tv QA CSPAN July 3, 2016 8:00pm-8:59pm EDT
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phone calls raise money? mark green: yes. once you decide you want to be the mayor of new york city it is a marathon. i have to make 80 phone calls a getreach 20 people a day aid commitments a day. they put up calls i have in front of me. gave $5,000 to schumer, $10,000 to clinton. he likes waterskiing. hey brian, how's the waterskiing? if you don't do that you can't run competitively. would endnow that i
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up running against the richest man in world history to run for office, michael bloomberg. 2001 september 11 was the day of the primary. give us a little bit of the flavor what that was like. green: i have never spoken about that because i lost an election in part because of that. 3000 people lost their lives. the statute of limitations has run. when you write a memoir you have to be candid. 11 years before september had an apartment in east 90th street right near gracie mansion. i said i'm going to run for mayor.
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at the guy have a record of recognition. as a very good chance i'll win. unless there's an external event that upends the card. what a racial shooting in bensonhurst. dinkinsfected the koch mayor's race in 19 a nine. when david one. two years later the night of september 10, 2001 the same apartment i turned to my wife and i said there have been no external events. nothing to upset the apple cart. so it looks like i will win the nomination or get into a runoff. kinahora is a jewish expression that translates to knock on wood.
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that morning i went to vote and i'm supposed to see that night john o'neill. build bratton has been a supporter of mine. the famous new york city police commissioner then and now. he said well you meet john o'neill. andandles the security heads up the bin laden task force. i said i want to spend time with my wife on election night but i'll see him later. a.m. i'm on 11th street in manhattan. i made the last handshake of the whole campaign. i said let's go back to the apartment. she looks up to the south and gasps. it was a perfectly clear blue sky. everybody knows what i saw.
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so i saw it live. i was able to interpret it for television commentators. i had no experience with anything like that. just the diehard movies. it affected everyone. in effect in world and by city. it affected the election and to me least of all. but it shifted the conversation. from education and housing in traffic to one issue. security and rebuilding new york. change the conversation in the campaign. it affected me as well, a lot. brian lamb: that was primary day. how the people are you running against? mark green: there were four of us. all four of us were known citywide officials. none of us were fdr.
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none of us were super famous. but we were running under campaign-finance system where you get the same amount of money. i was running against the borough president from the bronx in the city controller and the city council speaker. i was called the public advocate. rulew york city we have a they have to get over 40% in order to win the nomination. otherwise you could have some 41%.o get you want make sure that person gets a majority. runoff with freddy a rising latino star, the borough president of the bronx. brian lamb: we've got some video
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from a documentary was made by your son. this is 2001. jonah was allowed to do with this documentary. mark green: he was very precocious. very good writer. he had a school project. i said i will so my dad. he's running for mayor. it was a relatively boring until 8:46 a.m., september 11. then again that only interesting but historic. he ended up having inside access to a candidate. know withd we now james carville and george stephanopoulos was what happens with the top aides and staff of the major candidate. governor quinn. on whata great film it's like for a family to run
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for high office. the highs and lows. every day you live a lifetime. jonah shot and finished it and sold it to sundance. with airs it on a real film called the perfect candidate. that was about oliver north. ran foran aide who senate in virginia. he said sorry about 9/11. but it made for a better film. i said, anything to help. lamb: they can watch the whole thing on youtube. you go to jonah green.com you can access the film. jonah: my father had been in the
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lead for months. that would be easy. the most prominent city democrats were vying for the nomination to succeed rudy giuliani could run again because of term limits. freddy ferrera was the bronx borough president. a family man from queens was the city comptroller. peter vallone had been speaker of the city council. there was also michael bloomberg. andmocrat turned republican a billionaire and a political novice. and then there was mark green. green?amb: who is mark mark green: my grandparents came from poland and russia. butather was a lawyer smalltime landlord owner.
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my mother was a kindergarten teacher. she had five miscarriages before i was born. i was considered a miracle child. my parents treated me like wow, he's here. i have an older brother stephen al green who is well-known in new york. he is the funny older brother that i kept teasing. what is now the owner of the largest commercial real estate property in manhattan. it has a market cap of $14 billion. an extremely influential mentor in my life. living on long island. we lived in brooklyn originally and moved to long island. a suburban family. my family was rockefeller republicans.
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a conservative, it hit the earth and killed off these moderate republicans. i'm sure they voted for nixon over kennedy. i go to cornell and harvard law school in the 60's. i became very progressive. very antiwar. very pro-civil rights. intellectually in several of the huge movements that characterized the 60's. i argue my book they are tapping the shoulder of 2016 at the same time. b gayrights, antiwar, rights, consumer rights. ineave harvard law school 1970.
