Public Employee Press

Election 2013
Green Machine gets out the vote on Election Day

By ALFREDO ALVARADO

DC 37 volunteers hit the streets in all five boroughs and made thousands of calls from the union's phone banks starting early Tuesday morning Nov. 5 to get New Yorkers to the polls to send Public Advocate Bill de Blasio to City Hall as mayor with a powerful mandate for change.

The Green Machine activists helped make the former City Council member from Brooklyn the city's first Democratic mayor-elect in 20 years. By early afternoon it was obvious that he was winning a landslide victory over Republican opponent Joe Lhota. De Blasio won strong majorities among nearly every ethnic, gender, income, and age group and will become the city's 109th mayor when he takes office in January.

Campaigning on a "tale of two cities" theme, de Blasio pledged to address the gap between the city's rich and poor, curb giveaways to corporations and developers, put a moratorium on charter schools and raise taxes on New Yorkers making more than $500,000 to expand universal pre-kindergarten and after-school programs.

"The people of this city have chosen a progressive path and tonight we set forth on it together, as one city," said the mayor-elect at his election night victory party at Brooklyn's Park Slope Armory.

At the top of the agenda for the new mayor will be sitting down with DC 37 and other unions of municipal employees to hammer out new contracts.

Major change at City Hall

"Nothing is more important than getting contracts for the people who keep the city running," he told DC 37's Executive Board Sept. 17. "I believe in the quality and ability of public employees, and I am not in favor of privatization." The Executive Board and DC 37's delegates voted overwhelmingly to endorse de Blasio for mayor.

"Bill de Blasio sees clearly that the rising economic inequality of the Bloomberg years has caused widespread suffering," said DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts. "I look forward to a new mayor who genuinely believes in working together with the union."

The union also endorsed Brooklyn City Council member Letitia James, who won her election for Public Advocate and became the first African-American woman elected to citywide office. "I saw you everywhere," James said of the union's green-shirted army of volunteers. "I will never forget DC 37."

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer won his election for Comptroller and expressed his gratitude for the union's support. "DC 37 did not walk away when I was down 20 points in the polls; instead, you doubled down," he said.

Ken Thompson, also endorsed by DC 37, won as Brooklyn District Attorney. "You will see a different Brooklyn with one standard of justice for all," he promised the union.

Four candidates endorsed by DC 37 won their borough president races: City Council member Gale Brewer in Manhattan, Eric Adams in Brooklyn, Melinda Katz in Queens and Ruben Diaz in the Bronx. The City Council will also have 19 new members.

Genaro Mojica, a Jobs Training Proguram worker, was one of the hundreds of DC 37 members who volunteered to help de Blasio's candidacy. "It was my first time. They asked me to volunteer and I decided it would be a positive thing to do, because we need change," said Mojica, who works in a park in East Harlem. "I'm glad I was able to help out."