Going On The Offensive For Ferrer

Only a few days back I read a comment by Heather (DFNYC In The News) on MyDD that was making fun of a "prominent" local Democrat's claim that no prominent Democrat in the city seemed to be for Ferrer. How prominent can he be? I never heard of him.

But Howard Dean is behind Ferrer, and that is the next President Of The United States. I have heard of him. And DFNYC is solidly behind Ferrer with 81% of the votes. And we just so happen to be the largest Dean group in the country. We are the prominent Democrats in town. Don't make us whip up our mailing lists! Nobody quit after 2004, many of them just went into hiding. They are all sharpening their claws, waiting to pounce.

Bloomberg is feeling the Dean heat already. He knows deep in his heart that he can lose. Around the time Dean was last in town, Bloomberg was at a press conference. And a plane was heard in the sky. And Bloomberg said in an exasperated aside, "That is Howard Dean in the DNC corporate jet." That man is so scared he thinks he is facing Dean aerial attacks. But that man is so out of touch, he does not know Dean flies commercial.

I just went to the DFNYC site and there is a message from Heather about another Ferrer-Dean event tomorow. Is Howard Dean Fernando Ferrer's running mate or what? (Dean Was In Town Yesterday) If he is going to keep showing up like this, Ferrer sure is going to cross the line. And it will be nice to have Ferrer as Mayor when Dean 2008 sets up its headquarters in the city. (2008: Some Thoughts)

Join Fernando Ferrer and Howard Dean at the Union Square Farmer's Market!

Meet on the NE corner of Union Square Park TIME: 2:30 pm.

Wow, this is just so cool. I will be there. I am meeting Robet Mayer of Publius Pundit for lunch tomorrow, him and about 10 of his Boston friends. Robert is at the Bentley College in the Boston suburbs. They have some kind of a college break, and they are in town. Robert and I got to know each other through Charlie Szrom of the Students for Global Democracy. Charlie is in Indiana, in Bloomington, where I considered settling down before I decided on NYC. (Bloomington, IN, As An Option, Possibly Moving To NYC) And I get to meet Charlie within a week. He will be in town too for some kind of a scholarship interview. We go sightseeing together. I am so excited about these two and their organization. They speak to the total global democracy messenger in me. This is to do with my Nepal work. (What's Going On In Nepal)

I started this blog entry to chalk up a strategy.

Going on the offensive for Ferrer.

Martha Kenton of the Cesnik 2005 fame is leading the DFNYC effort. (Some Suggestions To The Cesnik Campaign, Eric Cesnik For City Council)

Larry and Dino have some great work going on with their sites. I mean, the Bloomberg ads are offensive. One that I am forced to see - since I don't own a TV - when I am out reading news at the Yahoo site shows this beautiful Manhattan landscape unfurl, and the message is, Vote for Bloomberg. Admire the beauty and vote for Bloomberg. Wow. Not even the pompous Donald Trump would stoop so low.

I just got an email from Dino not long back. Their new site is out, Ferrer Four.

This is what I am suggesting.

Truth On Bloomberg, and Ferrer Four both do great work on policy logic.

I see three big holes in the effort though.

One, we need one site that compares and contrasts the Ferrer management style with the Bloomberg management style. I have not had the chance to dig in and do some research myself. But from the little I know, I can already draw a few conclusions. Ferrer was Bronx Borough President. Bloomberg's disadvantage is that his leadership style is corporate. He cuts some major corners on social expenditures so he can build a stadium. Don't blame him: that has been his life's training. It is hard to change course mid-stream. Ferrer on the other hand has an exective style that is more political. He is more in tune with the common people. He is not a machine politician, rather he is a politician who knows the system, he knows the voters, and their various organized groups, he knows how to work the system. And that is who you want in the executive office.

Two, the three sites need to cross link to each other prominently. Have three button links at the top of each site, on each page at the site.

Three, whip up the DFNYC mailing list to send traffic to these sites after all three sites are up and running. I hear the core DFNYC mailing list is 2400 strong, Tracey told me at the last MeetUp. (Tracey Denton Of DFNYC) There would be a short message that displays the three sites, and briefly summarizes them. And a request to members to forward the email to everyone in the city they personally know, and to request them to do the same. This email viral marketing does not cost a dime, and is more effective and respectful than TV ads. Effective because people receive emails only from people they personally know, respectful because there is an invitation to an intelligent conversation. We are not trying to play mind games like clever ad people, we are talking policy. 2400 people send it out to 20 people each who send it out to 10 people each, that is 480,000. That is half a million people. If our message has oomph, this is all it will take to elect Ferrer. Although I do not suggest not doing everything else we will be doing, that the Ferrer campaign team is doing, with the emphasis on the get out the votes efforts. And be at the ready to handle all that traffic. The sites should not crash!

