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Bloomberg Tells Press to Stop Asking About His Mayoral Endorsement

Ross Barkan — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 14:27:08 -0400

(Photo: Getty)

Mayor Michael Bloomberg would really prefer if reporters would cease inquiring about which candidate he'll ultimately endorse in the race to replace him this year. And he conveyed that message again and again at an unrelated press conference earlier this morning.

"I know who I'm going to vote for and I may change my mind between now and then," Mr. Bloomberg declared at one point. “If I do, you're not going to know about it."

"Uh, let me--" Mr. Bloomberg paused.

"Wrap up," Marc La Vorgna, Mr. Bloomberg's press secretary, jumped in. The mayor, however, wasn't about to wrap up.

"These questions aren't substantive and don't inform the public and the reasons that we're trying to help the press is to give the public the information," he stated.

The journalists present were also not about to wrap up on the topic. While Mr. Bloomberg is close to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, he has also reportedly been dissatisfied with the current crop of mayoral candidates and he recently slammed Ms. Quinn's support of an inspector general for the city's police department. Asked about these sorts of potential misgivings, Mr. Bloomberg continued his adamant refusal to weigh in on the race.

"If I have something to say, I'll say it directly to the public," he said. "And who I'm going to vote for I may never choose to say. No, I don't think it's as important as talking about smoking and saving lives and things like that. Keep in mind the election you're talking about is how many months away? Why on Earth would you think it's a subject that's informative to the public today? I don't get it."

After yet another question pertaining to his endorsement, Mr. Bloomberg accused the reporters of not only wasting their own time, but their organization's time as well.

"That's one of the frustrating things, you say it and you say it until you want a different answer," he said. "You know, you have a right to ask it but I don't know why we're going to keep having press conferences and wasting our time. We're not going to spend the whole time between now and the election talking about who I'm going to vote for. If I ever want to endorse somebody, I will tell you. If I want to tell you who I vote for, I will tell you, but it won't come because you asked. So, you're just wasting your employers's time. There's got to be other things that would generate stories that would sell your television program and advertising, your radio advertising, your newspaper advertising."

Donovan Richards Wins Queens Special Election

Ross Barkan — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 14:41:06 -0400

(Photo: Facebook)

Donovan Richards declared victory today in the Queens special election to replace his mentor, former Councilman James Sanders, putting to rest fears that the election's outcome would be unknown for weeks or even months in what had become a racially-charged contest.

With all absentee and affidavit votes counted, Mr. Richards padded his razor-thin 26-vote Election Day margin with another 133 votes, while his main competitor, Pesach Osina, only gathered an additional 80. This brought the unofficial tally to 2,646 for Mr. Richards and 2,567 for Mr. Osina, a wide enough margin to avoid an automatic recount. The results will be certified next week.

"We have a lot of work to do in the district," Mr. Richards told Politicker at the Queens Board of Elections. "We have to also make sure we reconcile the communities. I think that it's important that all communities are working together. You know, Pesach ran a great campaign, I have no ill will towards him and I look forward to working with every community."

Mr. Richards was alluding to the controversy generated around Mr. Osina's candidacy. As an Orthodox Jew running in a majority-black district, Mr. Osina faced backlash from some members of the southeast Queens black community, notably Bishop Charles Norris, who warned the 8-way race would allow "the young Jewish boy from the Rockaways" to win with a low plurality of the vote.

Despite the narrow loss, Mr. Osina's supporters were buoyant about the election's outcome because it demonstrated their ability to mobilize voters in their small but growing Far Rockaway enclave.

"We didn't even run to win the seat," said Moshe Friedman, an Orthodox Jewish political operative who worked on Mr. Osina's campaign. "We were running so people should go out and understand that we could swing an election any way we want. This is going to happen in the primary. Richards will not go out tomorrow and say, 'Let me ignore that community.' Because we're going to be organized and bring out the vote. There's no way we would have won the [September] primary any how. .... We wish good luck and we're looking forward to working with him."

The outcome of the election did not upset Mr. Osina's election lawyer, Jerry Goldfeder, either.

"No involvement by lawyers," he said. "The Board personnel worked very well, the voters spoke. That's how it should be."

