At a press conference at the foot of the Verrazano Bridge in Brooklyn this afternoon, with Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis at his side, mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis was asked by Ross Barkan from Politickerabout Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s controversial plan to ban high-sugar drinks in cups or containers bigger than 16 ounces.
“I wouldn’t want my kids to drink 32 ounce sodas,” said Mr. Catsimatidis, explaining that he would also want more health education programs put in public schools. “When I went to the movies a couple of weeks ago and I looked at the 32 oz soda and it said 1,100 calories, wow, never in a million years would I buy that one!”
Mr. Catsimatidis also promised a mysterious press conference in Brooklyn next week. “Stay tuned to next week. We saved jobs in Brooklyn nobody knows about,” he told Politicker.
Republican mayoral candidate has not yet hired a pollster, although its in the makings according to his campaign manager, but he was fast enough to dismiss the latest poll showing him with a mere 5% of support among NYC Republican voters.
“I love when they underestimate me,” he told The Daily News. “People have been underestimating me from a little Greek island to 135th St to top of American industry.”
Three of the potential Republican mayoral candidates met a welcoming crowd at the first Brooklyn Young Conservative Club' Presidents Day dinner Thursday night. Joe Lhota, George McDonald and Adolfo Carrion, who came with an Independence party slot in pocket addressed the crowd in acknowledging the significance of the Conservative party's growing base in Southern Brooklyn.
Former MTA chief and the favorite candidate in the Republican party, Joe Lhota introduced his candidacy by quipping: "I am Joe Lhota, and I am running for Mayor of NYC."
Channeling Jimmy McMillan's gubernatorial run in 2010 theme, Lhota reminded the crowd of the rent is too damn high slogan, saying "I will be the candidate who will say over and over: "The government is too damn expensive."
"The job is too complicated for on the job training," Lhota said while touting his experience in the private and public sector as the best equipped for the job and challenges "on day one."
"We are going to have an interesting race," Lhota said while pointing out the presence of Adolfo Carrion, presenting him as a third party candidate. "I think it is going to be very interesting to see how one can win this race," he added. Lhota's confidence lays in the belief, as he expressed later on in a private conversation that Carrion's candidacy will do more harm to the potential Democratic nominee.
Adolfo Carrion, who spoke right after him, briefly introduced himself as the one that could bring New Yorkers together. Adding that he's looking forward "to a robust discussion of the future of our city."
George McDonald also addressed the crowd by touting his experience in providing help for the homeless, "not by going to Bain Capital, but to main capital."
McDonald was approached by the Observer's Colin Campbell who asked him whether he is also Jewish, seen that every Republican candidate has somehow found some Jewish connection to their personal life. Shockingly, McDonald revealed that his wife is Jewish.
Public Advocate and mayoral candidate, Bill de Blasio released today a report that shows the that over the past decade - and especially over the past three years under the Bloomberg/Quinn administration - small businesses across the City have been hammered by inspections, violations and fines from the Dept of Consumer Affairs and the Dept of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Adolfo Carrion, who won the nomination of the independence party for mayor, was asked yesterday by Celeste Katz about anti-Semitic remarks made in the past by Independence Party leader Lenora Fulani, who retracted the statements and apologized back in 2007, Azi Paybarah reports.
Carrion strongly objected to the idea that he was associating with anyone or anything anti-Semitic and said his advocacy for Israel practically makes him Jewish.
John Catsimatidis plans to deploy some of his massive personal fortune to improve his standing, setting up his campaign as the ultimate test of how much credibility money can buy, according to Hunter Walker, who wrote up a Politicker profile. “Right now, you know, we’re budgeting a million dollars a month,” said Mr. Catsimatidis. “We’ll see where we go.”
People call Bloomberg - The king, but the lady's acts when she has her hand on the cash, hardly gets noticed. While the City Council's discretionary funding ($50M), dispersed by Council Speaker Quinn, are supposedly distributed based on each area's need, Gothamist's interactive map suggests that some areas are surprisingly needier than others, yet receive far less.