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the editor-in-chief of the harvard civil rights civil liberties law review. it's not the harvard law review itself. this was the alternate law review. the more progressive one. up with mayorined john lindsay. fetching coffee for him. mayor as a republican for in 1965 and that he won reelection in 1969 as an independent. because the republicans wouldn't give him the nomination. he was a moderate liberal. i got a phone call from ralph nader like never met. but i admire him from afar. he was a super famous, cover of newsweek, which was a magazine that was published in the 1960's.
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he was a knight in shining armor. he asked if i would consider working for them. nader said do you want to make coffee or do you want to make history? ralph was a very persuasive person. i ended up working for him for 10 years. i am off and running. influential. of my life. every night for 10 years ralph would call me and we would talk about what he did that day and what i did. we weren't peers, he was ralph nader and i was he a lawyer. i was learning from the master of the craft. let's go back to the mayor's race.
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did alan hennessey run into some corruption problems. green: he then ran successfully for state controller. together it a contribution from an interesting gave him free flight to israel. he was prosecuted and convicted and jailed. for corruption. he is now out and rebuilding his life. brian lamb: what happened to freddy ferrera? mark green he later ran for mayor himself in 2005. he won the democratic nomination. i endorsed and campaigned for him. by 15 points to the incumbent michael bloomberg. brian lamb: here's some more
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from your son's documentary. focusing on the twin towers of my candidacy, educating , that will take me to victory. are you going to vote on tuesday? brian lamb: what is your reaction when you're in front of crowds like that? green: the clip you showed had me saying before 9/11 the twin towers of my candidacy and now this is ground zero of politics on the west side. so that is security.
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eerie. ice to be an athlete. and when you're playing a sporting events in the crowd screaming you kind of block it out. you are trying to communicate to the crowd that is somewhat overexcited. bill clinton is good at it, donald trump. they can read a crowd and feed off it the key is to be yourself. public the interviewers of tv or candidate, they can spell a phony. smell a phony. you might as will be yourself because everyone else is taken. i tried to be candid and blonde. you like it when people are cheering. was campaigning for
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me when i ran for the u.s. senate in 1986. we were on a street corner in lower manhattan. this guy's a guy hate you governor cuomo. o said thank you sir for your views. that he was a very animated guy who had a temper. so you have to stay calm. , like trumpverreact who struts while sitting down. or if you're too cool that people connect with you. i try to keep an even keel. which is hard for me. because really good things happen i would say oh it's ok. brian lamb: other than joni got
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to women in your family. mark green: my wife i have been married to two for 39 years. she was in public affairs. working for people for the my daughter is the mother of our two grandchildren and a lawyer. works for a not-for-profit educational firm. putting kids and technology together. brian lamb: this might be painful for you to look at. the number of elections you have lost. there it is. if we missed one let me know. go back to the 1980 election. who did you running as for
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congress. mark green: i worked for ralph nader for 10 years. i loved it. but i'm really a new yorker. o and itbying congress can i run for public office? i decided to go back to new york and run for the house against an incumbent. bill green a very effective low key moderate republican. 57 to 43. election lamb: what was it like to lose? mark green: it's ok. book i say i have a big defect.
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was born without an insecurity gene. if i think something i can do it. bad.is good and it's i didn't have self-doubt. i was an underdog i had lived in washington. i was not really a native of the east side of manhattan. it's called the silk stocking district. lindsay had john represented the district. i went all out. it was a sprint. many peoplei said lose their first races. i am ok. i went back to washington to run public citizen. ralph offered me that. crushed.
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i was young it was a formative learning experience. brian lamb: you mentioned your brother stephen. he's made a lot of money. have you ever made any money? mark green: no. realtor in new york although he is not run for president like another realtor in new york. we divided up the world. steve took the private sector and i took the public sector. and i get backs again. baghdad. he is seven years older than i am. the deal as i don't tell him what to do in the private sector
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but he gets to tell me what i should think of the public sector. i am all ears because i want to learn from everybody. out as a moderate republican. he switched to the democrats so you can vote for his kid brother when i ran house and senate and mayor. lamb: did it ever matter to you, did you want money? mark green: no. it never occurred to me. i grew up with parents who were not wealthy but were comfortable. in a north shore suburb called great neck. west egg and the great gatsby.
