Dear Commons Community,

The New York Times’ Gail Collins analyzes today Bill de Blasio’s  victory in the New York Democratic Primary last Tuesday.   She comments that one big factor for his victory was:

“…a TV ad he aired that featured his son, Dante, talking about his father’s stand on the issues. Michael Barbaro of The Times, in a postelection analysis, called it “the commercial that changed the course of the mayor’s race…

…The thing viewers remember most about the de Blasio ad is not the candidate’s housing policy but the fact that his family is racially mixed: he’s white, his wife is black and Dante has the most impressive Afro since Angela Davis…”

However, the real key to the Dante ad was not that it reminded black voters that the candidate had an African-American wife. It was the way:

“… it appealed to our multiethnic yearning for racial harmony. The de Blasio family seems so happy. The pictures of them laughing together remind you both of how far we’ve come and where we’d like to go. It’s the same effect the nation got when Barack Obama talked about his background and you remembered that when Obama was born, less than 10 percent of Americans approved of interracial marriage.”

De Blasio will have to prove himself as a candidate, but as Collins concludes:

“..we’ll remember that he was the guy who made one ad that created one urban feel-good moment, just before Election Day.”

Yes!

Tony