Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Voters Go To the Polls in New York City, Virginia, and New Jersey

Aired November 06, 2001 - 10:42   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Certainly one of the most closely watched races, the race for mayor in New York City. The polls are open, and a lot of people there already. Jason Carroll at one polling place on the upper east side of Manhattan. Jason, good morning. Are they still flowing in or not?

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, its after -- they're still coming in, this morning. You can take look and see what it looks like here in the upper east side at this polling place. A lot of folks want to come out here and make sure they have their vote counted. This is going to be a very important race. I can tell you we've got on one side a Republican billionaire, Michael Bloomberg. He basically was trailing throughout most of the campaign, but late into the campaign he got the endorsement from the very popular mayor, Rudy Giuliani. That seems to have helped him also.

Also seemed to have helped Bloomberg is the 40 million dollars he spent during the campaign, mostly on ads. On the Democratic side you have New York City's public advocate Mark Green. He got the endorsement of former New York City mayor David Dinkins. He also got the endorsement from Senator Ted Kennedy, and Senator Lieberman. Both candidates were campaigning very late into the evening. Both of them had -- spoke to us this morning. Both of them seem to be very feisty to the very end.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK GREEN, MAYORAL CANDIDATE: The stakes are so high. The race is so close, and the contrast is so sharp between the Democratic public advocate, who is been in every neighborhood and helped working families in every neighborhood, and a Republican billionaire who is out of touch with our neighborhoods, who hasn't one accomplishment in public life, and whose slogan is "Money Talks."

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG: Money is not an issue here. If I'd been running 11 times, I would have had the visibility. If I'd been in public office, I would have had the ability to have city workers out there, getting my name out, and doing work for me. I was not. I was an outsider. And the only way my name was going to get out there was by spending money. I came here with nothing. I made it myself. And at least, in my case, you know I don't have any obligations to anybody. CARROLL: And want you to look here at the Daily News, one of the publications here in New York City. This really hits it dead on. It is a dead heat in this race. Polls showing that both candidates are basically neck and neck in this race. But we still have about 15 percent of the voters who are undecided. And that's very important, because what it's going to come down to -- it's going to come down to those 15 percent of the voters who simply, at this point, do not know who they want to be the next mayor of New York City.

The polls close at about 9:00 P.M. Eastern Time. And because the race is so close, Bill, they -- probably turn out that way after the polls are closed we still may not know who the next mayor of the city will be, just because it is such a close race. Bill.

HEMMER: And we've seen exit polling that wasn't that much accurate in the past, too, haven't we, Jason? Ok. Jason Carroll live there in New York. Jason, thank you.

So, then, who is running and where are the hottest races when we continue. Back with Bill when we come back here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: All right. Want to go back to elections today across the country. Many folks heading to the polls. Politics, again, the main issue here. But, also the impact of terrorism in the attacks of 9-11. Let's talk about it with our Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider with us in Washington. Bill, good morning.

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning, Bill.

HEMMER: Nice to be talking about politics again, I will say that, my friend. Listen, what are you gauging or picking up, if anything, about the attitude, the feeling of voters as they reflect back on the attacks of 9-11 and how they look at possibly the U.S. in the form of democracy and free elections that we have in this country? Do you get a sense for that, Bill?

SCHNEIDER: Well, politics has mostly been under the radar screen. What we're seeing out there is a surge of confidence in government. People need government, now, to protect them. Both their physical security and their economic security. But politics, that hasn't been very much in the forefront. Even New Yorkers have been very -- so distracted by the events of 9-11, that they haven't really paid much attention to the campaign. We just heard Jason Carroll say some 15 percent of voters in New York City have still undecided, this late in campaign.

HEMMER: Wow.

SCHNEIDER: That's because they are distracted. So, government seems to be -- have a lot of support. Politics not much attention.

HEMMER: So then, I'm wondering, how long does the feeling last out there? Is it a day or a week, or is this something that we need to see a year from now to see how things settle in and stay or not?

SCHNEIDER: Two big variables. How does the war go, and, as important politically, how does the economy go? That's a big question mark hanging over this because politicians are asking themselves, what's going to be the bigger issue? Is it going to be the support for the president, the war, a sense of mobilization, or is it going to be insecurity over the economy? One thing we do sense in this election is that the Republicans' traditional anti-tax messages are not working as well as they used to in the campaigns for governor in Virginia and New Jersey. The Republicans are running the strong anti- tax message, and they don't seem to be doing too well.

