George McDonald is trailing in the money race. (Photo: Facebook.com/McDonald2013)

Republican mayoral hopeful George McDonald vowed to soldier on after raising less than $4,000 in the latest filing period, raising serious questions about the viability of his campaign.

The Doe Fund founder brought in just $3,580 from March 12 through May 11, according to a campaign spokesman--a total that would be considered disappointing for even a City Council candidate, let alone someone campaigning citywide. That leaves Mr. McDonald with just $126,000 cash-on-hand--$125,000 of which came from a loan from the candidate himself.

But the numbers were not enough to dissuade Mr. McDonald, who had sued the city in a failed bid to change the rules so he could accept larger contributions from supports.

"George is committed to staying in the race, giving voters an alternative to small minded bickering," McDonald spokesman David Catalfamo explained in a statement.

In his lawsuit, Mr. McDonald had argued that that, since he wasn't planning to ask for the city's public matching dollars, he should be entitled to the state's looser standards. The campaign has argued that the suit scared off potential donors, but given his performance, it's questionable how much his campaign would have been buoyed by the lawsuit's hypothetical success. He is now planning to accept matching dollars.

Mr. McDonald is competing for the Republican nomination against former MTA Chair Joe Lhota and supermarket magnate John Catsimatidis.

Although his campaign has struggled to make a mark, he is banking on a scenario in which Mr. Lhota and Mr. Catsimatidis spend their time going after one another, leaving Mr. McDonald to emerge unscathed.

For his part, Mr. Lhota, who entered the race late, brought in $558,000 in contribution over the latest period--on par with the leading Democrats. He now has $871,000 cash on-hand, the campaign said. Mr. Catsimatidis, who is planning to finance the bulk of his campaign himself, has about $1 million in cash on-hand, including several thousand raised over the past two months, a campaign spokeswoman said.

Adolfo Carrión Jr. (Photo: carrion2013.com)

City Republicans--and Adolfo Carrion Jr.--slammed proposed city legislation that would allow non-U.S. citizens to vote in local elections, calling the idea offensive, illegal and just plain dumb.

The City Council held a hearing earlier today on a bill that would allow any resident legally living in the city for six months or longer to vote in municipal elections. The bill, which is opposed by the mayor, has wide support on the council, with 34 sponsors--a veto-proof majority.

But Mr. Carrion, the former Bronx Borough President who worked in the Obama administration and would be the city's first Hispanic mayor, took a cue from Mayor Bloomberg, slamming the bill as "well intentioned" but "one of the dumbest things I've ever heard."

"There are very few things that bring me to the point of being almost speechless. This is one of them. Being a citizen of the US is a privilege that carries with it an awesome and sacred responsibility--the right to vote," said Mr. Carrion, who is running on the Independence Party line. "If we water that down, we are essentially removing one of the building locks of our democracy, let alone violating state law."

He also argued elected officials already represent non-citizens. "How about we focus on the fact that there is a crisis of confidence already amongst the citizenry, and address the fact that only 3 in 10 registered voters are going to the polls in New York right now?" he asked.

Supporters, inducing City Councilmen Danny Dromm and Ydanis Rodriguez, say the bill would give the right of representation to thousands of New Yorkers who pay taxes and live here legally, but still cannot vote.

"We currently have an estimated 850,000 legally residing, taxpaying New Yorkers, who are not represented at any level of government," Mr. Rodriguez said in a statement.  "Our country was founded on fighting taxation without representation and we are simply looking to uphold this central belief today."

But Republican supermarket magnate John Catsimatidis, who was born in Greece and immigrated to the the U.S. when he was six months old, slammed the council for pandering and said he thought the legislation would never hold up in court.

“It's silly to even bring it up and I don’t know who they’re trying to make happy," he said. "I believe this is a Constitutional issue ... I don't think it passes the smell test of federal law."

He used a barbershop analogy when asked who he thought lawmakers were trying to make happy:  “When the barbers  have nothing to do they give each other haircuts. I believe they're giving each other haircuts," he said.

Joe Lhota also expressed his opposition. "He believes that you must be a citizen to vote," he said via a spokeswoman. And Doe Fund Founder George McDonald agreed that, "No matter how well-intentioned, voting is a right reserved for citizens."

Republicans from the City Council and State Legislature also slammed the bill, saying they were "offended" by the idea.

"The right to vote and select those who represent us in government is one of the most cherished and important privileges of our citizenry," said the group, which includes State Sen. Martin Golden and council members James Oddo, Vincent Ignizio and Eric Ulrich. "To extend this privilege to non-citizens not only devalues United States citizenship but is inconsistent with New York State Election Law."

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said she planned to consider the bill after the hearing.