So Dino, Larry, whip it up, baby.

And do not miss the DFNYC Monthly Mixer with Freddy Ferrer. Tuesday, October 25.

Take Back The City 2005.
Take Back The Congress 2006.
Take Back The White House 2008.

Bloomberg Is No Democrat
Fernando Ferrer

Who Is Leecia Eve?

First time I am coming across her name.

I opened up the Google News page to do a quick search on the Russian guy at Google, Sergei Brin, because a few days back he came out saying Google is not working on an Office competitor which can read like a direct rebuttal to one of my recent blog entries (Google's To Do List Keeps Growing), but then I got distracted.

Can She Be New York's Barack Obama? New York Daily News

I immediately fired off a teaser email to our own DFNYC Leila Warrior Noor, even before I read the news article. Because one of the first thoughts that occurred to me after I met her was that
she meets the Barack Obama profile. He father was Somalian. (Me, Ethiopian) Her mother is Long Island white. Leila is a lawyer. I know, those corporate types. She is cute. She is political, hence the nickname Warrior. She speaks effortlessly. That is how I described Obama after I watched an Obama-Keyes debate on TV. And at the last event I met Leila, I heard Norman Siegel (A Not So Little Norman Fact, A Great Mixer, A Little Siegel Incident) telling her he thought she should run for office. "I don't feel like I know enough."

That is the standard reply of all the power women at DFNYC. Razzmatazz Tracey, Sunshine Heather. (DFNYC In The News, Tracey Denton Of DFNYC) All these amazing people who have this amazing organization going. When women lead things are different. The leadership style is different: these is a much lesser tendency towards hierarchies. The edges are smoother. Women and men are different, if anyone needs reminding. And there are these late 20s, early 30s women whose leadership is totally cool to members twice their age, and more. And not in a polite way either. And it is okay to not run for office. I myself don't see me doing it. Not that it is okay because I am not doing it either.

I have a formal excuse: I am not a citizen. So don't ask for my vote either! That aside, I feel like I can do more for global democracy through Dean 2008 than through any other endeavor. And global democracy is the best gift that can be for the dollar a day crowd, all those cheerful, poor people. Where would you rather be, on the Mall, or inside the White House? I am gunning for the White House, yo! JFK advice: "Never settle for second, when first is available." (2008: Some Themes, 2008: Some Thoughts, Dean 2008)

I mean, I so totally could. I have done it before, I can do it again. (Possibly Moving To NYC) But the question is what is your public service goal, and what is the most effective way to get there. Dean 2008 is it.

Running for office is like deciding to become a doctor, unless you really, really want to do it, don't do it: you are going to be unhappy. So I don't begrudge these power women comrades of mine. But I wish they were a little more militant on gender issues. Expand it beyond the pro-choice talk. How can you be a progressive if you are not aggresive on the gender issues?

Anyways, some from the article on Eve.

.... a four-year star turn as Hillary Clinton's lawyer
.... the bright, confident optimism of an A-student who studies hard and has all the answers.
.... the power pantsuits that are the standard uniform of Clinton's female protégés
.... 41-year-old
.... government and law degrees from Harvard
.... learned the retail side of politics at home: her father, retired Buffalo Assemblyman Arthur Eve, served in the state legislature for more than 30 years and took Leecia on the campaign trail every other year
.... political street smarts and book smarts
.... leaves a lot of time for lieutenant governors to grow bored, restless and ambitious - and that's where the trouble starts
.... In the 1980s, Lt. Gov. Alfred DelBello, who served under Gov. Mario Cuomo, quit after 24 months, citing boredom.
.... The A-student has already held private meetings with Krupsak, DelBello, Stan Lundine and Mario Cuomo, the four living Democrats who once held the position
.... to begin releasing position papers on ways to begin reversing the capital flight
.... thinks she can break the old patterns and become the first black woman ever elected to a statewide office in New York
.... Like Obama, she is betting voters will look past race and vote for a whip-smart candidate with a great smile and confidence to burn.

Come to think of it, Leila did allude to someone of this profile during my first real conversation with her. I now realize. She beat me to it.