Giuliani's Credibility Crumbles as He Continues to Overstate Mayoral Record and Adoption Numbers
May 18, 2007
Rudy Giuliani continues to deflect questions about his inconsistent positions on abortion by outright exaggerating his record as New York City's mayor. Not only does Giuliani overstate the number of adoptions under his watch, The New York Times today reports that "little if anything in the public record suggests that he was promoting adoption as an alternative to abortion." [The New York Times, 5/17/07]
The article points out that the adoption numbers Giuliani cites "mirrored national trends" and can be attributed to President Clinton's Adoption and Safe Families Act, which "offered huge incentives to cities adoption programs." City records also show the number of adoptions was increasing before Giuliani took office and that adoptions declined in "five of the mayor's last six years." [The New York Times, 5/17/07; New York City Administration For Children's Services]
Rudy Giuliani often uses misleading adoption numbers. During the first debate two weeks ago, he said "adoptions went up 65 to 70 percent" comparing the last six years of his administration with the previous six years. On Tuesday, Giuliani tried to claim "adoptions went up 133 percent during the eight years that I was mayor." National data shows that Giuliani's record actually was far worse than the national trend of increasing adoptions. [Debate, 5/3/07; Debate, 5/17/07; US Administration For Children and Families AFCARS and VCIS data]
"Repeating a misleading number again and again doesn't make it so. Rudy Giuliani's attempts to overstate his mayoral record once again call his credibility and truthfulness into question," said DNC Press Secretary Stacie Paxton. "Why is Rudy trying to mislead voters instead of sticking to the truth? The more voters learn about Rudy Giuliani, the less they will come to trust him."
RUDY'S MYSTERIOUSLY GROWING CLAIMS ON ADOPTION STATS
Rudy's Outrageous 2nd Debate Claim Wasn't True. "Adoptions went up 133 percent during the eight years that I was mayor, compared to the prior eight years." [Debate, 5/15/07]
And Its Double The Number He Said In The First Debate Two Weeks Earlier! In the first debate Giuliani claimed that "adoptions went up 65 to 70 percent." [Debate, 5/3/07]
Watchdog: Giuliani "Unrepentant" And Giving "False Impression" That Turn Truth "On Its Head." Those are the comments of independent group FactCheck.org [Link; Link
REALITY: Adoptions Declined 5 Years Out Of Eight, Were Going Down When He Left, Only Went Up 17% Overall. In fact, the independent group FactCheck.org has twice debunked Giuliani's misleading numbers. In a recent article they wrote that "Adoptions declined in five of the mayor's last six years," using the same set of official numbers that the Giuliani campaign relies on. They said this is "a classic case of how candidates and public officials sometimes use data selectively to create a false impression." The data shows that adoptions went down for most of the years he ran the city, by as much as 17% one year, including the last five years he was in office. Adoptions overall were "only 17 percent higher than at the start, and falling." ["Levitating Numbers," Factcheck.org, 5/7/07; "Adoption Finalizations: Fiscal Years 1989-2003," 2003 End Review, (PDF), p.14 ]
REALITY: National Data Shows Giuliani Record Much Worse Than National Trends. In fact, Giuliani's New York City record was considerably worse then national trends for the same years. Federal data shows an average increase of 14% a year and positive growth seven out of eight years during Giuliani's terms, while New York City data show a decrease in five out of eight years, an average increase of only 4%. [New York City Administration For Children's Services; US Administration For Children and Families AFCARS and VCIS data]
REALITY: Little Basis For Claiming Credit Anyhow. According to experts, "other factors probably contributed to those changes, calling into question Mr. Giuliani's suggesting correlation between the two trends," and citing Clinton administration incentives that helped city adoption programs nationwide. The paper said there is "little if anything in the public record suggests that he was promoting adoption as an alternative to abortion," despite his claim that he "encouraged adoptions" [New York Times, 5/17/07; Debate, 5/03/07]
| FY | NYC Finalized Adoptions | NYC Change From Prior Year | NYC % Change From Prior Year | National % Change From Prior Year | |
| 90 | 1109 | 82 | 8% | ||
| 91 | 1421 | 312 | 28% | ||
| 92 | 1784 | 363 | 26% | 1% | |
| 93 | 2443 | 659 | 37% | 10% | |
| 94 | 2312 | -131 | -5% | -14% | |
| 95 | 3665 | 1353 | 59% | 34% | |
| 96 | 3665 | 0 | 0% | 8% | |
| 97 | 4009 | 344 | 9% | 12% | |
| 98 | 3860 | -149 | -4% | 20% | |
| 99 | 3805 | -55 | -1% | 26% | |
| 00 | 3148 | -657 | -17% | 9% |
| 01 | 2715 | -433 | -14% | -1% | |
| 02 | 2694 | -21 | -1% | 5% |
Source: FactCheck.org; New York City Administration For Children's Services;
US Administration For Children and Families AFCARS and VCIS data