None of the other major Democratic mayoral candidates' campaigns responded to requests for comment on the bill.

Disclosure: This reporter is not a U.S. citizen and also cannot vote in local elections.

John Catsimatidis, Joe Lhota and George McDonald. (Photo: Jill Colvin)

The three leading Republican candidates for mayor all support the use of controversial unmanned drones to watch over New York City--as long as cameras aren't peering into their bedrooms.

"I'm absolutely for it," said former MTA Chair Joe Lhota, speaking at a candidates' forum hosted by the New York Young Republican Club in Midtown Tuesday night. "Drones to be used from a surveillance point of view, so long as it understands people's privacy rights."

He pointed to the Boston Marathon bombings and said that drones could have been used just like helicopters to find suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was discovered hiding inside a boat, obscured by its cover.

"They're not to be used in a military fashion, in the way we use them in the Middle East," he said. "But from collecting intelligence, from following what's going on, a drone is no different than having a camera on the street corner watching what you're doing in a public place. And we now know how important cameras are to how quickly law enforcement was able to get to people in Boston."

Supermarket magnate John Catsimatidis also endorsed the technology and vowed to do anything in his power to keep the city safe.

"I think we have to use 21st Century technology like we talked about to help keep New Yorkers safe, and I'm fully committed to anything that exists to keep New Yorkers safe," he said. "I will press that button and make sure it happens."

Doe Fund Founder George McDonald agreed that more surveillance was inevitable, saying that "Cameras are going to be a part of our life, whether we like it or not."

But he stressed that there needs to be a balance when it comes to privacy.

"Obviously I don't want a drone lookin' in my bedroom," he said. "And I think that all of us have to stay vigilant about the line where our individual freedoms and our collective responsibilities begin."

Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently said that he, too, had concerns about the technology, but thought the reality of drones hovering over the city's skyline was inevitable.

(Photo: 92Y.org)

With less than six months to go until the primaries, the New York Observer and the 92nd Street Y have teamed up to host an evening of discussion with all of the major mayoral candidates.  The event starts in one hour and, if you can't make it to the 92nd Street Y to see it in person, you can watch live online right here. 

The evening will include two separate debates. First up will be the Republican candidates; John Catsimatidis, Joseph Lhota and George McDonald. Next will be the Democrats; Sal Albanese, Bill de Blasio, John Liu, Christine Quinn and Bill Thompson. Both debates will be moderated by New York Observer editor-in-chief Ken Kurson and Cozen O'Connor member Kenneth K. Fisher.

Tune in below to watch the action at 7:30.

Among all public officials, the mayor is the one who shapes our day-to-day lives the most: not just our subways, schools and streets, but our ethos and identity as a city. This mayoral election, New York City’s first with no incumbent in more than a decade, has attracted a slew of hopefuls eager to remake the city in their own images. And what images they are. Assembled at the starting line are a quartet of formidable Democrats, alongside a 9/11 conspiracy theorist, a man with his own catchphrase and action figure, and a vibrator-wielding, marijuana smoking, alligator-hugging YouTube ranter.

With no clear front-runner and an intriguing underdog sideshow, the next 11 months promise to bring some of the best political theater in the boroughs, maybe even the country, in years.

Any discussion of the election must begin with the four major Democrats: Bill de Blasio, John Liu, Christine Quinn and Bill Thompson. Though they are the odds-on favorites, they face a packed primary and a probable runoff.

Except for Mr. Thompson, who was the runner-up in the 2009 mayoral election and declared his intention to try again almost immediately afterward, none of the other three has officially declared. Though it’s practically a lock that they’ll all run, it’s not easy to predict where the smart money lies.

Thus far, Mr. Thompson has had a relatively low profile, while his presumed opponents have pursued headlines more aggressively. Will slow and steady win him this race?

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn would seem to have plum positioning. If elected, she would be the first woman and the first openly gay occupant of City Hall. She also backed a term-limits extension for Mayor Bloomberg and has been a strong ally of his, so his support is expected to swing her way. But the speaker will have to prove that she’s more than the mayor’s right hand.

John Liu also has a decent shot. As an Asian-American, Mr. Liu would be another barrier-breaking first, and he enjoys strong support among the city’s sizeable Chinese community. But there’s the little matter of an upcoming trial featuring his former campaign treasurer and one of his donors, who stand accused of scheming to illegally line his campaign coffers.

Then there’s Mr. de Blasio, whose pulpit as the public advocate is perfect for casting himself as the labor-friendly alternative to what he hopes to paint as a Bloomberg-slash-Quinn administration. But his anti-Bloomberg branding and progressive approach could hurt him by alienating influencers in the business community as well as conservatives in the outer boroughs.

