Ferrer On The Defensive Over Blog Flap

(New York - WABC, Sept. 27, 2005) -- There's a problem on the website of the democratic candidate for mayor of New York. Fernando Ferrer has claimed that he was "educated in public schools for most of my education."

But it turns out - that's not true.

Political reporter Dave Evans is on the Upper West Side with the story.

This may prove to be a fairly big deal, but we will see in the coming days. Late Tuesday afternoon when we let the Ferrer campaigning know about this, their reaction was 'oh come on, this is no big deal - it was simply a minor mistake made by a staffer at Ferrer headquarters.

But Bloomberg's people today pounced on this - they said Ferrer is either lying about his resume or lying about who writes his blog.

If you ask the Bloomberg team, this latest flap goes to the basic honesty of Freddy Ferrer. On his website in a blog by Freddy Ferrer, he write "I was born in the South Bronx and educated in public schools for most of my education."

But he wasn't - Ferrer went to Catholic schools, not public schools.

Kevin Sheekey, Bloomberg Campaign Manager: "I think the Bronx Borough President is allergic to the truth. He says that subway crime is up when it's down, he says test scores are down in our schools when they're up and now he's trying to rewrite his own record.

This afternoon Ferrer's campaign manager said that the blog was "... inaccurately edited and we apologize for the mistake."

Late today the candidate was campaigning with DNC Chairman Howard Dean. Ferrer said he did not write what was on his blog and then he lashed out at team Bloomberg for even bringing up this website flap.

Fernando Ferrer, (D) Candidate for Mayor: "We must be at a very interesting pass in this campaign when the Bloomberg campaign - with its limitless resources - proof reads blogs. I think what they ought to do is pay a little more attention to a fifty percent dropout rate."

The Bloomberg campaign today pointed out that the issue has come up before - in the first primary debate when Ferrer was asked if his children went to public schools.

Fernando Ferrer: "My daughter already did graduate from public schools ..."

Like her father, Ferrer's daughter also graduated from a parochial school. The most surprising thing about today perhaps is that it shows how Bloomberg's campaign is focused on any small mistake, any false claim.

In another development late Tuesday afternoon sources tell us that that Working Families Party - a growing political movement in New York State - will endorse Ferrer.

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