NYC: Mike's run may go up in smoke

New York Daily News ^

[SheLion]

Mike's run may go up in smoke 

Mayor Bloomberg could be run out of City Hall by the smokers he ran out of bars and into the streets.
This will sound funny to those who read polls that say Bloomberg's smoking ban is popular. But it's very serious to the politicians who have their eyes on Gracie Mansion - and their ears to the bitterness of smokers and the business blues of saloon keepers and restaurateurs.

I spoke yesterday to three of the Democrats who are considering making the run for mayor: Rep. Anthony Weiner, Controller William Thompson and Fernando Ferrer, the ex-Bronx borough president who nearly won the nomination in 2001. All three, in varying degrees, say they will make the smoking ban a serious issue in their campaigns.

"It has to be," says Hank Sheinkopf, the savvy New York political consultant, "because to many smokers, this is a one-issue deal, like abortion and gun control. If they're with you on everything else but this, you're dead. It could lose Bloomberg north of 400,000 votes."

Weiner is easily the most articulate on the issue, which, on the face of it, is surprising because he is a nonsmoker. "If you want to see just how much Bloomberg misunderstands the DNA of New York - what sort of a condescending patrician he is - look at the way he handled the smoking business," says Weiner. 

"He rammed it through without ever having campaigned for it. He did it without considering what it would do to the small bars in the city, particularly the outer boroughs, what it would do to the soul of New York, which to me is libertarianism, the right to live your life without onerous government intervention. I sum it up this way: New York does not want or need Nurse Ratched as mayor."

Weiner represents parts of Queens and Brooklyn, the last gin-mill neighborhoods of the city, where smokin' and drinkin' are an integral part of the life of working men and women.

"Exactly where Bloomberg is most vulnerable," says Sheinkopf. "Add Staten Island, where his Republican base threatens him on real estate taxes as well as smoking, and the mayor is in big trouble."

So, too, may be Gifford Miller, the speaker of the City Council, who pushed through Bloomberg's smoking law. Miller wants the Democratic nomination for mayor, and now Weiner, Thompson and Ferrer will challenge him.

Thompson told me yesterday: "I'm concerned that the blanket application of the smoking ban has had a negative financial impact on bars, and I would look to create exceptions for these establishments."

Ferrer says: "We definitely need to reexamine this law and see if we can come to a reasonable way to both protect health and business."

Make no mistake about it - the restaurants and bars are getting killed by this Bloomberg-Miller law that has nothing but fake science to support it.

Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden insisted to me that 1,000 bartenders and waiters die each year of secondhand smoke. I didn't bother to argue with him about this nonsense. I simply warned him that he could cost Mike the election.

Hearing that, he took notes and said, "I wish I could take the heat instead of him. Maybe we should put me on a dartboard." 

Too late, buddy. Too late. 

Originally published on March 24, 2004 

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/col/story/176888p-153884c.html

 

[Clemenza]

Remember, that I lived in the Boogy-down Bronx when Ferrer was borough president. The worst thing that can happen is that he becomes a "yes man" to the city council, which can VERY WELL happen.

[NYCVirago]

In Manhattan, one goes to "lounges," which are neat, tidy places, where Metrosexuals (like Nurse Bloomberg) and women from Ivy League schools feel "comfortable."

And the VIP lounges at the clubs with celebrity clientele allow their patrons to smoke, of course. If you're Britney Spears, it's no problem to have a cigarette at a nightclub. But if you're going to the working man's bars in the outer boroughs, forget it!

[VermiciousKnid]

Do you know that when I was a little girl, I put a nickel in a "Buckley For Mayor" jar that was set up at a subway station (Junction Boulevard, to be exact), and the campaign volunteer pinned an orange button on me that coincidentally said, "Buckley For Mayor."

I still have that little button...

Regards,