Though the Democrats are heavily favored, New York City hasn’t elected a mayor from its dominant party since 1989, and there’s much talk among pundits that a Republican dark horse might emerge to take advantage of the crammed Democratic field. So far, there’s Joe Lhota, former MTA chairman and Giuliani administration deputy mayor for operations. A plainspoken self-described libertarian, Mr. Lhota may be simultaneously blessed and cursed by his association with the divisive Mr. Giuliani and with the MTA, an agency praised for its handling of last year’s hurricane despite being a magnet for the wrath of commuters.

These five key players will be joined by a host of underdogs and an assortment of protest candidates and oddballs who bring more color to the race than political horsepower.

Place your bets and pass the popcorn. They’re coming around the bend.

George McDonald at his press conference.

Earlier today at  Grand Central Terminal, George McDonald, the Republican CEO and Founder of the DOE Fund, kicked off his campaign for Mayor of New York City. The DOE Fund's mission, which is to provide employment to the homeless and formerly incarcerated, was on full display at the event, where he was introduced and surrounded by graduates of his nonprofit's program.

"Time is not what it seems in Grand Central Terminal. It’s said that trains leave promptly on schedule, one minute after the posted time on the big board, a kind of grace period for busy commuters. And in what seems like a minute, our city has been transformed," Mr. McDonald expounded. "25 years ago New York was a different city, it was dirty, dingy, unsafe, and many believed unmanageable. It was widely thought that our best days were behind us. During those days, I came to Grand Central every night, 700 nights in a row to feed the homeless."

Interestingly, Mr. McDonald, who supported Mitt Romney in the recent presidential election, blasted Mr. Romney's infamous ‘47 percent' remarks where Mr. Romney criticized those who receive government benefits.

"During this past presidential election there was much discussion of the ‘47 percent.' I know something about the ‘47 percent,'" he said. "I have worked with them each and everyday for the past 25 years. They don’t dream less. They don’t care less. They don’t aspire less," he continued, ready to pivot to a more Republican-oriented talking point. "But the best way to empower the ‘47 percent' is to help them find a job and then let them keep as much of what they earn as they can.’’

Of course, considering President Barack Obama beat Mr. Romney by a landslide--81 percent to 18 percent--in the five boroughs, a departures from the message of the former presidential contender make a certain amount of sense.

Mr. McDonald has an uphill path to the Republican nomination, however. With former M.T.A. Chairman Joe Lhota strongly considering the race and the city's GOP county chairmen settled on other candidates, like former Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión, Jr. and businessman John Catsimatidis, he'll undoubtedly have to fight for each vote. Also running on the GOP line is Manhattan Media C.E.O. Tom Allon, and, of course, there  is the even stronger field of Democratic candidates.

As a side note, Mr. McDonald also dropped the formality a tad at certain moments too, telling Capital New York's Azi Paybarah about his high number of Twitter followers when Mr. Paybarah asked about his full employment plan, for example.

"You know why I'm running for mayor, Azi?" he joked. "I heard you have a better Klout score than I do."

Malcolm Smith addresses the crowd.

As the presidential race enters the home stretch, New York Republicans are already focusing on next year's campaign to replace term-limited Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Last night, several candidates who are planning to run for mayor on the GOP line addressed a crowd of local party stalwarts at the Brooklyn Bar Association. Only two of the potential Republican mayoral hopefuls showed up--Democratic State Senator Malcolm Smith, who has been mulling a possible party switch to run for mayor and another newly-minted Republican, Manhattan Media CEO Tom Allon.

DOE Fund founder George McDonald had seemed like he signaled he would attend, but, ultimately, he didn't make it. Also absent was a man many believe to be a top Republican pick should he enter the race, local super market mogul John Catsimatidis.

Mr. Smith, who kept his remarks very brief, expressed his desire to better acquaint himself with the city's Republicans.

"You're going to have a very exciting time come, after November, after this election is done. Hopefully I will come back and have the opportunity to talk a little more about my background, who I am, what I stand for, what my vision is for the city," Mr. Smith said before hurrying out the door. "But we'll have a lot more time to get to know each other. I went to school at Jesuit college, I'm a good guy. We'll talk to you later, take care, God bless."

Since the deadline to switch party registration passed earlier this month, Mr. Smith, who's still a Democrat, would need three of the GOP's five county chairmen to sign off on his candidacy to get on the ballot next year as a Republican. Accordingly, he wasn't shy about heaping praise upon Kings County Republican Chairman Craig Eaton, who he said "is clearly going down in history as one of the stronger Republican leaders in the State of New York, and you can mark my word."

Mr. Allon has already made his party switch official and doesn't need the blessing of the Republican establishment to run. However, he still needs the support of party leaders to avoid a primary challenge and he unsurprisingly praised Mr. Eaton too, but in almost almost biblical terms.

