A Job for Andrew Rasiej

Andrew Rasiej's longshot hopes of actually becoming Public Advocate seem to be pretty much dashed by the Times endorsement of Betsy Gotbaum this morning, which was as enthusiastic as they come this year. But as vested as The Politicker is in Rasiej's core tech agenda, there was always kind of a disconnect in his campaign. You had the candidate, a charming guy with an interesting background. You had the issues, pressing and widely ignored. And you had the job, a kind of duplicative at-large City Council seat. How the three -- Rasiej, wi-fi, Public Advocate -- connected -- well, that never quite made sense. On the other hand, the candidate clearly tapped into a real flaw in New York: its weird allergy to technology, and its running blind spot about that allergy. (When it takes Thomas Friedman to notice a local candidate...) So you have to think that Rasiej will drive the core of this campaign into some kind of, currently missing, independent tech advocacy organization. Which various bloggers, no doubt, will welcome.