Snoozing Through the Circus

New Yorkers have gotten spoiled. After years of being entertained by colorful political escapades, they have become as apathetic and unexcited as the rest of us.

It wasn't always this way.

It used to be that, regardless of how banal or superficial politics in the rest of the country became, we could always count on New York City to spice things up. While the rest of us were content with passivity, New Yorkers embraced an active cynicism that would get them worked up about those bums in power.

Flag-burning, school uniforms and V-chips seemed trivial to New Yorkers in the face of the big beefy issues of municipal bankruptcy, urban decay, and criminal danger lurking around every corner. Where campaigns beyond the Hudson strive for a vanilla homogeneity that does not offend or alienate any potential voters, New York politicos have never been afraid to muddy themselves in the racial, ethnic, and social divides within the electorate.

But now, all that seems to have changed. In less than three weeks, the next mayor of the city will be chosen at the polls...and New Yorkers yawn.

This year's mayoral contest has totally failed to capture the attention of the city. A recent New York Times poll revealed that, after months of campaigning and extensive media coverage, 60 percent of those questioned had no opinion of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's Democratic opponent, Manhattan borough president Ruth Messinger'62.

Of course much of this apathy stems from the conventional wisdom that the mayor would run away with the election, leaving his quixotic challenger in the dust.

But while the perception that Giuliani has made the city a safer and more prosperous place might explain his lead in the polls, it does not explain the remarkable lack of interest in the race itself. For a variety of reasons-some intellectual, some titillating-this election undoubtedly has the potential to arouse New Yorkers out of their unusual political slumber.

As a historical phenomenon, the Giuliani-Messinger fight provides interesting fodder for dinner table banter. The ability of the first Republican mayor of New York City in a generation to so confidently cruise to reelection in a city with a 5-to-1 Democratic edge is remarkable in and of itself. Giuliani accomplished this by embracing Democratic ideas when politically expedient (opposing Republican immigration policies), using the media to mold his reputation as a 'ubiquitous action hero of Gotham,' and employing an utter ruthlessness in discrediting and attacking his opponents. If he does dominate at the polls in November, his strategy will become the definitive play book on how a Republican can conquer an urban, racially-diverse, Democratic stronghold.

Additionally, Messinger's fight to become the first woman to govern the nation's largest city should stand as a significant political milestone. Unfortunately though, she has not caught on as a symbol of feminist advancement and, according to polls and the crowds at her events, women are not enthused by her campaign.

On a more sordid level, this race has all of the elements that make New York politics such an attractive subject for Hollywood productions: sex, corruption, racial and ethnic conflict, and vicious politicking. This past summer, a national magazine published rumors of an extra-marital affair between Giuliani and a top aide. The story received wide coverage in both the local New York and national press. But despite the fact that the Mayor's wife has been conspicuously absent from his campaign events, the rumor seems to have fizzled as quickly as it flared up.

If corruption is more your fancy when it comes to scandal, the Mayor is also experiencing a bit of Clintonesque embarrassment over some questionable campaign finance practices. He has already been fined $220,000 by the Campaign Finance Board for receiving $340,000 in illegal contributions.

Additionally, the New York Daily News recently reported that the Mayor's campaign had accepted (despite their public stance against doing so) more than $100,000 in contributions from businesses or individuals that have been convicted, indicted, to banned from doing business with the city.

And, of course, what would a political contest in the melting pot of New York City be without some exploitation of racial and ethnic tensions?

The savage beating of a black, Haitian immigrant by the NYPD in August looked as if it could be the spark that ignited the city's always-simmering racial tensions. More recently, one of Giuliani's Jewish political allies published a letter in a Jewish newspaper describing a Messinger mayoralty as an utter nightmare. While Giuliani distanced himself from this attack, he later implied that Messinger (who is Jewish) does not care about the city's Italian-American and Roman Catholic communities because she did not attend the Columbus Day Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral and dropped out of the city's holiday parade early (comments for which he later apologized).

Finally, while the voters seem to be napping through this contest, the candidates themselves aren't pulling any punches. Despite his sizable lead in the polls, the Giuliani campaign has been viciously attacking Messinger as an extremist on the "way-out fringe" of the Democratic party.

Not to be outdone, the Messinger campaign continues to harp on the Mayor's questionable campaign finance practices, his callous treatment of the city's schools and his alleged draft-dodging during the Vietnam War.

Despite all of these juicy morsels of intrigue, the voters will probably remain just as uninterested in Giuliani's probable cruise to victory on November 4. Those of us in the politically-bland rest of the country can take solace in the fact that the political theater plays on in New York...even if New Yorkers are no longer watching the show.