HEMMER: Yeah. Rudy Giuliani's everywhere. You saw him in Candy Crowley, here's the mayor of the city. An outgoing mayor doing spots in ads for governors in states like Virginia and New Jersey. I've never seen that before. Have you?

SCHNEIDER: I certainly have not. I mean -- I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw an ad for the Republican candidate here in Virginia, in the Washington area with the mayor of New York. New Yorkers campaigning in Virginia, it's incredible. But Giuliani is certainly the man of the hour. His leadership, his grace, his courage in a period of great stress, showing that he was in control, that he knew what he was doing, calming and reassuring New Yorkers anxieties, that's a quality that's called leadership and it's valued in every race.

HEMMER: He cast his vote earlier at a polling station. A quick bite from the interview he conducted with reporters there. A bit of a goodbye as he leaves his mayor's position there. Let's listen and come back and talk about it, Bill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI, MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY: There's no sadness at all. I mean, I've given the job everything I'm capable of doing. Worked as hard as I could for the people of the city. Feel enormously -- enormously proud of the fact that I was able to represent them. I thank them very much for that opportunity. Every time I go to Staton Island I feel like saying thank you to the people of Staton Island because I remember in 1993, where I needed, I think, 85 percent of their vote in order to get elected, or -- I feel very, very grateful for getting re-elected by wide margin. That showed a lot of confidence and gave my administration a mandate to make a lot of changes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: I think the next thing they do in New York is name an airport after him.

SCHNEIDER: Well, he certainly is a commanding figure in New York, and he's making a lot of difference in this race. On October 27th, he endorsed the Republican candidate Michael Bloomberg, and suddenly Bloomberg started moving up in the polls while his 50 million dollars that he's spending certainly helped, but he really didn't start surging until he got the Giuliani endorsement, and we could have a miracle if Bloomberg is elected. That would be the third Republican victory for mayor of New York City. New York City. The third victory for Republicans in a row.

HEMMER: And leave to New York to have such political heavyweights as Rudy Giuliani endorsing Michael Bloomberg and Bill Clinton endorsing Mark Green. Only in New York City.

SCHNEIDER: And you know, Bill, this is race we were dreaming of. It's Giuliani versus Clinton, only the candidates are named Green and Bloomberg, but that doesn't matter.

HEMMER: How much has the strategy of these politicians changed since 9-11?

SCHNEIDER: Well, I think, certainly their politics has been a bit more low-key. We've seen some tough attack ads. We saw them a few minutes ago. Everyone wants to wrap himself or herself in the mantle of leadership and patriotism. More flags, more support for the police and the fire departments, but also a stronger value for what government can and should do. What we've seen is people talking about really using government to protect Americans physical and economic security in a way that we really haven't seen in this country in decades.

HEMMER: Let's look at Virginia and New Jersey quickly, here. In Virginia, the Democrat Mark Warner. Mark Earley the Republican. And also in New Jersey, James McGreevey the Democrat. Bret Schundler the Republican. What should we look for, Bill, in these races today?

SCHNEIDER: If the Republicans do poorly, in both cases they're trailing in the polls, if they do poorly in these two races, then the Republicans will ask themselves did they nominate candidates too far outside the main stream? Mark Earley and Bret Schundler both have ideas on abortion, gun control, which are to the right of most typical voters even in the state of Virginia. And so the question is going to be, do Republicans need to worry about that as they think about running candidates in 2002. Have they gone too far to the right?

HEMMER: Remember where you were a year ago?

SCHNEIDER: Oh, yeah. We were in Florida, and of course, if the polls were as close as in New York --

HEMMER: A year ago today, you were here in Atlanta.

(CROSSTALK)

SCHNEIDER: You were in Florida, right.

HEMMER: The next day. Remember watching the computers when the precincts would come in. We'd be watching a difference of five or 6,000 votes in the neighborhoods of Milwaukee to see which way Wisconsin was going to go. Amazing night.

SCHNEIDER: And Florida, we called that thing back and forth about five different times. Well, Bill, I hope we're not in New York this week looking at chads and worrying about how that city actually voted for mayor today.

HEMMER: I think we'll be a little bit more careful. I think we've learned our lesson. Thank you, Bill. Enjoy today. We'll see you a bit later. Bill Schneider in Washington. Among the big elections we talked about today, the race for governor in two states, and nearly a dozen major U.S. cities voting for mayor.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com