McDonald Is A No Show As Republicans Sought To Overcome Hurdles At 'Spring Fling' Event

Republican mayoral candidates Joe Lhota and John Catsimatidis tried to put up a grin at a midtown fundraiser held on the heels of the arrest of officials linked to both leading GOP candidates for mayor. Their host, Manhattan GOP Chairman Dan Isaacs said the Wednesday reception should mark "a new beginning." 

Celeste Katz, who paid 10 bucks for the opportunity to mingle with the candidates, spoke separately to Lhota and Catsimatidis about the effect the arrests may have on their campaign.

"It doesn't affect me... I shook his hand," Catsimatidis said of Lhota. He added in an arch undertone, "Let him sweat. I don't sweat."

"I'm with John every day. We go around to different events all the time," said Lhota. As to why he waited a day to comment on the scandal, "I had a lot more substantive things to do than worry about the criminality of things that don't affect me," Lhota said. "It has absolutely no effect on my campaign."

The candidates addressed the crowd with their regular stump speeches. Lhota warned electing a Democrat could send the city back to the bad old days, while Catsimatidis focused on promoting job creation and school reform.

According to Katz, Catsimatidis also gave a little preview of his strategy for simultaneously courting both primary and general election voters: "We are running radio ads all over the eight prime radio stations in New York City... Next week, we'll probably be doing a mailing to all Republicans in New York, and in early May or late April, we're going to be doing television. And we are going to have enough information for the public for them to vote for the right candidate."

Absent from the event was Doe Fund President George McDonald, who suggested that the five New York City Republican chairmen were looking for a candidate with a “big pile of money” in return for their endorsement.

Manhattan GOP Chairman, Dan Isaacs told City and State NY that if he showed up he planned on bringing it up with the Doe Fund founder. “It’s absolutely categorically untrue,” Isaacs said. “As a matter of fact, I brought the article with me, and I was going to point it out to George McDonald to say, ‘Shame on him.’ The only questions that were asked of him that night was, ‘Do you have the money to dependably run a race for the mayor of the City of New York?’ That was it, and it was absolutely a legitimate question for any party leader to ask somebody who’s running for office. What he said was absolute BS and I’ll tell him so.”

"At no time was [McDonald] ever asked to make contributions to our county committees, as he implied," Isaacs told Celeste Katz. "The only question he was asked regarding money [was] whether he would raise sufficient funds to run for mayor. He assured us he would -- and as we have seen, that's simply not true."

Isaacs also noted, speaking to City and State NY, that regardless of scandal  he was confident that the Republican mayoral candidates would help restore respectability to the party. “At the end of the day the race is about the candidate. There’s no question in my mind that whether it’s John Catsimatidis, who I personally support, or Joe Lhota, they’re heads and shoulders above any Democrats who are running. I believe this man right here is going to be the next mayor of the City of New York,” Isaacs said, as Catsimatidis approached.