Well, there you have it. After a primary that nobody seemed to care all that much about - witness the abysmal turnout numbers - we're saddled with a candidate, Freddy "Third try, third persona" Ferrer, who seems to have just narrowly missed the cutoff threshold, and will now get the nomination handed to him by a concession. NY1 reports [1] that Weiner is set to concede to Ferrer; this may save us from a reprise of the 2001 runoff, but I for one will never cast a ballot for Freddy. Ever. Nor am I alone in that position.
Further down the ticket is an even broader valley of ashes. Betsy Gotbaum will be the next not-so-public advocate. Charlie Hynes will remain in place as Brooklyn D.A. Their most capable challengers, Norman Siegel and Mark Peters respectively, barely made a dent. I heard from the Siegel campaign yesterday that a large portion of their paid (!) volunteers didn't even show up.
For the largest grassroots organizations, NDM and DFNYC, this election represents a black eye of epic proportions. NDM did bet, it appears, on a good horse in Anthony Weiner, who can safely be considered the natural choice for the 2009 nomination - because Freddy will never be mayor in this town - but for DFNYC, this must be a bitter day indeed. For them, the irritation of having been packed - thanks again, Giff - is compounded by having been packed by the guy who came in in last place.
The only winners in this race are Mike Bloomberg - who can now tear Ferrer to shreds, and will do so, to wide applause - and the Democratic Party machine.
The only lesson from this debacle is that New York Progressives need to work far harder if we ever want to have an effect. That's a bitter lesson, no doubt, but one well worth learning for the upcoming elections of 2006.
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