Election Night Parties A Study In Contrasts
Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s election night party at the Sheraton was one that befit a billionaire. There were long lines to get in, guests were wanded, food and drink were brought around on trays. Late-night host Jimmy Fallon introduced the mayor, and a host of city big wigs and administration officials attended. Large flat-screen TVs hung high above the festivities and played out a montage of scenes from the party and from the mayor’s tenure.
It felt like a nightclub. One half-expected bottle service.
Bill Thompson’s party, meanwhile, was just a block away at the Hilton, but a world apart. It befit a man that ran low in funds throughout, and who ran a race that few expected him to win. A far smaller press gaggle attended, and guests had to pay for the coat check. Most of the attendees were Democratic Party regulars—Assembly members, Council members, a couple of stray senators and committee members. Everyone crowded around the couple of TVs wedged into the corner when results came in that showed a race far tighter than anyone expected.
And while the Bloomberg party towards the end of the night became mired in worry and second-guessing, the Democrats partied and whooped and hollered as if Thompson was in fact the winner.
And of course, most people who attended either party were strong supporters of their side, and so were obligated to stay until the end. So they awaited anxiously for reports from the other party going down the street.
Indeed, when one reporter showed up at the Thompson event with Bloomberg press credentials, one Thompson staffer could not help but examine them closely and sniff, “Ha. No laminate.”
Conservative Chair Mike Long Stays Put in Bay Ridge When Campaign Heats Up In Frigid Upstate
The last days of the campaign for Congress in upstate New York may have been grueling for the candidates and their supporters, with 20-hour days not uncommon and photo ops scheduled as early as 6 a.m. But Mike Long took a softer approach. At 11 a.m. on the Monday before the election, he was fielding calls from campaign operatives, national reporters and aides to presidential candidates in his pajamas.
Long spent most of the election season at Conservative Party headquarters in Bay Ridge, just a block or two from his apartment and across the street from Long’s, a liquor store on Fifth Avenue that he used to own.
He told Hoffman as much at the outset of the race, telling him, “I don’t want to be the one to talk you into this. I’m not coming up here to campaign for you. I’m going to be down in Bay Ridge.”
Still, even in Bay Ridge, Long could not escape the frenzy of the campaign.
Long, who was perhaps more responsible than anyone else for Hoffman’s insurgent campaign—and the national phenomenon it sparked—spoke regularly with national Republican leaders, including Newt Gingrich, who called him in September before formally endorsing Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava. He also coordinated regularly with GOP operatives who had parachuted into New York to help Hoffman, including Daniel Tripp, an aide to former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson, one of Hoffman’s earlier big-name backers.
Even on the street in Bay Ridge, Long’s celebrity surpassed him. As he walked down the street, drivers would regularly roll down their windows and yell, “Go Hoffman!”
Education Heavyweights Go Toe-To-Toe At Hunter College Forum
A Nov. 4 forum at Hunter College on the election and public education brought out the heavyweights of education policy. And while there were no knockout punches from any of the featured speakers, there were a few swipes and a couple of jabs, reflecting how education is likely to remain a hot button issue even after the campaign has ended.
Eva Moskowitz, former Council education chair and Harlem charter school operator, and Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch traded a few blows over the coveted status charter schools have enjoyed under the current administration. Tisch, wearing large-framed glasses and a brightly patterned kerchief, repeated several times how charters were the “darling” of the education world, and frequently hired some of the better-skilled teachers and administrators away from public schools, a practice she called “creaming the top.”
Moskowitz, wearing a bright red suit, balked at Tisch’s characterization. Charters had to fight tooth and nail to get to where they are today, the fiery former Council member said, and to suggest they enjoyed preferential treatment did them a disservice.
For a moment, the tension rose on the eighth floor of the West building at Hunter. Tisch and Moskowitz went back and forth a few more times, arguing over whether Tisch helped Moskowitz get her charter with the Department of Education by greasing the wheels with Schools Chancellor Joel Klein.
