Governor Mario Cuomo is posting a series of essays on DMIBlog this week, the reading of which is well worth your time.

The current essay, "Campaign in Poetry, Govern in Prose" poses a challenge to the Democrats running for the Presidency.

It’s hard to recall a time in the modern history of presidential elections when we had before us as many vital issues. That makes it more regrettable that some of the leading candidates for President are avoiding being specific about how they intend to deal with those issues.

The proliferation of candidates, the reluctance of leaders in the polls to engage in meaningful probing debate and the extraordinarily early primary season, threaten to give us another primary campaign of sound bites, elusive responses and negativism with dominant roles being played by polls, the power of money and the unpredictability of situation-altering incidents and co-incidents.  read more »

Monday's meeting of the Drum Major Institute and Baruch College's School of Public Affairs featured three major policy papers which, perhaps because of the structure of the conference, did not get the attention they deserved. All three are available at the DMI site. There's a lot to think about there.

The first, by CUNY professor John Mollenkopf, director of the Center for Urban Research (if you are not familiar with their work and have the time, explore their website) looked closely and economic and income trends over time to characterize the "Middle Class" His presentation, "Is New York Still a Middle Class Town?," is on the DMI site here . (pdf). It was excellent. It calls to mind and complements presentations about income distribution and employment trends in NYC by the Fiscal Policy Institute especially by FPI Director James Parrott and Senior Fellow David Dyssegaard Kallick.

The second was a report which could and should have been the focus of the meeting. The Drum Major Institute surveyed 100 (anonymous, but for one) leaders and experts. They asked detailed questions about the leaders views on the facts of life for the middle class in New York City. While the survey is really only about the views of those polled. They questions asked and the answers are intriguing . It's not data, it's not analysis of data -- but I bet that if you start reading it carefully, you'll finish. Read the executive summary here even if you're not an executive. They have a link to the full report (sorry again, pdf).  read more »

Mario Cuomo opened the Drum Major Institute with what lipris at The Albany Project called a barnburner of a speech. Well, they must burns barns more quietly in Albany than I am used to. (lipris has some favorite video of Cuomo here)

Cuomo, who's been a fiery orator in times past, delivered a learned (quoting Aristotle on the Middle Class), somewhat rambling lecture which began to smoke only as he critiqued "supply-side" (Voodoo) economics and Bush tax relief for the wealthy.

At the first panel, moderator Doug Muzzio, Bauch Public Affairs Professor tried to focus panelists on the lack of affordable housing and told his tale of fleeing to New Jersey. While two of the panelists, Deputy Mayor Linda Gibbs and Finance Commissioner Martha Stark were essentially silent on the issue, one former Giuliani-Bloomberg official, Jerilyn Perine was just wonderful. Smart, funny, focused, she presented excellent and well-thought-out concrete proposals for increasing the amount of actually affordable housing. Perine, who had been nondescript as Commissioner of HPD in both Mayoral administrations, was a smart as a whip and twice as funny. Nothing I saw in her record at HPD would have led anyone to have expected her performance Monday. if you ever get a chance to hear her, freed apparently of many political constraints (she's in the consulting business), grab it.  read more »

The Drum Major Institute's meeting at Baruch College yesterday was important and remarkable as much for who was there as for what was said. Three elected officials who may run for Mayor in 2009 spoke and gave those of us in the audience a side-by-side view of them as policy makers as well as campaigners. While there's a lot of substance to write about the meeting, mayoral electoral politics was on the minds of many. Diane Cardwell's NY Times article also focused on the men who would be Mayor My post on the substance will follow later today.

NYC Comptroller William C. Thompson, Congress Member Anthony Weiner and Bronx Borough President Adolpho Carrion spoke and worked the room which was filled with lobbyists, consultants, non-profit executives and policy-junkies like me. What I saw surprised me.

Judging only by their focus and remarks Monday Comptroller Thompson and Bronx Beep Carrion do not intend to run against Mayor Bloomberg's record. This was a surprise to me, since of late, a firestorm of criticism against the Mayor has been burning over Mr. Bloomberg's education policies and practices. Indeed Mr. Thompson has sometimes been one of those setting the anti-Bloomberg fire alight.

Listening yesterday, however, the only potential candidate who clearly articulated a progressive platform against Mr. Bloomberg's record was Congress Member Weiner. As in his previous run for Mayor, Mr. Weiner was focused, smart and informed. On a panel with Council Member John Liu and Carrion, Weiner wit sparkled. On health care for employees of small business, for example, Weiner proposed that NYC bring the cost down by forming a small-business buyers' cooperative. It's well known that those entities able to deliver big pools of insured people (Big Corporations, NYC) get better insurance for lower prices. It's not the best solution (single payer, universal health insurance, as I see it), but its better than what we have now for small business. Carrion and Lu were skeptical and critical without any thought out reasons. I guess I'm also a fan of Mr. Weiner's Schumer-style sharpness and repartee.

Governor Mario Cuomo.

Congressman Anthony Weiner.