One of our leading exports: New York mayoral candidates

By adamg on Mon, 08/19/2013 - 1:06pm

Current NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg is, of course, from Medford. One of the candidates to replace him (and the one who seems to have benefited the most from the Weiner wiener) is Bill de Blasio, a Cambridge native who is now the city's elected public advocate (before which he was a Brooklyn city councilor).

De Blasio attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin with Patrick Ewing (although back then De Blasio was known as Warren Wilhelm Jr.).

In 2009, the New York Times noted:

Mr. de Blasio, who is raising his children to be Red Sox fans, said that "everyone should be proud of whatever team they root for." (He added that among New York teams, he has a soft spot for the Mets.)

We also have at least one candidate for governor of New York to our credit - Carl McCall, from Roxbury, who ran in 2002 (then again, New York gave us Bill Weld). And, of course, let's not forget Robert Kennedy.

H/t Joyce Linehan for alerting us to de Blasio's local roots.

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Comments

We export politicians in general

By BostonUrbEx on Mon, 08/19/2013 - 1:11pm.

Not just mayors of NYC, but it seems a great deal of politicians come from Massachusetts. Maybe it just seems that way to me because I live here, but I'd be willing to bet that we're one of the biggest exporters of politicians.

Small State, Big Ego

By BostonDog on Mon, 08/19/2013 - 9:16pm.

I've found it interesting that in 2012 two of the top four national candidates lived only lived one town apart in Belmont and Lexington. Both lost to a man who once lived in Somerville. Other recent national party candidates from MA have lived in Brookline or Boston.

So basically a 20 mile strip between Boston and Lexington is the most fertile ground in America for national politicians. (Or maybe not -- everyone after JFK has lost.)

Who wants to bet Brown is the GOP VP in 2016?

Patrick Ewing was once known

By R Hookup on Mon, 08/19/2013 - 2:30pm.

Patrick Ewing was once known as Warren Wilhelm Jr.?

No, de Blasio was

By adamg on Mon, 08/19/2013 - 2:33pm.

I've made that more explicit in the original post.

Why?

By anon on Tue, 08/20/2013 - 9:25am.

Why the totally different names?

To honor his mother

By adamg on Tue, 08/20/2013 - 10:33am.

The Cambridge Rindge and Latin link has an explanation: His parents got divorced when he was young, his father wasn't in his life that much and he wanted to honor his mother's role in raising him. He originally tried hyphenating the two last names, but felt it was too awkward, so went to a single name.

Pulling your leg...

By R Hookup on Tue, 08/20/2013 - 5:09pm.

But it did send me to Wikipedia just to make sure. :)