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i never felt the urge to make money. 60's asned me on in the an admirer of the kennedys was to make policy. that was what drove me. i went to law school and i worked with nader. rhineland: in 1986 he ran for the senate. who did you run against? a primary: i had against a man named john dyson. a very wealthy man. he'd been in the governors cabinet. so he was close to marriott cuomo. cuomo want to dyson to run because he could tell them what to do. but he stayed neutral because he didn't want to get involved in the primary. john dyson said mark green can't raise a dime. so i said it was the mark of dimes campaign.
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is a kind of a bernie sanders mind. $700,000 in increments of under thousand. he wrote one check to himself or $7 million. , in i heard that in august said what? i can't win. but i 154 to 47. won 5447. he was more of an elitist. i ran against senator al d'amato. incredible primary victory against jacob javits back in 1980. he was the chairman of the senate banking committee. had coming in. at the time i called them a walking quid pro quo. giving to get.
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to 41.57 he had ignored me. i was the underdog. i was failing upward. lost theoint i had house in the senate so my next option was either pope or president. lamb: that you won the race for public advocate in 1993. green: every city in the country has a number two. in new york it was always the president of the city council. with theld by people names out smith and fear alone la guardia. two iconic figures who went on to become governors and mayors. when the position became that would thought be great.
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it is an ombudsman office. we monitor city services to show there is no fraud or suspicion. you represent people who don't have a voice. iran for it. i won easily. i defeated a state senator named david paterson. later he succeeded governor eliot spitzer as the governor of new york. he said you should've let me win public advocate then maybe you would be a governor now. david has a great sense of humor. brian lamb: you mentioned al smith. you were at it now smith dinner one night in white tie and sales. what is the l smith dinner? and then you are called away to a meeting. ferrer. with freddie for
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green: now smith was the governor of new york and catholic. the first catholic nominee of a major party in 1928. he was subject to horrible and theholic commentary next catholic who got a nomination one, john kennedy. it is run by the catholic elite of new york. the cardinal at that time was o'connor. in 2000 bush and gore came and the tradition is every four years the nominees of both parties,. they make humorous toasts at each other's expense.
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in 2001 i was now running for mayor. i had been the nominee. i got elected. sorry, nominated. speech i said what a great race borough president freddie for air ram. ferrer. i can't wait to work with him. he is latino and i am not. he had supporters who got a little excited. these races end up being racial. i was a leading white liberal in new york city. marching with sharpton, suing giuliani over racial controversies. strong support in the black and latino community.
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the freddie for air was an alliance with al sharpton. refuse to endorse me for a week as they thought that some of my supporters were racially hostile to them. not me but my supporters. finally he calls back and says i will be with you tonight, the night of the al smith dinner. so i leave the dinner in white tie and tails. i go to his headquarters. clintonlike hillary going to bernie sanders original home in brooklyn and begging him to endorse her for president. after she had been the nominee. but i did it because the goal was city hall. i had a meeting with sharpton and top aides. about the primary that was and
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the election to come. i tried to have a unified party. republicans >> what about the racial thing. you were attacked, somebody distributed cartoons out of the new york post. >> it sounds ridiculous now. you want the racial campaign, donald trump saying mexicans are racist and a black president is not american, that is it. campaign, the chair was the first black mayor in new york city. understood i was a white progressive democrat with strong interracial support. the new york post is very
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hostile to liberals and minorities. the justice. of farara cartoon kissing sharpton's rear end to get his support. it was an ugly metaphor for what was shoe. -- true. he needed a black man coalition to win in a diverse city. somebody, to this day i hardly grafted and handed it out isaac larian cartoon. -- as a cartoon. he wanted the party to come together, i denounce reverend did it. whoever did it would never serve or have a role in any administration where i win. fracas.d a racial race had not come up at all in the primary and the runoff.
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kindling of the 9/11 and bloomberg's money lit a flame. kerosene was added by race. race is not a big issue in a city that is tempered some black. -- 10% black. city that has a majority 20% jewishjewish, now in a minority majority, there was racial tension and we were to racial candidates -- two racial candidates but some of our supporters were not. i often ask, why the heck did you do that? i hated sharpton. sharpton is a double-edged sword.
