Gustavo Rivera, a state Senate candidate, talking to potential petition signers
Early yesterday morning, State Senate candidate Gustavo Rivera and a handful of his volunteers worked the rush hour crowd on the downtown platform of the Fordham Road 4-Train station.
They were after signatures so that Rivera can get on the ballot.
One exchange went like this:
Volunteer: "Are you a registered Democrat living in the Bronx?"
Middle-aged man: "I don't vote. All the politicians are crooked."
When asked the same question, several other commuters pretended not to hear, and walked on, eyes straight ahead - the kind of response (or lack of) that beggars on the subway often elicit.
Still, not everyone was so unresponsive.
Joshua Iscoa, a local resident and computer programmer who was heading to work, even let a train pass by as he listened to Rivera's pitch.
Typically, that pitch begins with Rivera informing the potential petition signer that Pedro Espada, Jr., the current office holder, is a bad guy who has abused his position. Rivera then reels off a few of his own accomplishments: how he's an experienced educator, how he helped Obama get elected, and how he's worked for several other pols with stellar reputations, including Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.
