OTHER DAVIDS READY THEIR
Slings In Run For Mayor

Harlem — A few hours before the Rent Guidelines Board's major public hearing on June 17, out on the plaza at Cooper Union, a landlord and a tenant activist had just traded curses. One renter wrapped up a speech in Mandarin about the ever-higher rent she's paying, then another tenant delivered a similar salvo in Spanish. The crowd was chanting "Rent freeze now! Rent freeze now!" And City Councilman Tony Avella of Queens was explaining to a man in the audience why he wasn't getting more Council support for his proposal to halt any hike in stabilized rents in New York. "He's told everybody, 'Don't help Avella,'" he said. “Bill Thompson has. Because he's afraid of me."

Though he may have won the support of some tenant activists, it's not clear that Avella – who's running for mayor on a shoestring budget and trailing in the polls – is all that fearsome to Comptroller Thompson, the presumptive frontrunner for the Democratic nomination. (Thompson's campaign wouldn't say.) But Avella could yet be a factor in the 2009 New York City mayoral race. Avella's volunteers are circulating petitions to get him on the ballot and force a Democratic primary on Sept. 15. He will likely meet the funding and polling qualifications to participate in televised debates against Thompson. And he's getting the backing of a few political clubs and civic organizations. At the very least, Avella could make this year's campaign—generally portrayed as a token contest along the way to thumping by Mayor Michael Bloomberg—a little less drowsy.

So could the Green Party candidate for mayor, the activist performance artist Rev. Billy Talen, who leads his own Church of Life After Shopping. While the Greens usually mount a mayoral campaign that attracts but a hint of voter support, they've never had a candidate armed with a blonde bouffant, a gospel choir, and the supposed power to exorcise demons from Starbucks shops, Wal-Marts and even personal credit cards.

On paper, neither candidate has a chance. The most recent survey of city voters, conducted by Quinnipiac University, finds that among Democratic primary voters, Thompson earns 36 percent to Avella's 8 percent (with the majority saying "don't know"). In a separate question about the general election, Talen didn't even get a mention by the pollsters, who found only 1 percent of respondents saying they were looking to vote for "someone else" other than Bloomberg or Thompson come November. As Thompson has spent $1.8 million to date trying to stay afloat amid Bloomberg's more than $18.6 million in campaign outlays, Avella has mustered a mere $117,000 outlay and Talen has spent only $33,000.

But while Avella and Talen lack name recognition and money, they both have one advantage over the mayor and comptroller. If there has been an undercurrent of dissent and dissatisfaction during the Bloomberg years, it's been about the city's support for real estate developers over neighborhood opposition, and centralized decision-making over community control. And on street corners and in public hearings, the councilman and the preacher have been among the most visible faces of that discontent. If there's a rationale for ousting the popular two-term mayor this fall, Avella and Talen have spent most of this decade articulating it.

Avella's campaign slogan is “The Revolution has begun!” Talen raises his hand to the heavens and prays for “Change-alluiah!” And they both really mean it.
        
Not playing nicely