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african-americans admire him, right new yorkers hate him. 60 point disparity in his poll ratings in new york. upside,et him for the you also get the downside. ad from the 2005 freddy for our campaign -- fara campaign. this is al sharpton. what you see is all there was to the ad. ♪ ♪ explain al sharpton two people out of the new york city area? >> impossible. i have never met anyone in public life is a bigger gap iq, eq, their high,
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performance skills very high if his character and integrity, very low. sought, he could have lied to me. this is a moan -- among the rating, 75% favorable among african-americans and 50% approval rating among white new 15% approval rating among white new yorkers. racially divided the city. racial anxieties. they became more apparent. first black of a president that he
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does not love america, of obama. nomineeat, a democratic one-a-day white coast and with black support. sharpton blew that up. i decided, i will not answer his endorsement because he is so unpopular but my voters. i will treat him with respect because he is an african-american civil rights leader. him of wife and i invited and his wife to see the opening nuremberg.e we enjoyed it and had dinner. decided not to answer his endorsement. as a strategy, if you will. two months later, he said mark we beg me for my endorsement. now he is denied. -- denying it. he would constantly be dancing
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around. before trump, there was sharpton. saying something different every day. i'm off to the flame of the media. -- a moth to the flame of the media. like the 13th time of the clock. raises questions about everything the clock did before. when he lied about me then, i realized that is what he does. i could never trust him again. because i stood up to him, he constantly attacked me and when bloomberg, a very substantial, smart, successful guy. way.acially wrong in any sharpton said, i'm glad we beat mark green because like paul o'connor, we have to be respected. what? racist.t come me a this is the kind of divisive
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personality that you don't want to see at the presidential level and you don't want to see at the mayoral level. >> president obama has got close to him? >> i don't know. i so admire barack obama. with't to take up time your audience, but i tell my children, we will never again have a president like this guy. to this day, i can't believe diverse, cool calm urbainbrilliant, very intellectual became president. he has his own politics. when jesse jackson, the reigning civil rights leader dissed barack obama as a candidate privately and publicly, al sharpton was smart enough to say brock, i am from you and i always will be with you. and he became the
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jackson-sharpton leader and obama and valerie jarrett, his top aide over the course of his life constantly have sharpton over. or minus, iet plus will not second-deaths brock obama. -- second-guess barack obama. 98then you ran to the senate again. who did you run against? >> looking back, that was a mistake. senate when ithe was behind the motto, 66-16 in the first poll. just keep going. choice, i was than the elected and well-known public advocate.
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i could have run against giuliani for mayor or i could and run against the motto andr a could have waited run for mayor in 2001. i decided not to run against giuliani which was an iffy race. he and i were tied impulses the wide. tied in thewere polls. then i fell in love with the senate. ikes.uld take h i would read and caused during the hike -- positive during the hike.- pause during the two other people who were
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unheard of rain. richmond chuck schumer -- congressman chuck schumer and other person. it was a strong lineup. thats only me who realized al d'amato was honorable. -- honorable. lnerable. i love to chuck schumer. -- lost to chuck schumer. i ended up working against and with so many freaks of nature like chuck schumer. look, he has merited himself to the brink of being the senate minority majority leader. >> why do you say he is a better politician and what does that mean? >> that is a very good question. like, not only knows the
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gene that, but we know it when we see it. chuck was that and i was that. nader andwith ralph advocacy. talent that is relevant. chuck had a legislative talent that he fought legislatively, had a lot of laws he enacted on consumers, guns, banks. he was tough. he did what it takes. that is not criticism of him. it in my stupid coverage or poor shot selection, i ended up running against chuck schumer, mike boomer, andrew,, the deblasio and they did what it takes to win. do whatever you have to win so
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long as you don't get caught. are toughle generally as nails and they do what it and there are moments in my public life where i had to either do something and whenedgy ethically i listen to my inner ralph nader who is an uncompromising purist, i'm neither. i ended up being more nader than cuomo. i'm a couple decisions that were not politically smart at key moments. what i mean by that is, i feel like a natural advocate. this goes to be an advocate and a politician are often similar. smart and hard-working, but in advocate is someone who pushes a moral vision and moves towards it like nader. who netsian is someone
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votes because he raises money to get ads and when an election. there are very few advocates who end up in great politicians. bob rice, great advocate, governor of massachusetts. like whiteas a nader panther. represented senior citizens who were poor in his home state. river house and senate and one. one of the few examples. senate andhouse and won. one of the few examples. i want to go back more to your sons video. it wasat video came out, 2001 for the race. when did it hit the sundance areas? -- airways? [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] -- air waves.
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? there were some deep things. -- iffy things. there was one thing that i begged him to cut and he did. as a footnote, primary night for mayor when i won the runoff. when i got into the runoff, i'm sorry. i called peter valone. a very formidable city council speaker and chatted before returns were known and he said he may get into the runoff. i get on the phone and say to someone, he is creating his own reality. only because i have to say everything now 15 years later.
