FRAN REITER is about as likely a woman to cry “sexism” as Hillary Clinton is liable to locate the kitchen in that Westchester mansion.
So when Fran – tall and slightly intimidating – uses the S-word, you listen up good.
“I am the most credible female candidate ever to run for mayor,” she says without a shade of false modesty.
And yet, “When I go out to raise money, people constantly ask me, ‘Can she win?’
“There’s an assumption of credibility that male candidates don’t have to answer those kinds of questions off the bat.
“I have a record of accomplishment and yet, why do I have to face that issue?”
Perhaps a more apt question might be: Why would Fran Reiter, former deputy mayor, outgoing head of the city’s Convention and Visitors Bureau, want to give up what’s widely considered a political plum job? (Cristyne Lategano is poised to take over, to a chorus of jealous howls.)
Or, more to the point, in a city famous for chewing up and spitting out female candidates – think Geraldine Ferraro, Ruth Messinger – why bother running for mayor in 2001?
Part ego, Reiter freely admits. But in my estimation, there’s an equal measure of pure, bullish stubbornness at work.
If nothing else, Reiter makes you question your own innate assumptions. You look at Reiter, and you think, “She hasn’t got a prayer.”
Why is that?
Reiter has a few theories.
“New York has only had two kinds of female candidates. Those from the far-left” – she names Bella Abzug as well as Messinger – “and celebrity candidates.” That would be Hillary and Ferraro.
“Hillary Clinton thinks it’s enough to go out there and say, ‘I’m here!'” Reiter says with a roll of her eyes.
“The second thing is that there has been very little work on the part of both parties to nurture women candidates. New York, the great, progressive Empire State, has a terrible record of electing women to high public office.
“If I can raise the resources to run a viable campaign, I can win the mayoralty.”
Of course, that’s a big if.
To hear Reiter tell it, the world was a more egalitarian place before she left the business world for public service. After serving as deputy mayor during Giuliani’s first term, she ran his re-election campaign, only to find, “There were a lot of knives pointed at my back,” by her colleagues.
Politics is filled with more intrigue than an Aaron Spelling TV drama. But it was the manner in which the hits against her were orchestrated that gave Reiter the creeps.
On the day Reiter announced her exploratory campaign for mayor, “Rudy gave instructions to his staff at his 8 a.m. meeting, ‘Lay off of her.’ Well, it didn’t work.”
As Post City Hall Bureau Chief David Seifman reported, that very day, someone sent him an anonymous note accusing Reiter of having had her nails done, and charging it to the Giuliani campaign.
Reiter explains that a manicurist, in fact, came to her office one day – as gift from a personal friend.
“It’s unbelievable – when has this ever happened to a male candidate?” she says. Bill Clinton and the $200 Air Force One haircut comes to mind. But she’s on a roll.
“There’s no question in my mind that gender plays a role in this.”
There are other obstacles. Alan Hevesi, considered the top Democratic contender, has raised more than $2 million – compared to Reiter’s $100,000 or so.
“I’ve raised that in a month. Give me a break. Hevesi has been raising money since his last comptroller race.”
Reiter says she has strong support among the business community, where even a Hevesi is considered too loony left.
“Only with the strongest possible economy and smallest possible unemployment rate can you support a socially liberal society,” she argues.
The Democrats’ mistake is “they think business is evil and tax it out of existence, lose thousands of jobs and wonder why they don’t have any money in the till to help the people they want to help.”
At the very least, Reiter reminds us that, in a couple of years – or less, if Giuliani runs for Senate – somebody is going to have to fill those large shoes in City Hall.
She’s right that gender isn’t the biggest worry. City voters have got to reject a return to the bleak days of Dinkins.