2001 Race For Public Advocate
In 2001, Gotbaum finished first in the Democratic primary and then defeated Norman Siegel in the Democratic runoff. She was unopposed in the general election. As Public Advocate she focused on education policy, along with women's issues, child welfare, affordable housing and senior services, and has been known to work with Mayor Michael Bloomberg on certain issues. She battled Bloomberg on mayoral succession issues. In return, Bloomberg sought to eliminate the office altogether in 2002 and reduced its budget.
Gotbaum focused on the ombudsman role of the office and specifically on the needs of children, the elderly, and people who are powerless. At the request of the New York State Legislature, Gotbaum created a Commission on School Governance to examine mayoral control before it expires in 2009.
Read more about this topic: Betsy Gotbaum
Famous quotes containing the words race, public and/or advocate:
“It now appears that the negro race is, more than any other, susceptible of rapid civilization. The emancipation is observed, in the islands, to have wrought for the negro a benefit as sudden as when a thermometer is brought out of the shade into the sun. It has given him eyes and ears.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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—For the State of New Jersey, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“We hope the day will soon come when every girl will be a member of a great Union of Unmarried Women, pledged to refuse an offer of marriage from any man who is not an advocate of their emancipation.”
—Tennessee Claflin (1846–1923)