The surprising closeness of the mayoral election (Bloomberg 51% -Thompson 46%) has to be studied closely. Many people missed seeing how much anger is out there directed towards the mayor.
The UFT passed up on a real chance to influence the outcome by staying out of it. My colleague at Jamaica put it best when she stated, "The UFT never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity." If the unions and the Democratic Party establishment rallied behind Thompson, Bloomberg could have been defeated in this very Democratic town.
The most interesting statistic for us to view is how parents with children in New York City public schools voted last week. According to a NY Times exit poll, parents voted for Thompson over Bloomberg 55% to 43%. That's a huge twelve point spread that proves that those who have kids in the schools know what's going on and they don't buy the mayor's education spin.
Will Tweed get the message and at least consider changing course? I know you think not but let's push them anyway. Now is the time to speak up.
If ICE had come out explicitly for Thompson, as did New Action, it might have made it a little harder for the UFT to justify its "neutrality."
ReplyDeleteOnly an opportunist from New Action would be stupid enough to even think that UNITY caucus cares a whit about whether ICE endorsed Thompson or not. The only thing that UNITY can be sure of is that New Action will do their bidding for them.
ReplyDeleteIs the first anonymous serious?
ReplyDeleteIt does strike the unaffiliated observer as a mite bit strange that ICE should be talking about the UFT having missed an opportunity to endorse Thompson given that they did the same thing, and published some contorted statement about opposing Bloomberg without supporting Thonmpson.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree that the ICE statement did not openly endorse Thompson, the contortions the UFT went through in tabling the motion to endorse was 100 degrees more contorted. Hey, maybe the delegates can vote to endorse Thompson at the next DA.
ReplyDeleteThomspon should get a recont the way the Rpuglicuns are takling back all those seats and Ram Imamuel must resign because he abandonded THompson!
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