Herman Badillo, seen at left, as a congressman in the 1970s, was also a Bronx borough president and ran for mayor six times, never securing a party nomination. Councilman, borough president and three-time mayoral hopeful Fernando "Freddy" Ferrer was the first Latino to win the nomination of a major party for City Hall. But his achievement in 2005 was dwarfed by the magnitude of his loss to the popular—and financially limitless—incumbent Mayor Bloomberg.
The mayoral candidacies of Congressman Herman Badillo and Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer saw Latinos come close, but not close enough, to winning City Hall.
To break the ethnic barrier in 2013 or beyond, a Latino candidate must confront barriers that doomed past pioneers, shifting demographics and an ideological minefield.
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