Mouseketeering And Electioneering

M-I-C… See you in November.
K-E-Y… Why? Because he’ll work hard for you.
M-O-U-S-E. Mickey Mouse In ’05!
While I’ve always considered myself a Donald Duck person, more so than the world’s favorite rodent, I never actually considered voting for the marble-mouthed, irascible webbed-footer.
But someone in New York City took that road last month. And they weren’t alone in stretching the bounds of voter apathy here.
If we can learn anything from the official results of the Democratic Primary last month, it’s that plenty of New Yorkers have a great sense of humor…
…or complete disinterest for our election process…
…or a severe, underlying aversion toward any of the available candidates.
Here are some of the write-in candidates offered up by voters this year: Mike Bloomberg (12 Democrats decided not to wait until November to cast a vote for Hizzoner), Hillary Clinton (1) and her hubby Bill (2), Mark Green (1) in an attempted throwback to 2001, Eugene V. Dobbs [should be Debs] (1) in an attempted throwback to 1904, Charles Barron (one voter who wished he’d never dropped out), William Thompson (one person who can’t wait for 2009) and good old Al Sharpton (1).
Tying Mickey Mouse for the strangest vote was a write-in for “Full Public Funding,” which clearly comes from some disgruntled candidate who didn’t get their CFB matching funds.
One other note on the write-ins…these voters can’t spell.
Mistakes included Christopher Broder (Brodeur), the aforementioned Dobbs (Debs), Cynthin (Cynthia) Boyce, Elliot (Eliot) Spitzer and some clown named Yernando Yerrer (which sounds like a Saturday Night Live skit on the actual Democratic nominee).
And by the way, the Mickey Mouse vote came in the Bronx, which cuts into Ferrer’s base.
Now if we can be serious for a moment…
In looking at the numbers for mayor, there are a number of interesting factoids that may have some bearing on the General Election.
First of all, we can call Rep. Anthony Weiner the mayor of Queens. He won the borough over Ferrer by 1,500 votes, netting a total of just over 34,000.
In 2001, Ferrer won 27.7 percent of the Queens vote in a much higher turnout election (178,469 vs. 91,642 this year…yuck). He gained 35 percent last month.
It gets interesting when you get to the 2001 runoff. Almost the same number of people voted in that race as in this year’s Primary (94,342 to 91,642). So that is a pretty good estimate to the “hard core” prime voters that turn out no matter what.
In that race against Mark Green, Ferrer pulled 45 percent. In the General Election against Bloomberg, Green lost 42 to 54 percent in Queens. The only other borough Green lost was Staten Island, so one could make the assertion that Queens Democrats voting for Bloomberg is what put him in office.
One has to assume Freddy will win the Bronx (Green lost tens of thousands of Ferrer runoff voters in the General Election, which hurt him a lot), do well enough with Manhattan Dems, hold onto his base in Brooklyn and get wiped out in Staten Island.
So once again, our home borough will be the key to the election. Ferrer needs to do a lot better than Green here if he is to have any chance at victory.
politics@queenscourier.com