John Catismatidis Sells 'Catman' Package At Brooklyn Republican Town Hall Meeting

At a well attended event in Brooklyn Sunday afternoon, Republican mayoral hopeful John Catsimatidis sought to sell himself to Republican primary voters as a life long story, able to get the city rollin'. In a lengthy and direct introduction to the Brooklyn Young Republican club, Mr. Catsimatidis rolled out ideas how to close the deficit, how to reduce the cost of gas and oil, how to fix the education system, bring jobs back to New York City and keep the city safe.

Brooklyn GOP To Honor John Catsimatidis As "Man of the Year"

The Brooklyn GOP county committee, heads by chairman Craig Eaton, just sent out this invitation to the annual Lincoln dinner to be held on May 9. 

Michael Reagan, the son of President Reagan, (who urged party leaders to grant access for Adolfo Carrion to run in the Republican mayoral primary) is the Guest Speaker. Mayoral hopeful John Catsimatidis, who was recently endorsed by the county committee, will be honored as Brooklyn GOP's "Man of the Year."

AUDIO: Jacob Kornbluh Discusses Mayoral Race and Jewish Vote On The Spin Class

Bill de Blasio Unveils Grandiose Affordable Housing Plan

Shifting gears from attacks on Quinn to policy, Mayoral hopeful Bill de Blasio rolled out his housing plan Thursday, claiming he could create 100,000 new affordable units, plus preservation for “nearly 90,000″ others.

Week 1: Weiner's Fumble Return From Exile

Anthony Weiner's apologetic comeback tour, starting with a bunch of hand picked one-on-one TV interview, isn't going too well, crisis management experts tell NY Daily News.

 "They faulted Weiner’s performance in a whirlwind of TV interviews Wednesday when the former congressman could not say how many women received raunchy texts and photos from him or rule out the possibility that more photos could emerge.

Erick Salgado Vows Resilience With Hispanic, Russian and Jewish Coalition

It looked like a room full of oppressed citizens seeking resilience. While the issue of gay marriage is a non-issue in this mayoral campaign, a group of rabbis, Orthodox community activists and young students, assembled together at the 'Ahi Ezer' hall in Gravesend, Brooklyn for an event in support of Conservative Democratic mayoral candidate, Rev. Erick Salgado.

The event was hosted by community activist Joseph Hayon, and attended by mayoral hopeful Erick Salgado, Rabbi Nekelbaum, Rabbi Auziel Admony, Rabbi Beni Rachmanov, and Gregory Davidszon, all who addressed the crowd during the evening.

The theme shared by the couple of speeches given by various rabbis were all shared by common defiance against the government's hostility towards freedom of religion.

 

While addressing the issue of gay marriage as an issue of transgression that shouldn't be overlooked or given up the right to protest and be stopped,  Rabbi Nekelbaum spoke about the trend. The idea of  gay marriage, he said, has started to circulate in a way that may ultimately lead in the future to Orthodox Jews trying it out and  indulge in that behavior.

"Therefore we are here to support Mr. Erick Salgado because he's strongly committed to stopping these perversions, the corruption of the minds and these actions," the Rabbi concluded. "For the Almighty there are no long shots or short shots."

"This is not considered a political event. It's a religion issue. It's a religious obligation to be here tonight and support the campaign of Mr. Salgado," said Rabbi Auziel Admony.

Senator Ruben Diaz, who was introduced as the only Democratic Senator that voted against the Same Gender Marriage bill, assailed against the Democratic party, only to request the Jewish community to join him and the Latino community in creating a coalition of left behind's. "We have a unique opportunity to send a message: 'We are tired. We are fed up, and we will take it no more'," Rev. Diaz said.

"If we can get  from the Jewish community 10,000 votes, we, the Hispanic community, will produce the rest. Let's do it, we can do it," he said. Adding to loud applause, "I wasn't born a Jew but I am a Jew."

Pumped up by Senator Diaz's introduction, feeling at home in a friendly crowd, Rev. Erick Salgado flourished in a unusual manner of enthusiasm and delivered a rather revolutionary speech filled with zingers and plausible lines, and less policy oriented.

"I am not afraid of being pushed. I have been pushed all my life, by the way, and I pushed back," said Mr. Salgado. "I was born in the Bronx. When I was 2 years old I was struggling with asthma, and they pushed my to Puerto Rico. But when I graduated from high school I came back because I knew it was meant for me to be in the city for a purpose, and tonight we are closer than ever in achieving that purpose."

"The career politicians" he said referring to his rivals in the Democratic primary, "they say that I have no chance. They look at me, and they laugh. But I am used to it. They push me. They twist my words. They don't like my accent. But my friends, when I finish up fixing the City of New York they are going to love my accent. They are going to try to talk the way I talk."

