Bloomberg adopts an old-school strategy in mayoral race: Divide and conquerErrol Louis

Thursday, October 22nd 2009, 4:00 AM

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With two weeks to go before Election Day, Rudy Giuliani has hit the campaign trail with the same grimy, slimy bag of tricks that New Yorkers remember so well from the days before 9/11.

That he has deployed the politics of fear and racial division on behalf of Mayor Bloomberg signals two important facts.

Fact One: Bloomberg and his handlers are running scared, afraid of losing on Nov. 3. Fact Two: They would sooner soil the mayor's honor and reputation - and risk tearing the city apart - than face defeat at the polls.

"I worry daily that the city might be turned back to the way it was, to the way it was before 1993," Giuliani told a group of Orthodox Jewish New Yorkers in Borough Park, Brooklyn. "And you know exactly what I'm talking about."

This was Rudy at his race-baiting worst: encouraging people to let fear and hatred rule their thinking and voting.

In this distorted version of history, murder and other crime, which grew steadily during the three-term mayoralty of Ed Koch, only became a crisis the moment David Dinkins was sworn in as mayor on Jan. 1, 1990.

And Dinkins' funding of an expanded Police Department, his hiring of Ray Kelly as police commissioner and the 16% decline in violent crime in the final years of his administration all count for nothing in the world according to Rudy.But Giuliani's posturing had nothing to do with facts. It was a sickening, deliberate reawakening of the deadly tribal passions that tore apart my Crown Heights, Brooklyn, neighborhood in 1991.

And when asked later exactly what Rudy was getting at, Bloomberg doggedly kept on message, telling reporters that Detroit "went from a great city with lots of good-paying jobs to a city that's basically holding on for dear life."

This, too, was a departure from important facts as well as the political high road. Detroit's homeless population of 18,000 might be disproportionately higher than that of New York, but it's still half the size of our city's record 39,000 homeless - a number that has increased 45% since Bloomberg took office.

New Yorkers, all too familiar with gutter politics, reacted instantly.

Rudy's comments "verged on race baiting," said public advocate nominee Bill de Blasio.

"Giuliani's remarks about Crown Heights amount to dangerous, combustible stuff," wrote NBC newsman Gabe Pressman, dean of the city's political journalists.

Prof. Fred Siegel, an admirer and biographer of Rudy's, termed the comments by Giuliani and Bloomberg "neither morally defensible nor politically sensible."

The fear-mongering, I believe, is an attempt to close the unmistakable passion gap between Bloomberg's supporters and those of his Democratic challenger, Bill Thompson.

An unlikely collection of New Yorkers - call them the Eight Is Enough coalition - feel it's time for a new mayor.

The motley band includes a great many schoolteachers, low- and midlevel city employees, black and Latino families sick of the NYPD's runaway stop-and-frisk policies, gay and lesbian activists, and good-government reformers disgusted by Bloomberg's machinations to extend term limits.

They may not be a numerical majority, but they feel strongly about the election, which is key. They are not going to stay home on Nov. 3 or forget to vote.

Bloomberg supporters, on the other hand, may not show up at all.

During his recent meeting with the Daily News Editorial Board, Hizzoner told the story of when he bumped into a prominent newspaper columnist on the day of the Democratic primary runoff for controller.

Bloomberg and the newsman agreed that they both wanted candidate David Yassky to win. But when the mayor asked whether it seemed like the polling site was crowded, the newsman said matter-of-factly - and incorrectly - that he didn't have to vote again because he'd already cast a vote in the primary two weeks earlier.

And Yassky lost the runoff. The moral of the story, said Bloomberg, was that he can't take anybody's support for granted.

Fair enough.

But the mayor should also remember that the passion cuts both ways.

For every voter who responds to Rudy's coded come-ons, another one - or 10 - will stiffen their resolve not to let politicians divide a city that must pull together in the tough years ahead.

elouis@nydailynews.com

Anybody that the great Italian American Rudy endorses has my vote ......Bloomberg is the right man for the job

Too bad your not a New Yorker and as such it matters not who has your vote. With that said, Rudy is a joke, as was his administration...all smoke and mirrors...any careful examination of Guliani's mayoralship by someone who is really interested in facts and only facts would demonstrate as much. As for Bloomberg, unfortuntaly he will win a third term but under the most dubious of circumstances...hell, had Giuliani known it would've been that easy he would've bedded the city council and had term limits over-ruled back then. And all New Yorkers must ask themselves a question: Why would Bloomberg put so much of his money into this race? Could it have something to do with the fact that while he's been mayor his PERSONAL fortune has experienced robust growth (while the city's fortunes have declined steadily in the same period)?

Cibby go back to watching the Zapruder film you are in the small minority of wackos who want to go back to the dinkins style anarchy however those were your protest days etc so you just love the Nostalgia I can see you now out there on the picket line with Al " not so sharp- " Sharpton

So let me get this straight...I bring to the table an article that cites facts on the Guliani administration that don't jive with the wonderful world of make believe that some live in and that is construed by you as an endorsement on my behalf for both the former Dinkins administration and Al Sharpton? Are you serious? Instead of suppositions on your part why don't you state something concrete instead?

you can call me Al ?. ..Cibby check out this for a laugh ....
" I am somebody " and it is not AL.... ....are those guys interchangeable or what http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CKHFn8mULE&NR=1?

I saw that this morning...LOL...what a horrible gaffe...Jackson's a joke anyway. His fake "reverand" accent is beyond ridiculous.

Let us hope their " reign of terror " is coming to an end they have worn out the deck of slimy race cards played invariably from the bottom

Jackson is nothing but a shameless opportunist...in the past he touted himself as the poster boy for the pro-life movement...he eventually sold out on this belief so as to become more palatable to the rest of the Democratic party in his failed bid for the Presidency in the 80s...he gets no respect from me.

Cibby pushes jesse under the bus now for Al " the charlatan " Sharpton....go ahead .....don't tell me you think he is Rehabilitating himself