Cuomo Expects to Stay Out of NYC Mayoral Race

Colin Campbell — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 15:41:57 -0400

(Photo: Getty)

Late last night, The New York Times broke the news that M.T.A. Chairman Joe Lhota is considering entering next year's mayoral race as a Republican, and is being strongly urged by former Mayor Rudy Giuliani to do so. Since Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, is Mr. Lhota's boss and the chairman was beside him at a press conference this afternoon, a reporter asked the governor about this possibility. Needless to say, Mr. Cuomo does not sound not interested in adding to his current political complications he's already dealing with in Albany.

"I'm going to try to stay out of the politics of New York City if I can avoid it," Mr. Cuomo replied. Pressed on whether he will make any endorsement whatsoever, he succinctly added, "I'm not expecting to, no."

Of course, Mr. Cuomo's statement allows plenty of wiggle room down the road, especially, one would imagine, if Democratic prospects end up worse than they appear and his party needs a boost from the popular governor.

Besides indicating his intention to avoid touching the mayor's race with a ten-foot pole, Mr. Cuomo did manage to heap praise on Mr. Lhota's service in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, along with a word of warning for any aspiring elected official.

"I would like to see Mr. Lhota do what Mr. Lhota wants to do," he said. "He has done an extraordinary job as head of the M.T.A, the entire region got to see that during the storm at Sandy. I knew how well he was performing but they actually saw his performance, so whatever he would like to do, I think he should do. I admire that he enjoys public service. I would caution him on elected office, however, because it is a nasty process to go through."

Wanted: GOP Mayoral Hopeful With Vague Conservative Impulses, Massive Personal Wealth a Plus

Colin Campbell — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 15:09:29 -0400

(Photo: Wikimedia)

On a brisk mid-October day, Tom Allon announced he was dropping out of the highly competitive Democratic mayoral primary and would instead be a contender in the far sparser Republican field. “Theodore Roosevelt cleaned up New York by telling truth to power and truth to the public,” he declared, standing before the equestrian statue of Theodore Roosevelt on the Upper West Side. “I plan to run a campaign that will talk about the hard truths facing our city, and ideas I have to fix our growing problems.”

The event’s august backdrop may have oversold its symbolic importance. It’s impossible to find a neutral party who thinks Mr. Allon, a local newspaper publisher whose weeklies include Our Town and The West Side Spirit, is anything but a long-shot to replace term-limited Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2013. But as no fewer than five heavyweight Democrats are already in contention for the office, each of whom has raised over a million dollars, Mr. Allon’s move highlights the fact that Republicans, so far at least, are still on the hunt for a formidable standard-bearer.

Sensing the vacuum, former Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión Jr. announced Monday night that he has also left the Democratic Party in hopes of securing the Republican line for mayor. However, as he only changed his registration to independent, the aspiring candidate will need the support of three of the five GOP county chairmen to proceed. Mr. Carrión, a relatively prominent Latino pol with over a million dollars in his campaign account, could be very tempting to the party’s leadership. Whether or not he will ultimately be their candidate is unclear, as are most of the details of Mr. Carrión’s nascent campaign.

Besides Mr. Allon and Mr. Carrión, only Doe Fund founder George McDonald has stepped forward for the GOP. Mr. McDonald, whose nonprofit is dedicated to helping the homeless and the formerly incarcerated get back on their feet, told The Observer that he’s building up his campaign but has yet to formally announce his intentions. “We’re raising money, and we’ll make a filing on January 15,” he said, vowing to raise $16 million in the next 12 months. “When we make that filing, it’ll be clear this is a serious campaign run by serious people.”

Signaling a certain amount of discontent with the field, however, hypotheticals have been bandied about in the city’s Republican circles for months, despite the fact that the most commonly named fantasy candidates have offered little to indicate they want the job. The dream candidate for most Republicans is undoubtedly Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who has the citywide stature and law-and-order biography to compete for many of the moderate Democratic voters who kept Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg in power all these years. “Go for it, Ray!” The New York Post and Daily News editorial boards identically crowed last April, while the leader of the state’s Republican Party proclaimed Mr. Kelly a “superb” mayoral candidate. For some time, praise continued to be heaped on him from all corners, but the commotion eventually died down when Mr. Kelly dropped no hints he might consider entering politics.