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>> that was painful. >> a lot going on. >> that was the day of that i won the runoff to be the nominee. it was true until michael bloomberg came along with money. the nominee would be the mayor. blackberries, you know what those are. [laughter] >> long time ago. >> there was an exit poll that showed me ahead by eight. i ended up winning by two. when i saw that, it look like i would be the nominee and effect out the mayor. -- de facto, the mayor. and i was filming that
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was unconscious that he was there. >> what if this business about it is hard for you not to be arrogant or something important -- self-important? >> every politician has a rap. that have a negative and positive rap. the negative on me was iowa's arrogant and i know it all. cocky. that was two thirds true. i do not have self-doubt, i was optimistic. could do what i set out to do. smarterbill clinton is than hell and will bite his lip and paused to convey humanity when his brain was 10 steps ahead.
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the arrogant thing is untrue. i never felt i was better than people. d democratic small temperament. 80's, support his me. he said you were not arrogant, you just appeared to be arrogant. [laughter] i have to live with that. ran against mike bloomberg, close the outcome? >> he won by two points. closer to mayoral election in 100 years. electiont mayoral in 100 years. mark melman called me and says, i have good news and bad news. good news you are 20 points
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ahead, i never had a client lose when they were 20 points ahead. bad news, mike bloomberg is pending $1 million a day -- spending $1 million a day slamming you and advertisements and is catching up a point a day. we had 20 days left and 20 points ahead. oh.d the math and said when an opponent is doing something successful, you have to have some antidote. i had no antidote. i could steal his money. movetly made his money -- his money. cannot do it. mike bloomberg did not win nearly because of his money. a lot of things were going on. 9/11 changed the election. the sitdown strike was not
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helpful. when i think of bloomberg then and now, i'm reminded of bing crosby's famous comment. frank sinatra comes around once every couple of generations, why did it have to be mine? when i was planning my race, i did not anticipate a multibillionaire study $100 a boat. spending anticipate -- $100 a vote. i did not anticipate osama bin laden. ribbed giuliani went down from a nixon likerity -- popularity. to endorse giuliani
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>> this is not a time to take a chance on someone who has never spent a day in government service. >> one of the interesting things about that is he is not the virginia of -- governor of virginia. some of these things come back to haunt you, obviously not he was successful. >> that was a unity dinner three days before the general election and so stewart and valid and the os.ntons and the cuom except we go back to the unity point which is one
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of the major themes of 2016 for would notes, ferrer come. they were still angry about the primary and the distribution of literature and so the new york times was not that party can together -- came together. at green'sa no-show unity dinner. >> your wife periodically in the books fantasy be the last race. you say it is it. he went on to run for attorney general and you lost. >> 2006.
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the analogy, michael jordan quits basketball. then he comes back. the attorney general office was to be opened in 2006. andrew cuomo had been embarrassed by a bad race for governor in 2002. bruised and i would talk to him throughout that race to billy his spirits -- improve his spirits. he said the 2006 race was his redemptive race. i saw the 2006 race as my
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ability to get back into public life. junior, who was his brother-in-law came this close to running for attorney general but did not because of various family reasons. in the contest of poor people, andrew cuomo one -- for people -- four people, andrew cuomo won. i called him election night and endorsed him. loste last campaign, you your public advocate in 2009. what happened? you are still at it. their term limits in new york for public advocate so i served eight years as public advocate. got a lot done.
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i loved it. and people thought i was adept at that. when there was a vacancy for public advocate, three people have been running for a year. one of them was told de blasio -- bill the blogs you. i decidedly to run for public -- .ill de blasio i decided to run for public advocate late. so i announced late. i started way ahead because i was well known. blasio was less well but had locked up labor support. he is a founder of the work and family party. he is married to an african-american woman. he gets mixed race children. he ran ads saying look at my family.
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among extremely well white liberals as i did but extremely well among african-americans because of his story. he wins. i support him. because i last race was a fugitive of the law of averages. enough playing against these superhero politicians. bill de blasior, run for mayor and the public is tired of michael bloomberg and he wins easily. >> by how much? >> he won the general election against a smart republican 73-27. currently mayor and in his third year. >> our guest is mark green and ,the book is called bright
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infinite future. this is part one and we have a lot more to talk about. ♪ > for free transcripts or to give us your comments, visit us at qanda.org. they are also available at c-span podcasts. -- as c-span podcasts. this is part one of a two-part q&a with author mark green. you can watch the rest of the interview with him starting right now on c-span2.
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