The Bloomberg-Fulani Initiative
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
As the fight over Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal for nonpartisan elections smolders on, it’s illuminating to see who has emerged in the lists. Opposing the measure to eliminate the party primaries are organized labor, virtually every elected politician in the city, the Association of the Bar of New York City, the New York Public Interest Research Group, Common Cause of New York, and the Brennan Center for Social Justice. Supporting the mayor is the Charter Revision Commission he appointed and stacked. And former Marxist Lenora Fulani.
Ms. Fulani, who co-chaired Patrick Buchanan’s presidential campaign, extracted a promise before Mr. Bloomberg was elected that he would seek a ban on political parties if her Independence Party would endorse him. The party did, and Mr. Bloomberg is obliging. New Yorkers can exercise due caution in considering supporting a political reform the only independent champion of which is Ms. Fulani. Her New Alliance Party — which was accused by the Anti-Defamation League of “Jew-baiting” — has been trying to move to the mainstream by taking leading roles in the Independence Party, which began as an off shoot of Ross Perot’s 1992 presidential run.
Ms. Fulani has publicly blamed the terrorist attacks of September 11 on “our government’s aggression and arrogance.” Ms. Fulani also met with Mr. Bloomberg’s deputy mayor for policy, Dennis Walcott, last summer to discuss education policy, bringing along Fred Newman, who in 1985, according to the Anti-Defamation League, called Jews “storm troopers of decadent capitalism against people of color the world over.”
Mr. Bloomberg has gamely tried to distance himself and his nonpartisan election proposal from Ms. Fulani, but he also tried to appoint Independence Party lawyer Harry Kresky to the Charter Revision Commission last summer before public outcry scotched that idea. Rep. Charles Rangel even said this summer that Mr. Bloomberg has turned “what’s left of his political career” over to Ms. Fulani. People of good faith can disagree over the merits of the mayor’s proposal, but as this fight moves into its closing weeks, New Yorkers can learn a lot by looking at who is on which side in the campaign for what might as well be called the Bloomberg-Fulani Initiative.
