‘Rookverbod kan Bloomberg nieuwe termijn kosten’
De manier waarop burgemeester Bloomberg van New York het rookverbod in de horeca heeft ingevoerd zou wel eens zijn herverkiezing volgend jaar in de weg kunnen staan.
Dat zeggen drie Democratische tegenstanders van hem die vastbesloten zijn het rookverbod als een hoofdpunt in de verkiezingscampagne in te brengen.
Volgens de drie kandidaten kost het de oude burgemeester mininaal 400.000 stemmen van rokers en horeca eigenaren.
“It has to be,” says Hank Sheinkopf, the savvy New York political consultant, “because to many smokers, this is a one-issue deal, like abortion and gun control. If they’re with you on everything else but this, you’re dead. It could lose Bloomberg north of 400,000 votes.”
Weiner is easily the most articulate on the issue, which, on the face of it, is surprising because he is a nonsmoker. “If you want to see just how much Bloomberg misunderstands the DNA of New York – what sort of a condescending patrician he is – look at the way he handled the smoking business,” says Weiner.
“He rammed it through without ever having campaigned for it. He did it without considering what it would do to the small bars in the city, particularly the outer boroughs, what it would do to the soul of New York, which to me is libertarianism, the right to live your life without onerous government intervention. I sum it up this way: New York does not want or need Nurse Ratched as mayor.”
