Having been outvoxed by the populi not once but twice in the last few years, City Council Speaker Peter Vallone clearly has learned his lesson. On the question of the New York Yankees and their future residence, Mr. Vallone has said he wants the people to decide.
Imagine! Asking the taxpayers themselves whether they want to subsidize George Steinbrenner! What an extraordinary notion!
Mr. Vallone is becoming this campaign season’s chief maker of mischief, and for this we must all be grateful, since the proceedings thus far have not contributed much in the way of knee-slapping ribaldry. By suggesting that voters pass judgment over proposals to move Mr. Steinbrenner’s playpen to the West Side of Manhattan and pay the shipping costs, Mr. Vallone may yet turn this business into a referendum not on the stadium or the commercial rent tax, but on Mr. Steinbrenner. Of course, Mr. Steinbrenner is one of this city’s great municipal villains– a man who fired Yogi Berra! –so the outcome of such a vote shouldn’t be difficult to predict. Perhaps Mr. Berra will be persuaded to make a television advertisement against the Yankees’ boss: “Fans, this is Yogi Berra, and if you build a stadium on the West Side, it’ll be so crowded that nobody will go there.”
If this foray into direct democracy seems like déjà vu all over again for Mr. Vallone, it’s because he has been on the wrong end of two such exercises, both of them on the matter of political job security. Mr. Vallone and nearly all of his 50 Council colleagues will be out of work in three years because the easily underrated Ronald Lauder bankrolled an easily overlooked ballot question in 1993 that resulted in a great popular outpouring of support for term limits for citywide officials and Council members.
Having been caught with their ballots down, Mr. Vallone and his colleagues tried to reverse that admittedly extreme measure, asking voters in 1997 to grant them an extra term, three instead of two. Ah, but the full-throated voice of the people replied in the negative, and thus did direct democracy overpower the representative version.
Mr. Vallone, not one to ignore the lessons of history, now has adopted the tactics of that populist rabble-rouser Mr. Lauder in his campaign to keep the Yankees in the Bronx. The referendum proposal not only has driven Mayor Rudolph Giuliani crazy (not that it takes much), but has had the effect of drawing attention to its proposer, i.e., Mr. Vallone. As a gubernatorial candidate in a gray flannel suit, this attention is, of course, welcome, especially as it comes at no expense to the Speaker’s campaign treasury.
As long as Mr. Giuliani condemns the referendum, Mr. Vallone can expect to find himself in the constant company of microphones and television cameras, those faithful friends of the underdog candidate. As if to illustrate the point, Mr. Vallone scheduled a press conference on the well-trod steps of City Hall on April 30 to announce that he had won the endorsement of City Comptroller Alan Hevesi. As three bedraggled aides hovered in the background with “Vallone for Governor” placards, Mr. Vallone and Mr. Hevesi paid each other the usual compliments of the electoral season. Somebody then asked if anybody from the assembled press corps had any questions relating to Mr. Hevesi’s embrace of his fellow Queens Democrat.
Not a single inquiring mind was stirred. Mr. Vallone, not one to ignore the bait before him, let it be known that he would gladly consider questions on another topic. And so they came, a dozen or so, about the stadium referendum and the Mayor’s opposition.
Mr. Vallone gloried in the attention, as well he should have, but let it be said now that his aides would do well to suggest he keep his metaphors to one per thought, lest he lose himself amid the thickets and brambles. “I think what the Mayor’s doing is more like a wild pitch, I think that he’s missing the mark and missing the plate,” Mr. Vallone said. “In baseball jargon, this is the first inning and the referendum is still very much at bat.”
Well, at least he’s having fun, which is more than could be said of the Mayor. Some time after Mr. Vallone’s session outside City Hall, Mr. Giuliani did his podium-gripping thing in the Blue Room, assailing the proposed referendum as democracy run amok and lecturing the press about the virtues of intellectual honesty, a subject he suggested was unfamiliar to his auditors.
This particular method of argument is not new, nor is it particularly noteworthy except as an example of just how difficult it is to be civil in such an uncivil world. For Mr. Vallone, though, the Mayor’s lectures and his vein-popping anger are a wonder to behold. Not a few weeks ago, people were talking about the dim prospects November offered. Now everybody is talking about a referendum on the Yankees, and they’re talking to Peter Vallone, candidate for Governor.
So it’s true: It ain’t over until it’s over.
Additional reporting by Greg Sargent.
