Norwood News

While most mothers are juggling work and home life, Francisca “Frances” Villar (pictured, center, right), a 26-year-old mom and a student at Lehman College in the Bronx, has started a fierce campaign to run against Mayor Bloomberg in November’s election.

Villar, who lives in University Heights with her two young kids, is running on a third-party ticket for the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL). Saving affordable housing and supporting immigrant and criminal rights are some of her main platforms.

She was a community college senator and is now president of her apartment building’s tenant association. Villar spearheaded a protest last month outside Riker’s Island prison asking officials to “shut down” the prison because of deplorable conditions. The daily Metro heralded Villar recently as the “real face of socialism.”

If New York City is not ready for third party politics, Villar says there are really only two choices in this election: the destructive force of capitalism or socialism. Only the latter, she says, represents working class people.

“I want to show people that socialism is not oblivious and it’s not just a philosophy,” Villar says. “It’s an actual system and I want to try to show people that it benefits all of us, not just a handful of us.”

When she pulls off the biggest upset in the history of mayoral elections, Villar wants to make higher education affordable to low-income people, stop evictions and foreclosures, make unionization efficient for city workers, and raise the minimum wage to $20. She says many of these things can happen if we “stop the $5 billion in taxes and fees we are currently using to pay off all the corporations and banks.”

According to the New York City Campaign Finance Board, Villar has almost $8,000 in funds, most of it coming from in-kind contributions from PSL.

Last week, Villar protested outside El Museo del Barrio in Harlem during the first general election mayoral debate to dispute the campaign finanace board’s policy that candidates raise at least $50,000 before participating in mayoral debates. She says she protested in support of all candidates “who didn’t have a voice.”

Despite being shut out of the debates, not to mention a lack of funding and visibility, Villar says she has just as good a chance as anyone to become mayor. “It’s a problem that our country puts precedence on how much money you have in the bank, because that’s really not what being a political leader should be about.”

Ed. Note: You can read more about Francisca Villar on her campaign Web site, www.pslweb.org. —Ashley VillarREAL