The UFT has started a big get-out-the-vote drive to get members to the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 5, to elect a new mayor of New York City.

“Bill de Blasio has a large lead, but we cannot be complacent,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew in his address to the Delegate Assembly on Oct. 9. “We need to tell voters that Joe Lhota would maintain Mike Bloomberg’s policies, and we cannot allow that to happen.”

UFT phone banks were up and running in all five borough offices starting on Oct. 15, and volunteers will be fanning out for leafleting and door-knocking on behalf of Democratic candidate de Blasio and the union’s other endorsed candidates [see chart at lower right].

Mulgrew told the delegates that Lhota, the Republican candidate, has attacked the union and appeared with his family at the Oct. 8 march and rally organized by charter school impresario Eva Moskowitz. “It was important to see Joe Lhota at the charter school rally,” Mulgrew said. “If that doesn’t motivate you to vote, I don’t know what will.”

Lhota has vowed to double the number of charter schools in the city and continue Bloomberg’s co-location policy. By contrast, de Blasio has proposed charter schools that co-locate with a public school should pay rent if they can afford to. He has also called for a moratorium on new charters.

De Blasio and his family have captured the imagination of the city with a message of unity and social justice. He advocates pre-K for all students, more after-school programs and fewer standardized tests, and he has vowed to restore respect for teachers and the work they do. His son, Dante, 15, attends Brooklyn Tech HS; if elected, de Blasio would be the first sitting mayor with a child in public school.

Another refreshing change from the current mayor: de Blasio respects unions and the role they play in building and strengthening the city’s middle class. “I believe the labor movement created the American middle class,” he said, in accepting the UFT’s endorsement in September. “It will be my honor to work with unions because we share the same values and aspirations.”

Political Endorsements

Mayor
Bill de Blasio

City Comptroller
Scott Stringer

Public Advocate
Letitia James