As Fields Runs for Mayor, She Counts on Women to Help Her Make History (NY City)

NY Times ^ | March 28, 2005 | RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD

[neverdem]

POLITICAL MEMO

Jeanne Shaheen, the former governor of New Hampshire and Kerry-Edwards campaign chairwoman, is the keynote speaker. Faye Wattleton and Robin Chandler Duke, among the best-known women's rights advocates in the country, are chairwomen. And C. Virginia Fields, the Manhattan borough president who is hoping to become the city's first female mayor, is the beneficiary.

They will all come together on Thursday at a "Women for Fields Kickoff Mayoral Breakfast" at a Midtown hotel, a fund-raiser for her campaign that is expected to be Ms. Fields's largest so far and one that sends the unmistakable message that she believes female voters will give her an edge over her male rivals in the Democratic mayoral primary on Sept. 13.

In interviews, Ms. Fields has cited the frustration of another all-male primary and the potential lift her victory would give to women in politics and other fields as among her reasons for running. Even though women outnumber men in voter registration - and despite a major female mayoral candidate in each of the last three decades - "we've never had a woman mayor," Ms. Fields notes.

"When we look at where we are given our numbers, our involvement in the process and our experiences, I find that women are very interested in terms of a woman moving forward, taking the opportunity to do this and being very interested and supportive," she said last week.

Aside from the breakfast this week, Ms. Fields has been contacting community groups dominated by women and reaching out to women leaders, particularly in black and Latino neighborhoods. Joseph Mercurio, her chief consultant, noted that women made up 60 percent of registered Democrats in the city and two-thirds of black Democratic voters.

"There has got to be some juice in there," he said.

But whether her candidacy will develop into a cause among women is debatable. Though it is early in the campaign and her associates say she will soon formally announce her candidacy and step up her appearances, there are signs that Ms. Fields can hardly take female voters for granted.

Most independent polls show that among Democratic voters, Ms. Fields, who has so far run such a low-key campaign that insiders question if she is serious about following through, is running a distant second to Fernando Ferrer, the former Bronx borough president, who is seeking to make his own history as the city's first Latino mayor.

A WNBC/Marist College Institute poll last week showed her trailing Mr. Ferrer, who is of Puerto Rican descent, among women as well. Mr. Ferrer had support among 38 percent of women, compared with 26 percent for Ms. Fields and single digits for the other two contenders, the City Council speaker, Gifford Miller, and Representative Anthony D. Weiner.

Pollsters say women tend to do well in early polls in New York because their gender helps them stand out, though that does not easily translate into votes.

Celinda Lake, a pollster in Washington who has worked on New York City campaigns but is not advising any of the candidates, said Ms. Fields's effort to promote her gender would probably help with single women, black women and liberal white voters, who have "a lot of desire for women leadership."

"It's certainly at least a tie-breaker for them," she said.

But while other big cities like Chicago, Washington, Seattle and Atlanta have elected female mayors - women are mayors in 13 of the 100 largest United States cities - history has not been kind to female mayoral candidates in New York. Bella Abzug (1977), Carol Bellamy (1985) and Ruth Messinger (1997) all failed.

"It is hard for women to get accepted for executive office," Ms. Lake said. "People in New York think it is a brawling, tough place to run."

Ms. Messinger said New Yorkers "somehow think women can be legislators but not executives."

Still, she said that despite her belief the city is overdue for a female mayor, she was supporting Mr. Ferrer, whom she described as a longstanding ally on issues. Ms. Messinger downplayed any boost Ms. Fields may get because she is a woman.

"As far as voters go, I think New York is as it is, a very complicated place with all kinds of constituencies," she said. "And I don't think women are some single constituency. Most voters are interested in candidates' positions, and while they may look at a woman candidate for being a woman, that is not their major focus."

Ms. Fields's aides, however, said they were taking a lesson from the Messinger campaign, which they do not believe, backed by press accounts of the race at the time, made an aggressive pitch toward women until late in the campaign.

Ms. Fields has sprinkled her public remarks with promises to expand domestic violence programs and improve the economic health of small businesses owned by women and minorities.

And for the fund-raiser, which an aide said would net $200,000 or more, she is turning to some high-profile women.

Ms. Wattleton, a former president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, is the president of the Center for the Advancement of Women, based in Manhattan. Ms. Duke, the former president of the National Abortion Rights Action League, now Naral Pro-Choice America, was a major fund-raiser for the Kerry-Edwards campaign.

Mr. Mercurio said their roots in the abortion rights movement were not a major factor in their selection as chairwomen, though he noted polls showed most voters in New York supported abortion rights. Instead, Ms. Wattleton and Ms. Duke were seen as part of a strategy to galvanize contributors and voters for what shapes up as a hard campaign.

As Ms. Fields put it to couple of hundred women the other night at her annual Women's History Month reception: "It is important we rise in public life and professional life. We all have to be a part of making change."

[johnnycap]

"I live "across the bridge" in a beautiful family neighborhood..."

-Dude, you made a smart decision. You avoided the apartment brokers and found a descent place in Hoboken, Jersey City, Brooklyn or Queens. So, you are on here defending New York in that context. Meanwhile, whether you realize it or not, the nasty New Yorkers from Manhattan, whom we are talking about are laughing at you and sneering at you as some low, life "bridge and tunnel" Cretan who isn't fit to shlep them drinks down at Crobar or Sushi Samba 7. And for the record, I was in those Towers that day so I know from what I speak. I lived on Wall and Liberty Street by the Orange Cube and watched my place get destroyed. Let's not go there on the free emotional points...

[PJBlogger]

If you are not some kind of communist, what do yu have against a free market in Real Estate.

Don't call me "dude". I am not part of any "bridge and tunnel crowd" I am a lifelong NYer. We bought our home 6 years ago . Before that we lived in a beautiful coop in Manhattan which we bought 12 years ago. We always use a good real estate broker.They are the only ones who have the good listings. They can only show people what they have and what they financially qualify for.

Why do you have such hatred for NY? It is the greatest city in the world and we love it.