mayor bill de blasio speaks to the somos conference in san juan, puerto rico. | edwin j. torres/mayoral photo office by jimmy vielkind 11/14/16 05:20 am est san juan, p.r. <u+2014> they were shocked, depressed, wounded and angry. hundreds of attendees at the normally festive somos el futuro conference this weekend showed the effects of last week's stunning election returns, with donald trump leading a republican wave around the country. story continued below rather than bantering about campaigns to come, democrats gathered at the caribe hilton here held frank talks about what went wrong and how they would fight back. a rallying cry for progressive action replaced an expected policy recitation as the informal kick-off for new york city mayor bill de blasio<u+2019>s re-election bid. jeff klein, leader of the state senate's independent democratic conference, expected to be in a position to dictate terms by which he would form a coalition, talked of his past success in working with republicans who seem on track to hold the chamber<u+2019>s majority. <u+201c>i think most people are still in shock, and some of that shock is turning into anger and a desire to mobilize and connect,<u+201d> said state comptroller tom dinapoli. <u+201c>my concern is that we do come together. sometimes when something like this happens everybody goes off in their own direction, you start a blame game, you get into big ideological arguments. we should all just step back, take a deep breath and come up with a focused agenda <u+2014> not a splintering one, but a unifying one. not always the strong suit of democrats, so we<u+2019>ll see what happens.<u+201d> <u+201c>there<u+2019>s a lot of post mortem going on,<u+201d> assemblyman francisco moya, a democrat from queens, said during a friday evening cocktail party on a terrace overlooking the caribbean sea. monsignor kevin sullivan, executive director of catholic charities of the archdiocese of new york, captured the mood while offering the benediction for another reception. <u+201c>give us the perseverance,<u+201d> he prayed. <u+201c>give us the patience to get through these difficult times and into better times.<u+201d> a slew of elected officials and dozens of political staffers are reassessing their futures. one albany democrat said resumes from capitol hill staffers already were arriving. state sen. brad hoylman, a democrat from manhattan, said it was a perfect reversal of his expectations. <u+201c>i expected [a] serious, serious brain drain,<u+201d> he said. <u+201c>now, hundreds of new yorkers are going to be coming back from washington.<u+201d> officials, including the mayors of buffalo and syracuse, had been pondering what federal positions they might be interested in after hillary clinton took office. likewise new york city council speaker melissa mark-viverito, who traveled as far as florida to campaign for clinton. term limits will force her from office at the end of next year. several somos attendees said the speaker was particularly unsettled, and her face contorted noticeably when de blasio spoke of working with trump where possible. <u+201c>my commitment as speaker in this last year is to be very vocal, and we<u+2019>re organized, we<u+2019>re going to strategize, we<u+2019>re going to protect our values in new york city. i<u+2019>m going to help the democratic party at the national level restructure itself,<u+201d> mark-viverito told politico new york, standing beside her mother. <u+201c>there<u+2019>s a lot of work to do to make sure that our democratic party is ready," she said. "obviously, we have a lot of soul-searching to do, because the fact that we didn<u+2019>t see this coming is a problem. that<u+2019>s what i<u+2019>m going to be focused on.<u+201d> a free synopsis of our pro morning email about new york education policy and politics a free synopsis of our pro morning email about new york energy policy and politics a free synopsis of our pro morning email about new york health care policy and politics a free synopsis of our pro morning email about new york real estate policy and politics our morning email with must-read analysis and breaking news on state news and politics a morning email with must-read analysis and breaking news on city news and politics. a weekly round-up of legislation in city council for politics and policy professionals. a reported briefing on money in politics, executive moves, and trends in communications, lobbying and consulting. our twice-a-week digest of news on courts and the law in new york azi paybarah and jimmy vielkind's must-read briefing informing the daily conversation among knowledgeable new yorkers.
at somber somos, anxiety about life under trump
jimmy vielkind