In 1997, Ferrer launched a campaign for Mayor of New York. Trailing in the polls and under increased pressure from party insiders for a unified Democratic Party, he abruptly dropped out and endorsed the eventual Democratic nominee, Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger. In the 2001 election, Ferrer ran for the Democratic nomination for mayor. He won the first primary with 34%, but failed to win the necessary 40% to secure the nomination and ultimately lost a divisive runoff election to Mark Green following the September 11th terrorist attack on the World Trade Center towers. Ferrer, who is of Puerto Rican descent, received a high level of support from Hispanic voters but not from African-Americans. In the first round, Ferrer also finished ahead of City Council Speaker Peter Vallone and Comptroller Alan Hevesi. Ferrer was the Democratic candidate for mayor, losing in the general election to incumbent Mayor Michael Bloomberg in the 2005 election. During the campaign, Ferrer proposed reviving a stock transfer tax for Wall Street to help pay for education; this tax ended in 1981 but while different and smaller than the original tax was treated as if it were exactly the same. The tax had resulted in and been dropped as a result of threats by brokerage houses to move their operations base to New Jersey. Ferrer sought to create 167,000 homes, proposed hiring 1,900 new police officers, supported same-sex marriage, opposed the Urstadt law, supported the Second Avenue Subway and was opposed to tolls on the East River bridges as well as allowing residents of Staten Island to be able to cross the bridge connecting Staten Island to Brooklyn for free as other residents of other boroughs can do from their borough to others (such as the Brooklyn Bridge). On October 23, Ferrer proposed Home Owner Property Exemption, or HOPE, a tax break for homeowners with a home property value of less than $100,000 which would have more than doubled the property tax rebate given to NYers. A theme of his election campaign in 2001 was called the "Two New Yorks" and was altered for the 2005 campaign due to attacks that it was too race motivated. This is the conclusion of his stump speech:  His campaign was hurt by remarks he made in March 2005 concerning the Amadou Diallo shooting. Ferrer, who'd marched in protest against the shooting when it occurred and had gotten arrested, expressed his belief to the New York City Police Department Sergeants Benevolent Association that the incident was a "tragedy," but "not a crime." He was strongly criticized by Diallo's family and others for these remarks, and he slid in popularity polls, especially among African-Americans.