Green won a bitter racial primary against Fernando Ferrer. It was racial and ugly. Sharpton was in the middle of it. If Democrats went with Peter Vallone, Bloomberg may have lost. Vallone was a conservative white Queens Democrat, though. Sharpton would have fumed.
Hard to even IMAGINE a conservative white Democrat of the male variety in 2001 or any time thereafter. (or for many years before, for that matter)
I remember reading the day before the NYC primary that Mark Green was at long last going to win an election ... the D nomination was pretty much all that was needed in NYC, especially since Rudy was term-limited out. Of course, we all know what happened the actual day of the primary.
Bloomberg had Rudy’s blessing, and mountains of sympathy .. so he ended up winning. THEN he had the $$$ to put in some features that the City Council wouldn’t fund, managed to get reelected, and switch parties again. He’s certainly an odd duck.