The Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton yesterday rallied around Democratic mayoral candidate Fernando Ferrer, slamming Mayor Bloomberg for being on the wrong team – the Republican one.
Sharpton and Jackson said that’s reason enough to vote for Ferrer.
The candidate, who has been slumping in the polls, will get a much-needed jolt tomorrow when Bill Clinton campaigns with him in the Bronx.
Yesterday, Jackson called Bloomberg a “wolf politician in sheep clothing,” while admitting Bloomberg’s “fusion campaign” has “confused” some voters, including traditionally Democratic black voters.
Jackson asked students at York College in Jamaica, Queens: “Whose side are you on?”
A man who claimed he was a victim of a bias attack disrupted the press briefing afterward, urging Ferrer to apologize for saying the 1999 fatal shooting of Amadou Diallo wasn’t a crime.
Sharpton defended Ferrer, saying the former Bronx borough president got arrested in the protests over the shooting.
Meanwhile, Ferrer unveiled four new ads yesterday – including one that attacks the city’s abysmal high-school dropout rate, although it doesn’t mention Bloomberg by name.
The 15-second TV education ad shows a new pencil in a sharpener.
When it comes out, half the pencil is gone – indicating that half the kids drop out.