Riverdale Democrats Back Mayor
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.
A civic and political organization based in Riverdale, the Northwest Bronx Democratic Alliance, announced yesterday that it is endorsing Mayor Bloomberg for re-election.
The endorsement marks a pair of firsts – Mr. Bloomberg’s first endorsement from a Democratic political organization, and the NBDA’s first endorsement of a Republican candidate. It backed Fernando Ferrer in the 2001 mayoral race.
The former president of the NBDA, Anthony Cassino, however, told The New York Sun yesterday that the endorsement was not unexpected. Mr. Cassino cited Mr. Bloomberg’s success with crime reduction and zoning, as well as the organization’s desire to be liberated from party politics, as reasons why it endorsed a Republican candidate in a landslide 78 to 7 vote.
The northwestern Bronx has thousands more Democrats registered than Republicans, according to Mr. Cassino, but the region voted for Mayor Giuliani twice. And in the 2001 mayoral race, the district comprised of Riverdale and Kingsbridge chose Mr. Bloomberg over Mark Green. Mr. Cassino said this pattern is indicative of a larger trend in recent mayoral elections – lifelong Democrats voting for Republicans.
“It’s not easy for Democrats to say in public, ‘I’m going to vote Republican.’ But they do,” Mr. Cassino said. “We’re the first Democratic club to endorse Bloomberg, but we won’t be the last.”
The Haitian-American Alliance for Progress and the National Latino Peace Officers Association also announced endorsements for Mr. Bloomberg yesterday.
There has been speculation that the NBDA’s ties to Bronx borough president Adolfo Carrion – Mr. Cassino is his former campaign treasurer – influenced the Bloomberg endorsement. A Republican mayor in 2005 would clear the way for a Democrat in 2009, when Mr. Carrion has indicated he will run. Mr. Cassino, however, said the NBDA does not align itself with any outside interest group or elected official.
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Incumbency continues to pay off in the City Council. The latest filings with the Campaign Finance Board show that four council members up for re-election are running away with the fund-raising race. Democrats David Yassky of Brooklyn and Melinda Katz, Eric Gioia, and David Weprin of Queens have each raised more than $500,000 for their current campaigns – nearly twice as much as the fifth-richest council member, Christine Quinn of Manhattan.
