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Ferrer and Ognibene in the Mayorless Debate
By
Jen Chung
Published Oct 7, 2005
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Oct 7, 2005
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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Last night, two was the loneliest number, or that's what Fernando Ferrer and Thomas Ognibene would argue as they debated without Mayor Bloomberg. Granted, Mayor Bloomberg was busy getting on CNN and all the other channels by telling everyone that there was a subway terror threat but things are okay and he was riding the subway so don't you worry. Ferrer and Ognibene spent quite a bit of time blasting the Mayor for passing up the debate, calling him arrogant, which excited the crowd. And debate organizers thoughtfully left the middle podium empty, which was a nice way to balance the two debaters, versus putting them in podiums alphabetically, leaving an empty podium on the left. Among the things voters learned during the debate: Ferrer has smoked pot, while Ognibene hasn't; Ferrer thinks starting teacher pay should be more than starting cop pay while Ognibene disagrees; and they both think people should be allowed to drink coffee in the subway.
And the Mayor's decision to sit this debate out was also news during the day, before his whole terrorists are targetting the subways thing. What's awesome is that the Democratic party had a chicken (probably the guy who wore the Bush mask to harass the Mayor at his events) follow him to a Queens event. The Mayor appeared at a day care center with Rosie O'Donnell, who said about the debate flap, "We seem to be a glut in this culture where everyone thinks all-you-can-eat is the best thing you can do, and, you know, frankly, I feel two is enough." Jesus H. Christ. Gothamist thinks we speak for everyone when we say "Shut up, Rosie - we rather you go back to riding a bus."
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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