Before it could devolve into a “yes you did, no you didn’t” back-and-forth, the moderator, New York Times reporter Jennifer Medina, switched subjects to the teacher’s union contract and how negotiations were unfolding following Mayor Bloomberg’s narrow re-election.
Michael Mulgrew, the new president of the United Teachers Federation and a fellow panelist, grinned wolfishly.
“I’m not surprised that subject has come up,” he deadpanned.
Halloran Goes On, Graciously
Around midnight, Dan Halloran held a miniature press scrum on the patio of Sullivan’s, a bar in Bayside where his election night victory party was raging.
The Republican had learned hours before that he had won a seat on the Council over Democrat Kevin Kim, in what can easily be described as the dirtiest Council race of the year.
Though the election was over, the topic on reporters’ minds was the enmity that had emerged in the campaign. In particular, Halloran was asked how he could possibly work with Kim, who serves as Rep. Gary Ackerman’s community liaison, or, for that matter, Ackerman himself. Ackerman was an enthusiastic Kim backer and the Queens Tribune, which Ackerman founded, hounded Halloran throughout the campaign for his unusual pre-Christian religious beliefs. In addition, a subsidiary of the paper, Multi-Media, which served as Kim’s campaign consultant, also launched a number of attacks against Halloran. In the end, Kim’s campaign paid over $117,000 to the company.
As Halloran answered the questions, Steven Stites, Halloran’s attack dog campaign spokesman, chuckled. He whispered that a photographer snapping pictures a few feet away was, in fact, from the Tribune.
But Halloran declined to take a last shot at the paper. Dee Richard, a columnist for a rival paper, the Queens Times Ledger, who throughout the campaign was one of Halloran’s staunchest defenders, asked Halloran how he would work with Kim and other rivals from the campaign.
“I’ll make it work with him, and Congressman Ackerman,” Halloran said.
“Good for you,” responded Richard, nodding her head in admiration.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s election night party at the Sheraton was one that befit a billionaire. There were long lines to get in, guests were wanded, food and drink were brought around on trays. Late-night host Jimmy Fallon introduced the mayor, and a host of city big wigs and administration officials attended. Large flat-screen TVs hung high above the festivities and played out a montage of scenes from the party and from the mayor’s tenure.
It felt like a nightclub. One half-expected bottle service.
Bill Thompson’s party, meanwhile, was just a block away at the Hilton, but a world apart. It befit a man that ran low in funds throughout, and who ran a race that few expected him to win. A far smaller press gaggle attended, and guests had to pay for the coat check. Most of the attendees were Democratic Party regulars—Assembly members, Council members, a couple of stray senators and committee members. Everyone crowded around the couple of TVs wedged into the corner when results came in that showed a race far tighter than anyone expected.
And while the Bloomberg party towards the end of the night became mired in worry and second-guessing, the Democrats partied and whooped and hollered as if Thompson was in fact the winner.
And of course, most people who attended either party were strong supporters of their side, and so were obligated to stay until the end. So they awaited anxiously for reports from the other party going down the street.
Indeed, when one reporter showed up at the Thompson event with Bloomberg press credentials, one Thompson staffer could not help but examine them closely and sniff, “Ha. No laminate.”
Conservative Chair Mike Long Stays Put in Bay Ridge When Campaign Heats Up In Frigid Upstate
The last days of the campaign for Congress in upstate New York may have been grueling for the candidates and their supporters, with 20-hour days not uncommon and photo ops scheduled as early as 6 a.m. But Mike Long took a softer approach. At 11 a.m. on the Monday before the election, he was fielding calls from campaign operatives, national reporters and aides to presidential candidates in his pajamas.
Long spent most of the election season at Conservative Party headquarters in Bay Ridge, just a block or two from his apartment and across the street from Long’s, a liquor store on Fifth Avenue that he used to own.
