The Empire Page

The 2010 elections are seeing a new breed 0f Democrats in New York. They call themselves “independent” Democrats and in many ways they are direct descendants of Mike Bloomberg. They come out of Wall Street and reject many of the populist stands taken by the Democratic Party. They claim to be attractive candidates because they bring “new perspectives” that are different from traditional Democratic solutions. But their approach is in many ways antithetical to the values of the Democratic Party.

The most visible of these candidates is Harold Ford. After losing a Senate race in Tennessee, Ford came to New York as a Vice Chairman of Merrill Lynch and became Chair of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council and now is weighing a run against New York’s junior Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. Merrill was a casualty of the financial collapse and is now a unit of Bank of America and Ford has taken a leave of absence to explore his  Senate run.  Ford is being bankrolled by a number of Wall Street titans. He projects an everyman charm on the campaign trail but his interests are those of the elite. While many Democrats, including President Obama, feel that there is something wrong with Wall Street paying itself record bonuses after being bailed out by the government, Ford sees no problem with these bonuses. This not surprising considering who’s paying his bills and that he is probably due a big bonus.

Another new Democratic candidate from Wall Street is Reshma Sanjani who is running in the primary against Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney. Samjani has been an attorney for a number of Wall Street companies. She also has little problem with  the bonuses being doled out on Wall Street and wants to implement more pro-business policies. Carolyn Maloney has been a progressive Democrat, standing up for labor and progressive policies the needs of all New Yorkers. Sanjani, like Ford, thinks these stands are a little outdated. Sanjani is young, attractive, and represents a new immigrant community. Voters in Maloney’s district must not let this shiny surface distract them from the beliefs that are under the surface. A new approach is not necessarily a better approach.

Mike Bloomberg has gone on record saying New Yorkers should be calling Congress to urge them to allow Wall Streeters to get paid more because New York needs the money. While the cash is needed short term this not the right policy for the long term.  Our representatives in Congress need to be looking for long term solutions to diversify our economy not increasing our bets on Wall Street. Gilllibrand and Maloney are working hard on these solutions, Ford and Sanjani appear more committed to helping Wall Street, echoing Bloomberg’s wishes. We should not be replacing two quality Democrats with Bloomberg followers. Like Bloomberg they claim to be independent, but they represent the financial industry, New York’s biggest special interest.