Jackson Pledges Support for Ferrer, Painting Bloomberg as Close Bush Ally

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The New York Sun

The Reverend Jesse Jackson pledged his support to Fernando Ferrer yesterday, portraying Mayor Bloomberg as a “financier of the Republican Party” with a corporate governing style.


Appearing at York College with the Democratic nominee and the Reverend Al Sharpton, Rev. Jackson asked a crowd of Ferrer supporters, “What kind of democracy shall we be? Should it be bottom-up or top-down? The choice is yours.”


Rev. Jackson echoed the Ferrer campaign’s strategy of painting Mr. Bloomberg as a close ally of President Bush and the national Republican Party. The former presidential candidate called Mr. Ferrer a man “of great dignity” and said Mr. Bloomberg was on a team that has been “fundamentally anti-civil right, anti-workers’ rights, and anti-women’s rights.”


Rev. Sharpton criticized the mayor for spending so much of his own money on commercials, saying that Mr. Bloomberg was not speaking directly to New Yorkers.


He attributed Mr. Ferrer’s lackluster polling numbers to Mr. Bloomberg’s wealth. “It’s easy to be ahead in the polls if you have $4 billion,” Rev. Sharpton said. “We can win without the money.”


The announcement of Rev. Jackson’s support was the Ferrer campaign’s latest salvo in a struggle for prominent endorsements. Over the last two weeks, Mr. Bloomberg has sought to highlight his own popularity among Democrats, announcing endorsements from a former City Council speaker, Peter Vallone Sr., and Council Members Margarita Lopez and Eva Moskowitz.


In his speech yesterday, Mr. Ferrer spoke of the “great city” he wanted to build, using the metaphor of a difficult road to illustrate the challenges in realizing his goal. “I know the road to that city will not always be easy,” Mr. Ferrer said. “It is steep and rugged.”


As he has repeatedly in recent weeks, Mr. Ferrer sought to reach out to minority voters with his appearances with black leaders yesterday in Queen and in Harlem. Although the latest polls show Mr. Ferrer with a sizable lead over Mayor Bloomberg among likely Hispanic voters, he trails the mayor by 15 points among blacks.


The Democrat’s efforts to shore up black support hit another snag yesterday when a comment Mr. Ferrer made in March about Amadou Diallo came back again to haunt him.


As Mr. Ferrer answered questions with Rev. Jackson and Rev. Sharpton after the rally in Queens, a man charged into their news conference and demanded that Mr. Ferrer apologize for suggesting that the 1999 police shooting of the unarmed Diallo was not a crime.


The man, Alister Harper, 41, stepped in front of television cameras, showed a wound closed with staples on the back of his head, and said that he had been the victim of a bias crime.


Mr. Ferrer’s comment had ignited a firestorm of rebuke from some Democratic and black leaders, and briefly stalled his campaign. As Mr. Ferrer stood silently yesterday, Rev. Sharpton stepped in to defend him. “He was there when we needed him,” Rev. Sharpton told Mr. Harper. “He may not get your vote, but he’s going to get mine.”


Rev. Sharpton had been a leader in protesting the Diallo shooting and had withheld an endorsement of Mr. Ferrer’s candidacy until shortly before last month’s primary.


The New York Sun

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