NYC: Mike's run may go up in smoke

New York Daily News ^

[SheLion]

Mike's run may go up in smoke 

Mayor Bloomberg could be run out of City Hall by the smokers he ran out of bars and into the streets.
This will sound funny to those who read polls that say Bloomberg's smoking ban is popular. But it's very serious to the politicians who have their eyes on Gracie Mansion - and their ears to the bitterness of smokers and the business blues of saloon keepers and restaurateurs.

I spoke yesterday to three of the Democrats who are considering making the run for mayor: Rep. Anthony Weiner, Controller William Thompson and Fernando Ferrer, the ex-Bronx borough president who nearly won the nomination in 2001. All three, in varying degrees, say they will make the smoking ban a serious issue in their campaigns.

"It has to be," says Hank Sheinkopf, the savvy New York political consultant, "because to many smokers, this is a one-issue deal, like abortion and gun control. If they're with you on everything else but this, you're dead. It could lose Bloomberg north of 400,000 votes."

Weiner is easily the most articulate on the issue, which, on the face of it, is surprising because he is a nonsmoker. "If you want to see just how much Bloomberg misunderstands the DNA of New York - what sort of a condescending patrician he is - look at the way he handled the smoking business," says Weiner. 

"He rammed it through without ever having campaigned for it. He did it without considering what it would do to the small bars in the city, particularly the outer boroughs, what it would do to the soul of New York, which to me is libertarianism, the right to live your life without onerous government intervention. I sum it up this way: New York does not want or need Nurse Ratched as mayor."

Weiner represents parts of Queens and Brooklyn, the last gin-mill neighborhoods of the city, where smokin' and drinkin' are an integral part of the life of working men and women.

"Exactly where Bloomberg is most vulnerable," says Sheinkopf. "Add Staten Island, where his Republican base threatens him on real estate taxes as well as smoking, and the mayor is in big trouble."

So, too, may be Gifford Miller, the speaker of the City Council, who pushed through Bloomberg's smoking law. Miller wants the Democratic nomination for mayor, and now Weiner, Thompson and Ferrer will challenge him.

Thompson told me yesterday: "I'm concerned that the blanket application of the smoking ban has had a negative financial impact on bars, and I would look to create exceptions for these establishments."

Ferrer says: "We definitely need to reexamine this law and see if we can come to a reasonable way to both protect health and business."

Make no mistake about it - the restaurants and bars are getting killed by this Bloomberg-Miller law that has nothing but fake science to support it.

Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden insisted to me that 1,000 bartenders and waiters die each year of secondhand smoke. I didn't bother to argue with him about this nonsense. I simply warned him that he could cost Mike the election.

Hearing that, he took notes and said, "I wish I could take the heat instead of him. Maybe we should put me on a dartboard." 

Too late, buddy. Too late. 

Originally published on March 24, 2004 

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/col/story/176888p-153884c.html

 

[SheLion]

More On Bloomberg

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HaHaaaaa!

[SheLion]

[Savage Beast]

Okay, here's a compromise: Let them smoke, but make them wear a scarlet S. (Some things never change.)

[jocon307]

We can only hope this article is prophetic, and not just wishful thinking.

[Old Grumpy]

I hope the New Yorkers make him a one-term mayor.

[mewzilla]

Isn't there an exemption for businesses that are taking a financial hit? I think a number of bars around here have gotten waivers. There are smokers in them :)

[metesky]

Say goodnight, Mike.

[chainsaw]

I hope the New Yorkers make him a one-term mayor. and Hillary a one-term senator

[tdadams]

I get very depressed when I think what NYC is going to regress into 10 years post-Guliani. If that man was mayor for life, NYC would be the greatest city in the world. Period.

[sauropod]

Weiner represents parts of Queens and Brooklyn, the last gin-mill neighborhoods of the city, where smokin' and drinkin' are an integral part of the life of working men and women.

Well???? How about it? Nurse Ratched for Mayor!

[kidao35]

Howard Stern showed his utter hypocrisy by demanding that smoking be barred from restaurants, vs. if you don't like the smoke, get up and leave.

However, he thinks its OK to use radio as his bully pulpit to express his fetishes and other deviant thoughts and desires. Hey, if you don't like it, change the station, right?

Apparently the 1st Amendment protects his "toilet-humor" rights, but smokers are not protected under the same Amendment that allows for "peaceable assembly".

Then there's the rights of restaurant owners to allow in who they want, and to allow said guests to participate in any legal activity they want, as protected under the 14th Amendment.

[hellinahandcart]

There hasn't been "malaise" like this since David Dinkins. Curiously, more people blame Bush than Bloomberg and the wretched City Council.

I'm out of here this summer.

[Concentrate]

You DON'T understand. In Blue country we have Liberals, (RINOs), and Democrats.

NOONE else can be elected. What would you choose?

[Concentrate]

The Demonrats in NYC are going to lift the smoking ban after a very short hiatus of 1000 years. :)

[Solamente]

Bloomberg is smug about not being re-elected: "My Plan B is better than my Plan A."

Boo-Hoo, guess I'll just have to go back to being a billionaire!

[MeekOneGOP]

Wow ! I like your new 'Puff' gif there !

[firebrand]

I wouldn't count on it. The Dems are mostly in favor of the smoking ban. It would be a small-business champion who would be against it---the other side, in other words.

[Labyrinthos]

Even if the next mayor is able to have the anti-smoking law repealed, so what? The statewide law will still be in effect thanks to Rino Pataki and his gang of thieves.

[swarthyguy]

He did it without considering what it would do to the small bars in the city, particularly the outer boroughs, what it would do to the soul of New York, which to me is libertarianism, the right to live your life without onerous government intervention. I sum it up this way: New York does not want or need Nurse Ratched as mayor."

If I was a NooYawker, I'd be voting for Weiner. Doesn't sound like one. Doesn't sound like a putz, either.

[NYCVirago]

I never thought the day would come that I would agree with Rep. Anthony Weiner on anything, but here it is!