Replaying a scene that occurred when Rudy Giuliani’s term as the City’s chief executive was coming to a close in 2001, Republicans are once again concerned that their 16-year reign in the Mayor’s office might come to a close once the next round of Citywide elections get kicked off in 2009. Last time, the GOP found Michael Bloomberg, a media mogul and former Democrat who was willing to pump his own considerable fortune into the race. His money, combined with the perfectly timed storm of the collapse of the Democratic candidates and the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, helped lead him to a narrow, and improbable, victory over Mark Green that November. Four years later it wasn’t even close, as Bloomberg blew away former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer in even greater fashion than Giuliani thumped his reelection opponent, then-Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger, in 1997.
But the City is growing more and more Democratic. Two boroughs, Manhattan and The Bronx, do not even have a single Republican elected official representing them, and the bulk of Republican power in the City is centered in Staten Island. That lack of elected officials means the Republicans do not have the same farm system for higher office that the Democrats currently boast. With Bloomberg in the twilight of his mayoral career, City Republicans are once again forced to worry about where their next mayor might be found as the same panic that gripped them pre-Bloomberg starts to wash over them.
Enter Richard Parsons. The chairman and CEO of Time Warner is a Brooklyn native, born and bred in Bedford-Stuyvesant, a businessman from outside of the political mainstream (like Bloomberg), with considerable Republican credentials—having worked in the past for Nelson Rockefeller in both Albany and Washington, D.C., and co-chairing President George W. Bush’s commission on Social Security reform. Bloomberg himself has reportedly reached out to Parsons as his potential successor, and published reports have indicated that the media mogul is all but certain to run in 2009.
And, oh yeah, he’s black. With Parsons as their candidate, Republicans would finally have the opportunity to change their City-wide image on the biggest stage. The party would no longer be viewed by the City’s minority population as a haven for rich white businessmen (or rich black businessmen, given Parsons’ more than $10 million per year compensation at Time Warner). Instead, voters would get a look at a self-made African American success story who also happens to be a Republican.
In its history, the City has only elected a mayor who was not a white male once, that being Democrat David Dinkins, via his narrow defeat of Giuliani in 1989. A product of the Harlem clubhouse, Dinkins’ one-term has been remembered by the majority of City voters as, at best, uninspiring, at worst, incredibly negligent. Crime was high, the economy was poor and the riots in Crown Heights had offered the general populace an opportunity to blame Dinkins for ordering his police department to stand back while black rioters wreaked havoc on a Jewish community. Dinkins didn’t care about white people, went the narrative.
Dinkins’ mayoralty has also played a major role in scaring voters away from minority candidates—most notably Ferrer. That the City was turned off from Rev. Al Sharpton’s run in 1997 was no surprise. Sharpton was a known racial firebrand at the time (think Tawana Brawley, Freddy’s Fashion Mart), and the race came well-before his transformation into a respectable pillar of the black community (who even ran for president in 2004). But Ferrer had attempted to carve out a niche as something of a moderate during his time as borough president, an image that was shattered once he started to sidle up to Sharpton and his allies in preparation for his 2001 run. With Sharpton at his side, people immediately saw Ferrer as a Dinkins redux. With his class warfare-based message of “two New Yorks,” white voters couldn’t run away from him fast enough. Though he won the primary, Green was victorious in the run-off.
Will Parsons face such a problem when he runs? Probably not. Aside from the built-in immunity from such attacks that comes with being a Republican, New York City might again be warming up to the idea of a minority mayor. William Thompson, one of the top Democratic candidates for mayor in 2009, is an African American, and has already won a City-wide election. Neither Parsons nor Thompson wear their race on their sleeve. And while Parsons has not made any public speeches or statements regarding potential public policy, Thompson has placed himself to the middle on many issues, and has even positioned himself as something of a fiscal conservative, especially when compared to other Democratic candidates.
For years, the same white liberals that helped elect Dinkins have been secretly pulling the lever for Giuliani and Bloomberg, though they would never talk about it in certain company. With Parsons, those same voters might finally be able to put their minds at ease, assuaging their guilt by voting for the minority candidate, while at the same time committing to that certain style of municipal Republican they love (though they wouldn’t dare admit to voting for it).
