Should it matter to national Democrats that the mayor of New York is not only Republican but is also expected to win re-election by a comfortable margin? If you pose the question to Steven Rattner and Maureen White, the answer you'll get is a resounding “no.” It’s hardly the response you’d expect, given that few New York power couples are more committed to the Democratic Party than Rattner and White. Last year, Rattner, an investment banker, was a top fund-raiser for John Kerry, and White, the finance chair of the Democratic National Committee, helped engineer the biggest fund-raising drive in the party’s history.
Yet Rattner is chairing Democrats for Bloomberg, a group that includes other big Dems like Roger Altman, Harvey Weinstein, and fundraiser Alan Patricof. And White, who’s influential in New York fund-raising circles, recently went so far as to suggest that Dem donors shouldn’t give to Michael Bloomberg’s opponent, Democrat Fernando Ferrer. “If you support the mayor,” she said recently, “then presumably you are not going to be giving to other candidates.” <snip>
Given that track record, why should Dems care if Bloomberg wins a second term? Partly because Bloomberg, for all his leftward feints, has at times been quite the loyal GOP partisan. He has defended the Iraq War, a hugely symbolic gesture coming from the mayor of the city attacked on September 11. He’s raised millions of dollars for the national GOP. During last year’s GOP convention in New York he presided over the highly questionable arrests of more than 1,500 protesters, in effect placing the GOP’s desire for a peaceful convention above his own constituents’ right to peaceful protest. Those gestures alone make one wonder just where Bloomberg’s political sympathies really lie. If he’s really a liberal Dem in GOP garb, as many of his supporters insist, why does he so often lend help and cover to those who should be his ideological enemies? The most charitable answer is that Bloomberg hopes to persuade the national GOP to look kindly on New York when handing out homeland security money. Opinions differ on whether that’s worked, but one thing is clear: Bloomberg has foresaken the New York Mayor’s traditional role as someone who raises his voice to communicate the wants, needs and aspirations of his constituents to the national audience and the ruling party in D.C. It’s a void that New Yorkers need filled more than ever, given the enormous ideological gap between this city’s residents and the national GOP, as well as the Republicans’ ongoing exploitation of Sept. 11.
There’s another reason Dems should care if Bloomberg wins re-election: The success of Republicans like Bloomberg in Democratic strongholds is extraordinarily helpful to Karl Rove’s strategy for building an enduring Republican majority. That strategy rests on offsetting the party leadership's endless pampering of the right wing base with hollow gestures designed to keep moderates from getting scared away by the party’s hardcore conservatism. Hence Rove’s much-ballyhooed outreach to blacks, which isn’t really about winning over African Americans but is actually about signaling to white moderates that the party is tolerant and inclusive. To the extent that mild-mannered liberal Republicans like Bloomberg put a gentle face on today’s GOP -- particularly in New York, the supposed capitol of liberalism -- they’re helping Rove achieve his objectives. <snip>
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=10332
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