On February 18th, 2009, Adolfo Carrion Jr. (above, a Hunter College alum) was appointed the White House's Urban Affairs Chief. This appointment creates a vacancy in Carrion's present position; Bronx Borough President. What does a Borough President do? Well, according to Carrion's website:
"The Borough President works with the Mayor to prepare the annual executive budget submitted to the City Council, reviews and comments on major land use projects, and proposes sites for City facilities within his jurisdiction. The Borough President also monitors the administration of City services and engages in strategic planning for the economic development of the borough."
This position is very important and often can catapult the office holder to an even higher position, as we are seeing now, with Carrion.
However, the press coverage of the race to fill his seat has been largely void of any substance. Bronx politics is a very confusing affair. There are several families who control much of what goes on in Bronx politics. The two families at the center of the battle for Carrion's seat are the Diazes and the Riveras. For the past year, there has been a war for control of the Democratic Party in the Bronx and these two families have been front and center. The next battle is who wins the Bronx Borough Presidency. The special election will be help in 45 days. The position is up for election again in November of this year. The winner of the Democratic Primary in September will most likely be the winner in November.
The only media coverage of the race I have found centers on the struggle between Ruben Diaz Jr (above left) and Joel Rivera (above right). Unfortunately, the media is only covering the drama between these two factions and not on any policy or issue questions. Are there differences between these two candidates? Who knows? Good luck trying to find out.
Here are some links to recent coverage:
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/23/vacancy-adds-to-heat-in-bronx-political-feu/
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/bronx/2009/02/23/2009-02-23_adolfos_departure_creates_fallout.html
Unfortunately, the NY media seems intent on framing this important election as a family feud; a horserace. Do the candidates have any policy differences?
Ruben Diaz Jr. was elected to the NY State Assembly at the age of 23 in 1996. His father, Ruben Diaz Sr., is a NY State Senator and a member of the "Gang of Three", who held up the election of Malcolm Smith as the first Democratic Majority Leader of the Senate in 40 years. Although both are Democrats Diaz Sr. is staunchly conservative, anti-gay and anti abortion. His son, Diaz Jr., is much more liberal and a strong ally of Al Sharpton.
Joel Rivera was elected to the New York City council in 2001 when he was just 22 years old and at 23 was elected as Majority Leader of the council. He is a strong public health advocate and both his sister and father serve in the NY State Assembly -alongside Diaz Jr- confusing right.
As for their plans for the Bronx- we have yet to hear. Hopefully more opportunities are created for the two men to talk about the issues affecting the Bronx today. Diaz Jr. has been endorsed by the Bronx County Democratic Party and Rivera Jr. has yet to officially announce his candidacy.
5 comments:
Thanks for introducing me to an issue I was not aware of. Bronx politics are unfortunately out of my sphere of knowledge. This is an interesting topic and very important. Looking forward to reading more of informative and well written posts!
This article conveyed that policies usually take a back seat to the personalities of the candidates. However, Rivera Jr. did not declare his candidacy as yet, therefore, there are no debates to be covered. So for now, the media is only covering this aspect of their lives. By posting this article as a family feud rather than competing policies, the media is trying to attract readers instead of relaying facts that would help the voters decide who would be a better President.
This story reminds me a lot of politics in my country Cote d'Ivoire, where it is really familly matter and "feud" as you said it... in this case, I do not know if this is really a familly feud or not, but overall i think that media coverage as such is not very helping the actual campaign running and the actual problems and issues adressed, it really takes away from the core issues in my opinion, but then again if this is really a familly feud, it should be brought to light as well, I guess it's a matter of balance here.
This blog entry is well written and narrowly focused, and midway through I think you do a good job of bringing the media in and discussing that. At some point this semester, we're going to talk about how some argue the press has a "personalization bias," tending to cover political stories as personal fights between individuals rather than focusing on systemic problems and issues. Since you have identified that in the coverage of Bronx politics, maybe you want to speculate on why the coverage tends this way? Savitrie brings up one potential reason here, are there any others you can think of?
I know this is a late comment but I just think the coverage of the race to fill the Bronx borough president seat is clearly an example of sensationalist coverage. It almost reads like a domestic version of a political celebrity tabloid. I think the problem not only lies in the media's duty to provide full coverage but is also the fault of a public that doesn't demand more information regarding actual policy. The Bronx has a lot of serious economic and healthcare issues that need more coverage than family dramas. It's gonna take a lot of effort from both the media and the people to push for better reporting and real change.
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