NYPost

DEM CHIEF IN TOWN TO AVOID VOTE FIASCO

By TOM TOPOUSIS and SIMON CRITTLE

October 16, 2001 -- In a bid to prevent a Florida-style election disaster, Democratic National Committee boss Terry McAuliffe came to the city yesterday and met with Mark Green and a top aide to Fernando Ferrer.

"We have to make sure that everybody here is comfortable with feeling that the person who got the most votes wins the election," McAuliffe said.

McAuliffe, who said a lengthy hand recount of the runoff ballots could damage the party, held separate sessions with Green and with Ferrer's chief strategist, Bronx Democratic leader Roberto Ramirez.

"My job is make sure we are all unified and we all come together," said McAuliffe.

That might not be easy.

Ramirez showed McAuliffe an anti-Ferrer flier circulated at the end of the race that the Ferrer campaign claimed was racially offensive, and McAuliffe later raised the issue with the Green campaign, a source said. The Green campaign has denied any connection to the flier.

Ferrer on Sunday withdrew his concession after learning the unofficial election tally reported Thursday night could be off by as many as 10,000 votes, reducing Green's margin of victory to 21,056 votes.

The city's Board of Elections will begin its official count of voting machines today.

"New Yorkers deserve to know as soon as possible, and without any doubts, that every vote has been properly counted," said state Democratic Party chairwoman Judith Hope.

"Once an official count is certified, I call on all Democrats to unite behind our mayoral nominee."

Some Democratic leaders fear that a rift within the party could boost the chances of Republican Michael Bloomberg in November's mayoral race.

-- Anonymous, October 16, 2001

Answers

Very hard to know who to root for in this race. Bloomberg is a former Dem who bought the Republican nomination with huge campaign expenditures. He has made hugely inane comments, such as one prior to 9-11 to the effect that maybe a sanitation worker's job was as dangerous as a firefighter's (I am not making this up!). Mark Green is a former extreme liberal whose pronouncements have moved toward the center for whatever reason.

-- Anonymous, October 16, 2001