Based on the data made public by the city, Quinn's constituents in Chelsea and Hell's Kitchen received the most funding out of any neighborhood in the city, Gothamist finds. While the majority of zip codes in the city received $10-100 per capita, Quinn's zip codes received $396-696 in the past four years—more than 10 times what most of the city got.
In a WNYC interview thismorning, Joe Lhota addressed the recent controversy where Staten Island powerbroker Guy Molinari very publicly withdrew his support from Mr. Lhota in response to unreturned phone calls. Mr. Lhota said he was “surprised” by the communications mishap, but Mr. Molinari should have called him personally to resolve it, according to the conversation and reported by Colin Campbell.
Republican mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis, is not wasting time to appeal to the general public, in a bid to boost his name recognition and business credentials as an investment 8 months ahead of the general elections.
I am told that Catsimatidis has hired a Jewish liaison, who's name will be announced in the near future. As part of the planned Jewish outreach, Mr. Catsimatidis has bought ad space in every Jewish publication, Orthodox, Yiddish and English newspapers, wishing Jewish New Yorkers a Happy Purim, which is celebrated on the 14th of Adar next Sunday.
While Joe Lhota, who is believed to be the favorite hopeful in the Republican primary, is investing time among Republican donors and voters, Mr. Catsimatidis is looking ahead to the general election. Acknowledging his scooffed up campaign chest and the extra time given, the Catsimatidis campaign's belief is, that while the Democratic candidates are busy fighting over the hearts of the labor unions and hardcore Democratic voters, and while the Republican candidates struggle to gain traction, fundraise and appeal to the GOP base who are likely to go out and vote, Mr. Catsimatidis is able to invest and time, energy and money to reach out to certain communities who feel neglected in the primary process.
According to some operatives involved in the campaign, if Mr. Catsimatidis manages to make inroads among Democratic Jewish voters while he's not obligated to do so, the effort will pay off once the primary season gears up, and he emerges as the Republican nominee for mayor. Mr. Catsimatidis hopes that by then he will already be sold as a viable candidate with an appeal to key voting blocs who are willing to give another republican a chance, especially after a bruising Democratic primary. After all, over 80 percent of Orthodox/Hasidic voters in NYC voted for Mitt Romney in the past presidential election.
Mr. Catsimatidis, at a press conference in Queens two weeks ago, told Azi Paybarah from Capital New York (and TwitterWorld) that he is planning to appoint liaisons to every ethnic group in the city who will report to him directly. Looks like Mr. Catsimatidis is not wasting time executing his promises.
It's important to note that in the Orthodox community newspaper ads are the most significant and effective outreach, and after 12 years of Bloomberg, the idea that a Republican candidate, who's not Jewish, is granting such a substantial amount of attention to the growing community, will have a great impact, a Democratic observer told me.
Attached is the 'Happy Purim' ad by John Catsimatidis that will feature in every publication over the weekend, from Hebrew, Yiddish, English and Yinglish.
NY and LA will both pick mayors this year, but while LA is likely to pick a Jewish mayor, NYC who has lost a great Jewish Mayor (Ed Koch) and has had a Jewish mayor over the past 12 years, will likely remain without a Jewish mayor, Josh Nathan-Kaziswrites in the Jewish Forward.
Nearly every mayoral race in recent memory has included a Jewish candidate. Yet in 2013, not a single one of the handful of front-runners vying to replace Bloomberg is Jewish.
“That there is no Jewish candidate in this particular race is more a consequence of personal behavior on the part of the potential Jewish candidate than anything else,” quipped Flora Davidson, a professor of political science and urban studies at Barnard College, referring to Weiner, who resigned by disgrace..
Oh, remembers Nathan-Kazis, "there actually is one Jew in the New York City mayoral race. Tom Allon, a newspaper publisher, is running for mayor as a Republican, though his lack of name recognition makes him a long shot."
Joe Lhota, who is actually the favorite on the Republican side is also Jewish by law, as earlier reported.
What the forward is doing , is basically selecting the viability of the candidates to justify their claim (after all you need something to write a story) that No Jew is running this year for mayor. Its up to the voters, Mr. Josh Nathan-Kazis.