He told Hoffman as much at the outset of the race, telling him, “I don’t want to be the one to talk you into this. I’m not coming up here to campaign for you. I’m going to be down in Bay Ridge.”
Still, even in Bay Ridge, Long could not escape the frenzy of the campaign.
Long, who was perhaps more responsible than anyone else for Hoffman’s insurgent campaign—and the national phenomenon it sparked—spoke regularly with national Republican leaders, including Newt Gingrich, who called him in September before formally endorsing Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava. He also coordinated regularly with GOP operatives who had parachuted into New York to help Hoffman, including Daniel Tripp, an aide to former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson, one of Hoffman’s earlier big-name backers.
Even on the street in Bay Ridge, Long’s celebrity surpassed him. As he walked down the street, drivers would regularly roll down their windows and yell, “Go Hoffman!”
Education Heavyweights Go Toe-To-Toe At Hunter College Forum
A Nov. 4 forum at Hunter College on the election and public education brought out the heavyweights of education policy. And while there were no knockout punches from any of the featured speakers, there were a few swipes and a couple of jabs, reflecting how education is likely to remain a hot button issue even after the campaign has ended.
Eva Moskowitz, former Council education chair and Harlem charter school operator, and Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch traded a few blows over the coveted status charter schools have enjoyed under the current administration. Tisch, wearing large-framed glasses and a brightly patterned kerchief, repeated several times how charters were the “darling” of the education world, and frequently hired some of the better-skilled teachers and administrators away from public schools, a practice she called “creaming the top.”
Moskowitz, wearing a bright red suit, balked at Tisch’s characterization. Charters had to fight tooth and nail to get to where they are today, the fiery former Council member said, and to suggest they enjoyed preferential treatment did them a disservice.
For a moment, the tension rose on the eighth floor of the West building at Hunter. Tisch and Moskowitz went back and forth a few more times, arguing over whether Tisch helped Moskowitz get her charter with the Department of Education by greasing the wheels with Schools Chancellor Joel Klein.
Before it could devolve into a “yes you did, no you didn’t” back-and-forth, the moderator, New York Times reporter Jennifer Medina, switched subjects to the teacher’s union contract and how negotiations were unfolding following Mayor Bloomberg’s narrow re-election.
Michael Mulgrew, the new president of the United Teachers Federation and a fellow panelist, grinned wolfishly.
“I’m not surprised that subject has come up,” he deadpanned.
Halloran Goes On, Graciously
Around midnight, Dan Halloran held a miniature press scrum on the patio of Sullivan’s, a bar in Bayside where his election night victory party was raging.
The Republican had learned hours before that he had won a seat on the Council over Democrat Kevin Kim, in what can easily be described as the dirtiest Council race of the year.
Though the election was over, the topic on reporters’ minds was the enmity that had emerged in the campaign. In particular, Halloran was asked how he could possibly work with Kim, who serves as Rep. Gary Ackerman’s community liaison, or, for that matter, Ackerman himself. Ackerman was an enthusiastic Kim backer and the Queens Tribune, which Ackerman founded, hounded Halloran throughout the campaign for his unusual pre-Christian religious beliefs. In addition, a subsidiary of the paper, Multi-Media, which served as Kim’s campaign consultant, also launched a number of attacks against Halloran. In the end, Kim’s campaign paid over $117,000 to the company.
As Halloran answered the questions, Steven Stites, Halloran’s attack dog campaign spokesman, chuckled. He whispered that a photographer snapping pictures a few feet away was, in fact, from the Tribune.
But Halloran declined to take a last shot at the paper. Dee Richard, a columnist for a rival paper, the Queens Times Ledger, who throughout the campaign was one of Halloran’s staunchest defenders, asked Halloran how he would work with Kim and other rivals from the campaign.
“I’ll make it work with him, and Congressman Ackerman,” Halloran said.
“Good for you,” responded Richard, nodding her head in admiration.