Even Mr. Giuliani’s name has been tossed into the ring. In her Page Six column last month, Post columnist Cindy Adams broadcast “an unconfirmed—also, so far undenied—rumor” that he was angling to return to Gracie Mansion, a claim The Observer also heard in some of the city’s business circles at the time. Mr. Giuliani’s spokeswoman quickly shot down the trial balloon, but one can’t help but wonder whether his name would have been floated at all if a certain amount of anxiety hadn’t set in.

Meanwhile, Democratic State Senator Malcolm Smith has been actively courting Republican officials in hopes of securing a spot on the ballot himself. “I’ll meet with anybody that’s interested in running on the line,” Bronx GOP Chair Jay Savino told us before Mr. Smith arrived at one such meeting in August. “I’m more than willing to sit and talk and see what they want to talk about. I don’t know what Senator Smith has to say. I didn’t reach out to him, he reached out to us.” At one point in the night, Mr. Savino, on the way back from a phone call and a cigar outside, said the discussion had been “interesting” so far.

He paused and then repeated the assessment. “Interesting.”

However, none of the Republicans we talked to thought the eccentric senator, who once held a press conference in Times Square to denounce Lil Wayne, would be their pick. Notably, Mr. Smith briefly led his chamber during an especially chaotic period, until his fellow Democrats decided another lawmaker was needed to head their caucus. That’s not all the baggage he brings to the race: federal prosecutors are currently investigating a charity he funded with taxpayer dollars. While Mr. Smith declined to speak with us in August, The Observer would later bump into him again as he made his pitch to Republican activists in Brooklyn Heights at the end of October. After a very brief address, during which he vaguely described himself as pro-business, Mr. Smith concluded, “I went to school at Jesuit college; I’m a good guy. We’ll talk to you later, take care. God bless.” He then walked out the door.

“I think this is just the beginning of the mayoral candidates drive,” Brooklyn’s Republican chairman, Craig Eaton, said after the event. “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.” Mr. Eaton would later indicate a preference for Mr. Carrión.

The candidate on many Republican lips is businessman John Catsimatidis, a supermarket magnate who owns the Gristedes chain in New York City. Earlier this year, Mr. Catsimatidis was ranked as the 132nd richest person in America by Forbes, and, with a net worth of $3 billion, he could easily finance a mayoral campaign himself. But while confident in his abilities, Mr. Catsimatidis isn’t exactly chomping at the bit.

“If we end up with nobody, I might consider it, yes,” he said last week. “It’s just a lot work and a lot of dedication that goes into it. Can I do the job? I could do the job with my left pinkie.”

Mr. Catsimatidis expressed hope somebody else, perhaps Mr. Kelly—or at least some wealthy individual—will run instead.

“If you talk about candidates for mayor with no money, it’s like a joke! You guys want to fool around with a bunch of guys with no ability to run, you can do that!” he exclaimed. “When you’re running in a mayor race in New York City, either you have to have name recognition like Ray Kelly, or you have to have somebody who has enough money that they can get name recognition.”

The grocery tycoon, who said he was “trying to be as optimistic as I can” that a credible alternative would step up to the plate, described what he felt were the dire consequences if one of the Democratic candidates ended up winning next year. “They’re nice people, but would you trust them with a $70 billion budget? One of the things that nobody looks at, but one of the reasons that New York City has been successful in getting international capital, money from Europe, from Russia, the Middle East, Asia—they have confidence in Bloomberg’s ability to manage the city and they have confidence in Ray Kelly’s ability to keep the city safe. I’m concerned that if you have a minor league player, that the capital will dry up.”

However, Mr. Catsimatidis said, there is still plenty of time. “There’s no deadline; you can jump in February, March and April,” he said. But with the State Legislature actively considering moving the 2013 primary date from September to June so that the city’s slow-moving Board of Elections has enough time to schedule a runoff election, candidates may have to start collecting signatures by March in order to land a spot on the ballot. Meanwhile, every day on the calendar provides an opportunity to build name recognition and construct an effective campaign operation, and the clock is ticking.

