Disastrous results for Saujani, Abedin.
By Sujeet Rajan
NEW YORK: One stood in the elections, and lost. The other stood by her husband, and lost.
Reshma Saujani, the candidate for the Public Advocate of New York City, had another huge loss on Tuesday, after her futile bid in the primaries for Congress against Rep. Carolyn Maloney three years ago. In 2010, she got only 19 percent of the vote, to Maloney’s 81 percent.
In the Tuesday polls, the margin of defeat was better as there were more candidates vying for the position of Public Advocate, but the percentage of votes were lower than her performance three years ago.
Saujani, a lawyer by training who has spent many lucrative years on Wall Street, garnered only 15 percent of the vote with almost all precincts counted. It indicated her lack of experience at grass-roots politics, poor outreach with voters.
The low percentage of votes for Saujani is even more surprising considering that she was a former Deputy Public Advocate of New York City. The crucial factor: she couldn’t drive home the point of her suitability, couldn’t shake off the image of her privileged background at Wall Street during a period of recession.
The Public Advocate’s office is going to gain in prominence from now on, especially if the leading contender for the Democratic ticket for the Mayoral race, Bill de Blasio, clinches the primaries and goes on to win against the Republican contender. Blasio is the current Public Advocate of the City.
The Public Advocate’s office, created 20 years ago, in 1993, is a kind of complaint and resolution court for the masses, for citizens to come forward with personal complaints, including about rent, housing, and discrepancy in utility bills. Though, it has had its share of critics – with some calling the office a waste of taxpayer’s money and demands to shut it down, the successful run by Blasio has ensured that the office will remain a spring board in the future for many more bids for Mayor.
If Saujani is dejected by her loss, it is nothing compared to the embarrassment and deep humiliation faced by another smart desi woman who was closely associated with the New York City polls this time, Huma Abedin – the wife of the disgraced former US Rep. Anthony Weiner. Abedin’s father was born in India, mother in Pakistan.
Weiner, whose new sexting revelations with a woman made him a joker in the pack of candidates running for the Mayor’s office, and a staple of humor on late night TV, finished last.
Weiner also probably sank the aspirations of another former disgraced public official, Eliot Spitzer, the former Governor of New York, who despite huge odds, came within a few points of a famous win for the post of Comptroller. The bad publicity that hounded Weiner shrouded Spitzer, cost him the race too.
Abedin, the former Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, had famously publicly forgiven Weiner for his past misdeeds. She enthusiastically went all out to promote his new bid for office, including getting donors on board, was at his side at campaign speeches. It ended when fresh evidence came out of Weiner’s sexting with another woman.
Weiner stubbornly decided to stay on in the race till the very end, to its disastrous conclusion. The only speculation about Abedin was where she was when Weiner gave his concession speech Tuesday night: some reports speculated the Hamptons, some Philadelphia.
To contact the author, email to sujeetrajan@americanbazaaronline.com