This year’s primary elections are scheduled for Tuesday, September 13. We urge all those who are eligible to do so to vote for their favorite candidates. While it is unusual for The Wave to endorse candidates in primary elections, we have done so when we felt compelled to speak about the candidates and the issues in the various races prior to the general election in November. The major seat up for grabs this year, of course, is the mayoralty of New York City. There is no Republican primary for Mayor this year due to Michael Bloomberg’s successful challenge of Tom Ognibene’s signatures. As is usual, all of the action is on the Democratic side of the ballot, where there are six challengers: Christopher Brodeur, Fernando (Freddie) Ferrer, C. Virginia Fields, Arthur Piccolo and Anthony Weiner.
 
For Mayor, Congressman Anthony Weiner: We can discount Brodeur and Piccolo without further comment because neither has mounted a credible campaign. We believe that the election of either Fields or Ferrer, both old-line Democratic functionaries, would bring the city back to the bad-old-days of Ed Koch (who somehow has gone from ultra-Liberal to Republican) and David Dinkins. That leaves us with Miller and Weiner. Of the two, we like Anthony Weiner for his creative solutions to the major funding and societal problems that face the city. Miller seems to be nothing more than a Manhattan-focused young man on the make and his actions during the campaign have only served to increase that feeling. Weiner, on the other hand, is the “Energizer Bunny,” always on the go, always trying to ameliorate the impact of “Manhattan-based thinking” on the outer boroughs such as Queens. Has he always brought home the bacon for Rockaway? Not by a long shot, but he has always been in there swinging against the federal bureaucracy and, on the whole, has served Rockaway well.