‘Blogfather’ joins Paddick campaign as nominations close
A second American political strategist has been appointed to Brian Paddick’s campaign to become the first Lib Dem Mayor of London.
Nominations for Mayor close today and the election will be held on May 1st.
Jerome Armstrong, sometimes called the Blogfather, will be the campaign’s web strategist.
He was instrumental in US Presidential hopeful Howard Dean’s grassroots campaign in 2004, regarded as the first major campaign to effectively use the internet to fundraise and win support.
Earlier this month another veteran Democrat, Rick Ridder, who secured Hillary Clinton’s unexpected victory in Arizona in the 2008 primaries, joined Paddick as a campaign strategist.
Yesterday the Conservative candidate for Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, unveiled his environment manifesto with an eye-catching proposal to pay Londoners to recycle.
He said a similar scheme in America has increased the amount of household waste being recycled by more than 200 per cent.
He also said that if elected he would make protecting London’s open spaces a priority by investing £6 million in making our open spaces cleaner and safer, and investing in 10,000 street trees.
“Increasing recycling may appear to be a small gesture but will actually improve the lives of thousands of Londoners,” he said.
“I want to work with London boroughs to make that a reality.”
The incumbent Mayor Ken Livingstone is seeking a third term. The Labour party candidate, he launched his manifesto for a safer London today.
Mr Livingstone said his priorities if re-elected would be building up London’s defences against terrorist attacks, dealing with the issue of murders of young people, continuing the progress made in crimes against women including rape and domestic violence, dealing with drug crime and continuing progress to make sure that the make up of the Metropolitan police reflects London.
“The central pledge in this manifesto is to continue to reduce crime in London by 6 per cent a year over the next four years,” he said.
He also announced he would do more work with London’s schools to counter racist and homophobic bullying and extra resources would go to the local Sapphire teams set up in every borough to investigate rape.
Five candidates for Mayor have so far confirmed they will attend a hustings organised by gay equality organisation Stonewall.
Mr Livingstone, Boris Johnson, Brian Paddick, Green candidate Sian Berry and Respect – The Left list candidate Lindsey German will all speak and answer questions at the event at BFI Southbank on Saturday 19th April.
The Stonewall hustings will be the last before Londoners go to the polls on May 1st.
PinkNews.co.uk is proud to be Stonewall’s media partner for the hustings, which will be held at the between 11am and 12.30pm.
The event is open to everyone, but in order to ensure a seat you must register here.
For a full list of candidates for Mayor of London click here.