“You’d like to have some clarity to this by the end of the calendar year, or by the end of winter,” one Republican consultant said. “I don’t really see anybody that has any ability to do that today. But it’s still relatively early, so hopefully by post-holidays you’ll start to see more seriousness.”

Jerry Kassar, the chairman of Brooklyn’s Conservative Party, concurred. “They really have to have this thing decided by the first week of February; they’re going to have to have petitions on the street by early March,” he argued, while conceding a later primary date would allow another month or so to find a candidate. “There’s no advantage to drag this thing out. The Republican Party needs to have made up their mind; there’s a lot of work ahead.”

As for the likely suspects, he added, “I guess right now, George from the Doe Fund does not seem have taken off, as far as I can tell. I don’t believe he’s picked up much strength. I don’t believe Senator Smith is at all being taken seriously in Republican circles. I do think Catsimatidis remains available to them in the event that they feel Allon is not philosophically workable, or can’t bring enough resources to make it a race.”

Regardless of whom they choose, the party’s leaders have stated that they only want one candidate running, with no primary contest to divert their attention from the grand prize. “This race is too important,” Chairman Eaton explained. “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 [who] 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.’”

Mr. McDonald, at least, might be willing to heed such a call, depending on the other candidate’s credentials. “As far as I’m concerned, I think I would make a better mayor than any of the folks who are running,” he said to explain his mayoral aspirations. When we asked if he would drop out if he felt another candidate was more capable, Mr. McDonald quickly replied, “In a New York minute. I don’t covet the job.”

Mr. Allon, however, has said he’s in it for the long-haul, guaranteeing a Republican primary should the party’s leaders decide on somebody else. “I’m going to primary anybody who comes up,” he told The Observer when he announced his party switch. “You can’t jump in late and expect other people are going to cower.”

For their part, Democrats certainly aren’t cowering from their eventual Republican opponent, sarcastically nicknamed “billionaire yet to be named” by at least one of the 2013 candidates’ operatives. Although candidates running on the GOP line have held onto City Hall for two decades, next year could be the party’s greatest challenge yet. According to the unofficial results from this year’s presidential election, President Barack Obama received over 80 percent of the vote against Mitt Romney in the five boroughs—an increase from when he ran in 2008—and two-thirds of the city’s voters are now registered Democrats.

Outside of an education rally a few weeks ago, we asked one potential Democratic candidate for mayor, Comptroller John Liu, what he thought of the Republican field so far.

“I’m quaking in my boots,” he joked.

After Election Day, NYC’s Republican Pols Retreat Deeper Into Staten Island

Colin Campbell — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 15:35:32 -0400

The State Assembly map in NYC for net year.

With last night's elections, a number of seats changed hands between the Democratic and Republican parties across New York State, and indeed the entire country. But in the five boroughs of New York City, it was a one-way street.

At the congressional level, for example, the city lost half its Republican representation with the exit of Queens' Bob Turner, who unsuccessfully ran for his party's nomination for the U.S. Senate. GOP Councilman Dan Halloran had his sights on the remnants of Mr. Turner's district in northeastern part of the borough, but the area's solidly Democratic tendencies allowed Assemblywoman Grace Meng to easily leap over Mr. Halloran and secure a new gig in Washington D.C.

While in the State Legislature, Republicans had specifically targeted Democratic Senator Joe Addabbo, reshaping his district to contain every single conservative-minded voter in eastern Queens. In addition, they deployed their top recruit in rising GOP star Eric Ulrich, who enjoyed a fundraising advantage throughout the race. Nevertheless, Mr. Addabbo held on, landing the coveted endorsement of Governor Andrew Cuomo as well as a big push from organized labor. Hurricane Sandy, which devastated many of the conservative areas drawn into Mr. Addabbo's district, didn't help Mr. Ulrich's electoral fortunes either, but it's not clear it was decisive in the outcome.