"It's great to be here in the County of Kings, and our host, whom I affectionately refer to as the King of Kings, Craig Eaton, let's give him a round of applause," Mr. Allon said to begin his speech. "Also the King of the Bronx, where is he? Jay Savino, I look forward to being in your home soon."

Mr. Allon, who still advocates a number of liberal positions, including support for gay marriage, stressed his more ideologically conservative positions on economic regulation, reforming the city's educational system, and most of all, public safety.

"So, I know we're all focused on what happens in the next two weeks on the presidential level, but I just want to introduce myself briefly tonight and explain to you why it's important that we start focusing on 2013," he continued. "You know, our city has been safe for the past 20 years and we've been lucky to have Republican mayors for the past 20 years keeping our city safe. I see no reason why we can't keep our string on next year and have our sixth Republican mayor in a row. And I plan to be that person."

Although he stressed he would like to be the official GOP pick, Mr. Allon vowed to be in the race even if the Republican chairmen decide on another standard-bearer. After both candidates spoke, we asked Mr. Eaton what he made of Mr. Allon's intentions to campaign for the GOP nomination come hell or high water. Mr. Eaton had kind words for Mr. Allon, but he made it clear the party leadership wants other candidates to get out of the way if the leaders settle on another option.

"You want to know something? I respect that, but I think that this is his first time running," Mr. Eaton replied. "Anyone who's looking to run needs to look outside of the box. This race is too important. We need to find the candidate that's going to win. If one of the people who have expressed interest in running, if there's a consensus that there's another candidate--which by itself shows that candidate has a superior chance of winning--I think the other candidates need to look and say, 'It's about the party, we need to step aside and look at other opportunities.'"

And, while keeping their names close to his vest, Mr. Eaton indicated that these other potential contenders might soon step up to the plate.

"I think this is just the beginning of the mayoral candidates drive," he said. "I think we're going to hear from a lot of other people over the next couple weeks. And we're looking forward to it. We will have a good candidate on the Republican line."

George Pataki. (Photo: Getty)

Former Republican New York Governor George Pataki was one of the surrogates backing Mitt Romney on "spin alley" after last night's presidential debate at Hofstra. Politicker used the opportunity to ask Mr. Pataki which GOP candidates he thought might emerge to challenger the crowded field of Democrats who are likely to run for mayor in next year's election. So far two political newcomers, Manhattan Media CEO Tom Allon and Doe Fund boss George McDonald, are the only ones who have declared their intentions to run on the Republican line, but Mr. Pataki indicated there may be other Republicans mulling a mayoral bid.

"There are a number of people who are talking about running," said Mr. Pataki. "I'm hopeful that we'll have a strong candidate."

Mr. Pataki went on to explain he believes it's in the best interests of the public in any election for there to be strong candidates from both major parties.

"I'm a great believer in the two-party system. I think government works best when, even if there's a dominant party, that it's held accountable," the ex-governor said. "I fear in New York too often we have one-party politics. And it doesn't work when it's Democrats in New York City or in the state, it doesn't work if it's Republicans some place else. The checks and balances of vigorous debate, like we had tonight, are what serve the people the best."

Since Mr. Pataki hinted there may be other Republicans with their eye on the race waiting in the wings, we asked whether he was aware of any potential candidates he might be willing to endorse.

"There are some. There are some," said Mr. Pataki. "Sure, no one has formally decided they're going to run, but a number of people are looking at it and talking about it, and I hope we do get some very good candidates in there."

Based on Mr. Pataki's apparent awareness of potential Republican mayoral candidates who haven't made their interest in the race public, we asked whether he was communicating with them directly.

"They're talking to people who are associated with me; some have talked to me directly," said Mr. Pataki, coyly.

Potential Republican mayoral candidates wasn't the only subject we discussed with Mr. Pataki after the debates. While the surrogates were doing their thing in "spin alley," the Yankees were finishing up their ALCS loss to the Detroit Tigers. Before speaking to us, Mr. Pataki was asked by another reporter if he was aware of the outcome in the game, which had just concluded.

"I don't know," Mr. Pataki said.

With a heavy heart, we volunteered that the Yankees had lost.

"They lost? Did Verlander go the whole way?" Mr. Pataki asked referring to the Tigers' ace starting pitcher.

We informed him that Mr. Verlander stayed on until the ninth inning when he gave up a home run to Yankees shortstop Eduardo Nunez.

"What the final score?" Mr. Pataki asked.

After being told the Tigers won 2-1, Mr. Pataki shook his head.

"Oh no, disappointing," he said. "I'm sorry to hear that."