New’field went so far as to denounce Solar/,rnas an “ethnic arsonist,” endangeringrnhitherto peaceful Jcvvish-IIispanicrnrelations. Understandably, Nevficld didrnnot elaborate about which ethnic grouprnhe expected to commit most of the arson.rnMost liberals drew back from therndangerous logic of this position: for if itrnis evil for a nonblack or non-IIispanicrnto run in a designated minority district,rnthen why isn’t it equally evil for blacks orrnHispanics to run in white districts, orrnfor black Mayor David Dinkins to runrnin what is still in the majority a whiterncity? There were lots of frantic pleas forrnthe Puerto Rican candidates to agree onrnone of their number and for the rest torndrop out, to unify against the Solarz danger;rnbut none of them would do so.rnSteve Solarz now proceeded to transformrnhimself for the occasion. He hiredrntwo prominent Puerto Ricans as hisrncampaign manager and field director.rnHe renamed himself F.steban Solarz,rnspoke a few words of Spanish to his constituents,rnran Spanish-language commercials,rnand put up posters readingrn”Solarz para El Congreso.” He tried tornconvince the bemused Puerto Ricanrnmasses of the three boroughs that he,rnEsteban, was really one of them, sincernhis ancestors were Spanish-PortuguesernJews. None of this really took.rnEsteban’s campaign manager, RudyrnGarcia, stated that the campaign wasrnaiming for one-third of the black votern(16 percent of registered oters), 90 percentrnof the Asian vote, and SO percent ofrnthe white vote; in other nords, Solarzrncould win if he collared at least 15 percentrnof Puerto Rican voters. The 80 percentrnwhite vote assumed that most ofrnthe whites in the district are Jewish,rna grave miscalculation, as MichaelrnTomasky pointed out. For the whitesrnthere are 85 percent Catholic and onlyrn15 percent Jewish, and Irish and ItalianrnCatholics scarcely feel an ethnic loyaltyrnto Solarz.rnAmong Esteban’s Puerto Rican opponents,rnthe two major figures werernwomen. Such moderates as formerrnMayor Ed Koch and City Council PresidentrnAndrew Stein backed ElizabethrnColon, former executie director of thernAssociation of Puerto Rican ExecutivernDirectors; while the city’s left, headedrnby health-care union president DennisrnRivera, New York Teamsters head BarryrnEeinstein, and Mayor Dinkins, enthusiasticallyrnbacked former Cit- CouncilwomanrnNydia Velasquez, secretary ofrnwhat amounts to the Puerto RicanrnCommonwealth’s embassy in New YorkrnCity, its Office of Migration.rnFinally, in the September 15 primary,rnNydia Velasquez squeezed past Solarzrnby 1,800 votes, Colon coming in third.rnEsteban could go back to being Steve.rnAn anonymous leak of hospital recordsrndocumenting a suicide attempt by Velasquezrnthe year before came too late torn^^Siiii5;iQiKiGW8i>;iN^rnPerhaps a better question is:rnDo you have a current will?rnIf not, the laws of your particular state will determine what is tornbe done with your estate upon your death. In addition, unlessrnthere is proper planning, federal estate taxes can claim up to 55%rnof your property. If you would like to discuss elements of yourrnestate planning, please write or call:rn’•^MeHAEK^smwwRrn•i^GACPiiiofiiiiirn,-Raiiiiiii>”ii«iTlirn””fiiii«iii=stRatf’rniitt^iJ,*/’-rn•::«iiii|:i«ii-S8iirn^<->:-,rn’•i:rii^rnirnS^^^ijr-^.’-tt:”rnSfi^^rf^'”‘:-rnV^^^^-vrnprevent her victory.rnBut another bizarre eent occurred.rnOn the day before the primary, TedrnWeiss suddenly died, leaving only therncandidate from the Marxo-psychobabblernNew Alliance Party in the Democraticrnrace. The Democratic leadersrnpleaded with ‘oters to vote for the deadrnman, so that the Democratic countyrncommittee members from the WestrnSide could choose the primary victor,rnand, in effect, Weiss’s successor. Andrnindeed, Weiss dead proved a formidablernpolitical leader and swept easily to victory.rnThere now ensued a fearful scramblernfor the souls of the several hundredrncounty committeemen from the deadrnman’s district. Whom would theyrnchoose? Could it be . . . a last, ghoulishrnchance for Solarz? But apparendy thisrnwas too much chutzpah even for Solarz,rnjust repudiated by the Democratic electorate,rnand Steve graciously took himselfrnout of the race. Entering the race,rnhowever, was Weiss’s predecessor, thernformidable and bellicose Bella Abzugrnwho, now in her 70’s, threw her trademarkrnlarge, floppy hat into the ring. Asrndid longtime West Side State SenatorrnFranz Leichter. But their challengesrnwere beaten back by the favorite of thernregion’s Democratic establishment, arnlongtime assemblyman, the corpulentrnJerry Nadlcr.rnBut Esteban was not to slink quietlyrninto the dark night. Once again, thernfaithful New York Times (October 7)rnpublished a hagiographical article on Solarz,rnreplete with a picture of him readingrna paper. This article was an elegrnto Solarz, pointing out how beloved he isrnto every leader of both parties andrntelling of an “outpouring of affectionrnand respect” from President Bush, BillrnClinton, Senator Hatch, and heck, justrnabout everybody who is anybody. Sornwhat now for Solarz? There is a bonechillingrnrumor that he could becomernSecretary of State in the Clinton administration,rnin which ease Solarz willrnrealize his objective of helping to runrnthe world. In that event, the nation’s—rnand the world’s—loss will surely bernBrooklyn’s gain.rnMurray N. Rothbard is a professorrnof economics at the University ofrnNevada, Las Vegas, andrnvice-president for academicrnaffairs at the Ludwig von Misesrninstitute.rn42/CHRONICLESrnrnrn