NEW YORK -- More than 20 candidates have filed paperwork to run in a special election next month that will pick New York City's public advocate, a job that comes with a $165,000 salary, a $3 million budget and a bully pulpit -- but little actual power.
The thick crop of candidates, some with deep credentials, are running for a post with a somewhat vague job description that functions as a city ombudsman. The public advocate can investigate citizen complaints about agencies and services, introduce legislation to the City Council and issue news releases. The advocate has no subpoena power and no vote on whether proposals pass. The public advocate can, however, file lawsuits and serves as mayor if the mayor dies or becomes incapacitated.
Ever since the position was created in 1993, critics have said the job should be abolished. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg once called it "a total waste of everybody's money."
"Nobody needs another gadfly and we have an aggressive enough press," he told the Staten Island Advance in 2009.
And yet, the job remains coveted, partly because it has become a springboard to real power.
The last public advocate, Letitia James, just became New York's attorney general. Her predecessor, Bill de Blasio, is now the mayor.
"It's amusing that an office that some people want to get rid of has 20 people running," said Betsy Gotbaum, who was public advocate before de Blasio and is now the executive director of the Citizens Union, a government monitoring group.
"My principal theory of the office is that it's the ombudsman position of New York and as such it's very important," Gotbaum said. "It's like constituent services, but because you're elected citywide it gives you a little more power than, say, a local councilperson."
The lineup for the Feb. 26 special election includes present and past members of the City Council and the state Assembly, lawyers, community activists and entrepreneurs. The field of 22 candidates will likely shrink when the city Board of Elections meets to finalize the ballot Tuesday. The winner will have to compete again in a June primary and a November general election to serve as public advocate past the end of 2019.
The front-runners include Jumaane Williams, a City Council member who ran for state lieutenant governor on a ticket with actress Cynthia Nixon and nearly defeated incumbent Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul in last year's Democratic primary, as well as Melissa Mark-Viverito, a former City Council speaker, and Assemblyman Michael Blake, who is a vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
They are running to fill the seat vacated by James' ascension to the attorney general's job.
Almost all the candidates are Democrats -- as are all four people who have held the job since it was created -- but the special election is nonpartisan and the candidates are running on made-up party lines such as Equality for All and Fix the MTA, a reference to the agency that runs the city's subway and bus systems.
Eight candidates who attended a forum hosted by several gay Democratic clubs earlier this month sought to portray themselves as progressive leaders and friends of the gay and transgender community.
"I think I'm the best qualified person to do this because I come from a loudmouthed family and I'm a loudmouth," said Assemblyman Daniel O'Donnell, who is Rosie O'Donnell's brother and the first openly gay man elected to the New York state Assembly.
Mark-Viverito said she's "been consistent about standing up for everyone." Williams, who had to take time off his campaign for lieutenant governor to go on trial for obstructing an ambulance during a street protest, said, "I've been a very productive, activist elected official."
A Section on 01/28/2019