Miller Courts Fellow Council Members

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The New York Sun

The speaker of the City Council, Gifford Miller, delivered a fiery speech last night, framing himself as the white knight Democrat needed to take back the city from an undeserving Republican. But as Mr. Miller begins to sell himself aggressively as the best mayoral candidate for 2005, he is still trying to secure support from the very council members over whom he presides.


The setting for the speech was a 35th-birthday fund-raising event for Mr. Miller, where guests were paying either $250 or $2,000 a head, depending on whether they attended the cocktail hour before the main mingling event. The speaker did not have to do much more than show his boyish face to win over the crowd.


Outside the friendly confines of the Ritz Carlton at Battery Park, however, the enthusiasm for Mr. Miller has been more muted. Though he has the endorsements of close allies such as Council Members Peter Vallone Jr., Eric Gioia, and Christine Quinn, and though several council members attended last night’s fund-raising event, many other Democratic colleagues on the council have yet to commit to him.


Even Council Member Eva Moskowitz, who despite disagreements with the speaker has a close relationship with him and campaigned with him in previous elections in their neighboring Upper East Side districts, said yesterday that she had not yet made her decision.


“I haven’t gotten to that point yet,” she said during a brief phone conversation. “He hasn’t announced. He hasn’t asked. Our friendship is obviously strong, but it’s also not a forgone conclusion. Life is complicated, and I don’t know what I’ll do.”


Ms. Moskowitz, chairwoman of the council’s education committee, is said to be considering a run for Manhattan borough president. She praised Mr. Miller for what she characterized as strong leadership but said their conversations have focused on policy more than politics.


Other council members, who did not want to go on the record, said Mr. Miller is actively, and strategically, targeting his efforts to recruit colleagues to his cause through impromptu phone calls, coffee dates, and more casual conversations at City Hall. The goal, of course, is to translate their personal support and regard into endorsements from them and votes from their constituents.


“Gifford is squeezing members very hard,” one council member said. “I’m sure they have a scoreboard of people they need to go after, and they are looking for the most sensitive and strategic time to do it.”


An adviser to Mr. Miller, who asked not to be named, said that the speaker was talking to council members and did have many verbal commitments, but that it was still early in the process.


One major hurdle Mr. Miller will have to clear is getting his colleagues to believe he will win the primary. Though Mr. Miller has been extremely successful in raising money, he still lags behind several of the other likely Democratic candidates in the polls. The most formidable is a former Bronx borough president, Fernando Ferrer, who is Puerto Rican and has been polling well among members of minority groups.


The candidacy of Mr. Ferrer will undoubtedly make endorsement decisions difficult for some council members. Council Member Joel Rivera, for example, was nominated for his current position as the body’s majority leader by Mr. Miller. Mr. Rivera supported Mr. Miller in his bid for the speakership, but he also has a long history with Mr. Ferrer in his Bronx community.


Mr. Miller, he said, has worked with him on issues that matter to his community. Mr. Ferrer, he said, is practically “part of the family.”


“I’ll have to do some soul-searching,” Mr. Rivera said, noting that he’ll probably make a decision around January 1.


“It would be difficult for me not to endorse Freddy, and it would also be difficult for me not to endorse Gifford,” the council member said. “They both are very competent leaders within different arenas.”


Other issues may complicate matters as well, including the mayoral endorsements by the county Democratic organizations in the Bronx and Queens, and the upcoming budget, which Mr. Miller has much control over.


Nor would nomination be tantamount to election.


Mr. Miller has been attempting to paint Mayor Bloomberg as a stalwart Republican and align him with President Bush in a heavily Democratic city.


In last night’s speech, Mr. Miller delivered what may have been his harshest and most partisan criticism of the mayor.


“It is an outrage that a Republican who bankrolls his party’s right-wing agenda, and then apologizes for a Republican president and a Republican governor that are bankrupting our city, is the mayor of this proud Democratic town,” the council speaker said.


“It just doesn’t make any sense to have a red-state mayor running a blue state city like New York,” he said.


Because Mr. Bloomberg pulls his shots against Republicans in Albany and Washington, Mr. Miller said, “New York ends up being overtaxed and underserved.”


While the mayor’s Republican registration is not likely to be an asset in next year’s race, Mr. Bloomberg’s immense personal wealth is. In addition, Mr. Bloomberg has gone to great lengths to garner support in the outer boroughs and, though still lagging behind Mr. Ferrer, he is gaining ground in the polls.


The council minority leader, James Oddo of Staten Island, pointed out that the previous council speaker, Peter Vallone Sr., did not win support he expected from many council members in the 2001 Democrat mayoral primary. Some of his closest allies on the council in the 1990s, such as Archie Spigner and Morton Povman, endorsed other candidates.


“He was speaker for a longer time, was more benevolent for a longer period of time, and when he looked to his right and left to see who was supporting him a lot of those folks weren’t there,” Mr. Oddo recalled.


“I think people have very short memories in politics, and despite the fact that Peter Vallone Sr. was great to them for years, and despite the fact that Gifford Miller has been good to them, that doesn’t always translate into an endorsement,” Mr. Oddo said.


The New York Sun

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