Not addressing them by the name, Mr. Salgado charged that his opponents, although they are attacking Mayor Bloomberg,  are part of the current system. "They are also elected. They have done nothing for this city. The city does not feel proud of them. That's why the city is not going to choose them and elevate them to a higher level. They are going to choose somebody that has been working for 24 years. Somebody that has  helped other people. They are going to choose somebody from main street and make him mayor," he said

Coming back to seek sympathy, Mr. Salgado didn't shy away from addressing his vulnerabilities. "They can push me. They can say you have no chance. You have no money. You have no name recognition. You can it to the list. But still, If I have the children of God with me I am going to achieve victory," he defiantly argued.

"This is doable. We can do this. If we can get the Latino community to believe I am going to be the next mayor, if we can persuade every single person in the Jewish community to vote for Erick Salgado, in the Russian communities and in the many communities supporting us, we are going to have a mayor that is going to be working for all New Yorkers," he continued.

"Many people are saying they have the Jewish community, And I know, I could feel it through the passion in this room, that after tonight everyone in the Jewish community is going to pay attention to  who his 'Mr. Erick Salgado," he concluded to loud cheers.

VIDEO: Underestimated, John Catismatidis Confident In Primary Win

Mayoral hopeful and Republican underdog, John Catsimatidis told NY1's Errol Louis on "The road To City Hall" that he's working very hard 7 days a week until 11PM, hitting every borough and neighborhood in NYC, in his run for mayor. "Because I am not only running in the [GOP] September primary, but also in the November election," he said.

Catsimatidis Dropping Two Mailers To GOP Primary Voters

GOP hopeful John Catsimatidis is dropping two mailers, at the cost of $100,000, to Republican voters this week, Celeste Katz reports.   

The first mailer, which features an image of the billionaire at his City Hall steps kickoff, cost about $50,000, Katz notes.

Boom Boom! Bill de Blasio and Christine Quinn Spar For A Brief Moment

In a 60 minutes debate, shared with 6 candidates on stage, there weren't many moments of zinger dropping, jabs or direct confrontations between the leading mayoral candidates. The only direct back and forth square off was at minute 0:56:00, when Bill de Blasio, who totally ignored the remaining candidates, took out the gun and began shooting at Christine Quinn over Stop and Frisk.

 

"Speaker Quinn, the fact is, you only moved on stop-and-frisk because there was tremendous public pressure," said Public Advocate Bill de Blasio. "You weren't willing to challenge Ray Kelly previously, and you only moved on Civilian Complaint Review Board because, again, other people were moving on the issue."

"Bill, you are engaged in revisionist history," Quinn responded. "What I said to you and Councilmember Garodnick is that the legislation you had to give the CCRB prosecutorial authority was not legally doable."

“You’re simply making that up,” she shot back.

Red Smoked Filled Room At Lhota Fundraiser

NYT's Michael Grynbuam got to smoke cigars with Republican mayoral hopeful in an extraordinary fundraiser in Queens Monday night and reports. “I haven’t smoked a cigar in I can’t tell you how long,” Mr. Lhota said before admitting his last celebratory smoke was on New Year’s Eve. 

Elio Forcina, a lawyer who organized the event, introduced Mr. Lhota to an owner of the Habana Hut, adding that the proprietor, as a high school student, had once stuffed Andrew M. Cuomo, a classmate and the future governor, into a hallway locker. The owner vigorously shook his head. “It was my brother! Not me!”

“Your brother put Andrew Cuomo in a locker? Wow, wow. That’s great,” Mr. Lhota said, reaching for a cigar cutter.

Many of the attendees — almost all male — knew Mr. Lhota from his days as a deputy mayor in the Giuliani administration, where he was known to indulge in cigars and Scotch. It was a habit he picked up in college, at Georgetown, where his roommates preferred the Caribbean blend of Macanudo Hampton Courts. 

George Frangoulis, who served with Mr. Lhota at City Hall in the 1990s, recalled many smoky Christmas dinners with Chianti, cigars and a seafood feast, with Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and Mr. Lhota holding court. (Mr. Giuliani, he said, kept his cigars in a Tupperware container.) 

Mr. Frangoulis said that Mr. Lhota often used cigars to put subordinates at ease, right before grilling them on a recent foul-up. “It was a communications device; he’d get everything out of you.”

Like Mr. Lhota, Mr. Frangoulis said he has had to cut back. “I’m 52,” he explained. “I love my teeth.”

Councilman Eric Ulrich, who's a staunch supporter of Mr. Lhota, despite of the Queens county's backing of John Catsimatidis. “We’re behind Joe 1,000 percent,” Mr. Ulrich told the crowd. He then predicted that Mr. Lhota would easily best a rival, John A. Catsimatidis, in the primary. “These are very hard-working, middle-class people,” he said. “These are the voters who will put Joe over the top.”

“If you’re together with a bunch of friends and you’re smoking cigars and you’re having a drink, the most important component is the discussion and the talk and the revelry,” Mr. Lhota told Mr. Grynbaum as the evening drew to a close.