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Why no rock star pols in NYC?

By David Freedlander | dfreedlander@am-ny.com

7:25 PM EDT, July 10, 2008

Chicago, America's -- ahem -- second city, has produced a politician so charismatic that he can draw 25,000 people to a rally in New York, regularly has thousands of people clamoring to hear him speak and has invoked comparisons to John F. Kennedy.

In Los Angeles and San Francisco, two polished mayors carouse around town with modelesque girlfriends and are widely seen as political up and comers.

So why then in New York, the capital of the world, does there seem to be no rock star politicians of the likes of Barack Obama? Or, to put it less charitably, why are all of our politicos, so, well, schlubby?

"In New York, we don't start you at the top," said Former Mayor Ed Koch, considered by some to be among the more charismatic characters to have served the city.

"You've got to work your way up," Koch said. "Those are the rules."

Gotham's elected officials stay out of the political stratosphere because the age-old political machines still hold sway, there are far more glamorous and lucrative jobs in the city, and politics here is too much of a hyper-local, neighborhood phenomenon for aspiring pols to have widespread appeal, observers say. Indeed, our current City Hall occupant is a jet-setting billionaire widely admired for his executive acumen, but he hasn't inspired any "Bloomberg Girls" to sing "I got a crush on Hizzoner" on a YouTube screen.

"Obama did what all campaigns hope to do, which is turn into political movement," said Joe Reubens, a consultant who ran Hillary Clinton's successful Nevada campaign and has worked on several city races.

"To inspire people one must be inspirational," Reubens said. "That's something that can't be taught."

To find the next political stars in the city, some observers say that it's better to look to captains of industry instead of the old world of politics, where vacancies can be few and successors tend to be anointed. Indeed, the city's highly structured political system -- with its layering of neighborhood groups and county organizations -- has been known to smother even the brightest lights.

"Party organizations have a way of sapping the glamour out of politics," said Bruce Berg, author of "New York City Politics: Governing Gotham." "That type of system doesn't produce charisma. It produces people who the media call party hacks."

Close political observers say there are a limited number of ways to climb up the political ladder in New York. You can do it the Bloomberg way, raising a ton of cash and then spreading it strategically around the city; work your way up through the political clubs; hitch your wagon to an established politician; or get involved and get publicity for working in your community.

It is this last method of moving up politically that explains why so many New York politicos seem so provincial. "New York is much more of a neighborhood town than people realize," said Edward-Isaac Dovere, editor of City Hall News, a political magazine.

Or perhaps it's simply that in the cosmopolitan capital, politics just doesn't impress.

"If I'm at a party in Manhattan and I mention the City Council, people look at me like I'm out of my mind," said Fred Siegel, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.