Blog: Mayoroke

Last Thursday, candidates for New York City offices from Council to Borough President to Public Advocate came to The Tank for a night of karaoke: Mayoroke, presented by Democracy for NYC and, of course, Drinking Liberally, and featured in Gawker and Time Out New York. District 4 5 Council candidate Eric Cesnik and his chief of staff sang "I Got You Babe", and Public Advocate hopeful Norman Siegel performed "In the Still of the Night" with his staff as a do-wop backup troupe. Borough President frontrunner Scott Stringer and incumbent Councilwoman Gale Brewer both attended, though only their younger staffers sang songs.

But the best performance of the night was from Borough President candidate Carlos Manzano, who had never done karaoke before and by his own admission was "terrified," yet he got up on the stage and crooned to the tune of INXS's "I Need You Tonight" to rousing applause. Liza Sabater, liveblogging the event, was impressed . Carlos was congratulated by so many people afterward that he has since started joking that if politics doesn't work out, he could try a career as a rock star.

As I explained to one reporter when she asked who did the best job, karaoke isn't about being musically talented or putting on a "good" performance. It's about getting into the spirit of fun and pushing your boundaries of comfort, having ordinary people do something - singing on a stage - that only a small handful usually engage in. Democrats believe in making the political process accessible to the masses, not just a few wealthy elites. So what's more appropriate than having political elites, our professional politicians, join in a true activity of the masses - karaoke?