Back in the Race

Bill Thompson discusses his new campaign

By AUSTIN FENNER ill Thompson is hoping the second time is the charm. The mayoral candidate came as close as you can get to win-

ELECTION 2013
ning one of the most coveted political seats in the world. He lost to Michael Bloomberg by the slimmest of margins in November 2009. It was a 4.5 percent difference that gave Bloomberg the edge over Thompson. Bloombergs $90 million war chest and the strength of his incumbency should have cemented his grip for a third term, but many voters were angry at Mayor Mikes third-term grab for power. It fueled Thompsons chances to vault over him, though not enough. In the end, there are no laurel wreaths for a second place finish. That was then. This is now. Thompson, 60, a Brooklyn native, is running a low-key election campaign against a talented pool of savvy Democratic candidates hoping to win the Sept. 10 primary. Most political analysts say Thompson, the sole AfricanAmerican candidate in the race, can win the primary if he finds himself in a run-off race with his most likely rival, Christine Quinn, speaker of the New York City Council, an openly gay
Photo courtesy JCCRP

Bill Thompson visits the Jewish Community Council of the Rockaway Peninsula. (L-r): Nathan Krasnovsky, JCCRP executive director; Menachem Walfish, JCCRP board secretary; Thompson; Hillel Adelman, JCCRP board member; Yoni Dembitzer, JCCRP vice president; Assemblyman Phillip Goldfeder; and Pesach Osina.

Carroll said most black voters are heading toward Weiner and Quinn. He doesnt have most of the

Im going to work hard to attract the support of all voters. The Jewish vote in the city of New York is definitely a vote Im going after.
black vote. What he has to do is energize the black vote, said Carroll. Thompson is not running as a black candidate. Hes running as a mainstream Democratic official.

has to do is get to the runoff. Thompson certainly has the chief executive bona fides to become mayor. He served as president of the Board of Education for the City of New York and won two elections as the comptroller of the City of New York.

sands of concert-goers about his Caribbean roots at a West Indian Summer concert series on the sprawling fields behind Wingate

High School in the ProspectLefferts Garden section of Brooklyn. With his sleeves rolled up, Thompson grabbed the microphone and urged the crowd to vote for him in the primary. If I win this election, Ill be the first mayor with Caribbean roots, Thompson said from the stage. His grandparents immigrated from the the island nation of St. Kitts in the West Indies. The Sept. 10 primary will decide the direction of New York. If you are tired of the lack of affordable housing and jobs, vote for me as the next mayor, he said. Go to the polls and bring a few friends. I need your continued on page 16

candidate. Christine Quinn is ahead. Its scrambled up with Weiner, Bill de Blasio and Thompson tied, said Maurice Carroll, the director of the Polling Institute at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut. No one is near the 40 percent needed.

Carroll said Thompson earned valuable political capital in his strong showing against Bloomberg in 2009. He gave Bloomberg a run for his money, said Carroll. Its not a flashy campaign. Hes running a low-key candidacy. He can win with that strategy. All he

reporter for the Manhattan Jewish Sentinel group of newspapers spent hours with Thompson last week, as the candidate visited food pantries in Far Rockaway and listened to how New Yorkers are still coping from the after-effects of Superstorm Sandy. He toured the Jewish Community Council of the Rockaway Peninsula, meeting with Nathan Krasnovsky, executive director of the JCCRP, and spoke with Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder about the future of the Rockaways. Thompson also met with a group of rabbinical leaders at Yeshiva Darchei Torah. They gave Thompson a tour of their privately financed campus, a $30 million gem, complete with new science and computer labs and technical schools. Thompson then whizzed by P.S. 262 in Bedford Stuyvesant where his mother, Elaine Thompson, taught for 29 years to participate in some media interviews. A proponent of charter schools, Thompsons educational agenda is to expand universal pre-kindergarten for all city children, fight for more state and federal funding, cut the size of overcrowded schools with school construction, and have an independent body audit test scores and graduation rates. Later that evening, Thompson seized a chance to speak to thouJEWISH WORLD AUGUST 16-22, 2013 9