we turned out David Dinkins in favor of Rudolph Giuliani. The state of the city today, four years after the... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/its-the-strategy/21990/ Tue, 25 Oct 2005 00:00:00 EST There are two ways to run a campaign: one is to win over the reasonable edge of the opposition, putting your opponent on the defensive by invading their territory; the second is to play to your base and pray for high turnout. The Bloomberg campaign has obsessively followed the first model to its current 30-point lead in the polls, while Fernando Ferrer's lack of traction is due largely to his adherence to the second, old-Democrat script. While money and missteps have played their role in the... JOHN P. AVLON http://www.nysun.com/opinion/death-of-a-star-researcher/21895/ Fri, 21 Oct 2005 00:00:00 EST Marc Connolly was a big hearted opposition researcher who died of an apparent heart attack on vacation in Egypt last week. He was 31 years old. He was sort of a Lower East Side Lee Atwater, a brilliant political mind enclosed in an unruly body, blessed with exuberant spirit. He did not walk, he bounded; his lightning fast repartee could be as overwhelming as it was contagious. Possessed by a mercurial personality - alternately intense and bracingly generous - he was a man who enjoyed indulging...