While in Brooklyn, Republicans had another loss when incumbent David Storobin couldn't muster up enough votes against Democratic former Councilman Simcha Felder. Mr. Felder, cozy with the Republican conference before the election, still might end up on the Republican team, but his victory demonstrated the increasingly Republican tendencies of the city's Orthodox Jewish population aren't enough when a socially conservative Democrat is on the ticket and backed by the community's political institutions. Senator Marty Golden, occupying a neighboring district, won with a comfortable margin last night and will now be the only Republican state legislator calling a borough other than Staten Island his home.

(At the City Council level, there are two Queens lawmakers outside of Staten Island, Mr. Ulrich and Mr. Halloran, mentioned above.)

In the State Assembly, it's a similar story but with districts gerrymandered to favor Democrats. Outside of a couple dozen blocks in Bay Ridge represented by Staten Island's Nicole Malliotakis, no part of Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx or Manhattan has GOP representation in the state's lower chamber. Even in conservative areas, Republican candidates failed to make a dent. Democratic Assemblyman Steve Cymbrowitz, for example, represents the heart of a conservative Russian community in southeastern Brooklyn, but managed an easy win thanks to his primary challenger, Ben Akselrod, staying on the Independence Party's line and grabbing almost 20 percent of the vote in the general election.

In some ways, Staten Island isn't even as much of a Republican stronghold it once was. In the heavily conservative South Shore, Assemblyman-Elect Joe Borelli will hold onto a Republican seat and State Senator Andy Lanza won't be going anywhere anytime soon, but Democrats have a decent presence themselves in other local officials. Indeed, in a bit of a shocker, President Barack Obama apparently managed to edge out Mitt Romney on the island, a benchmark he couldn't cross with his stronger performance in the 2008 presidential race.

The Grand Old Party did have one marquee victory, however, in the re-election of Staten Island's Congressman Michael Grimm, who managed to grab a number of Mr. Obama's supporters as he faced off against Democrat Mark Murphy. Although a federal investigation and other controversies dogged the incumbent, the electorate wasn't willing to embrace the negative headlines without solid evidence of wrongdoing present. Mr. Grimm's biography as veteran and former F.B.I. agent, and his status as one of the most active freshman legislators in the House of Representatives, certainly didn't hurt either.

This all isn't to say the Republicans aren't poised to make gains in 2013's City Council races and another round of congressional and state races in 2014; there are undoubtedly a number of potential pickup opportunities. Just a simple note that, after yesterday, the GOP's political landscape tilted even further towards the city's smallest borough.

In New York City, Michael Grimm and Grace Meng Win

Colin Campbell — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 00:15:58 -0400

Grace Meng and Michael Grimm (Photo: Meng Campaign/Getty)

New York State started off as a key battleground in the Democrats' battle to retake control of the U.S. House, especially after the courts intervened in the redistricting plan and shook up a lot of traditional boundaries. However, most of these races were focused in areas further Upstate and the suburbs, leaving the heavily Democratic New York City with just two congressional elections of note.

In Queens, Democratic Assemblywoman Grace Meng faced off against GOP Councilman Dan Halloran for a seat crafted from the district remnants of outgoing Congressmen Bob Turner and Gary Ackerman. Despite Mr. Halloran's polling showing the race a tie, those numbers did not pan out and Ms. Meng is currently ahead by roughly 2-to-1, which matches how Democrats have historically performed within the area.

In a more hotly contested race spanning Staten Island and southern Brooklyn, Republican Congressman Michael Grimm successfully defeated Democrat Mark Murphy, according to multiple projections. Democrats were initially hopeful that a barrage of bad headlines, notably an FBI investigation into Mr. Grimm's fundraising during his 2010 congressional campaign, would shift things in their favor. However, Mr. Grimm was an energetic legislator and an aggressive campaigner, resulting in an electorate apparently unwilling to indict him based on headlines alone.

Elsewhere in the state, endangered Democrats Tim Bishop and Bill Owens have both won as well, but Rep. Kathy Hochul, occupying staunchly conservative territory in Western New York, is narrowly trailing GOP challenger Chris Collins. In the Hudson Valley, Republican Congressman Chris Gibson has a modest lead over Julian Schreibman, while Mr. Gibson's GOP colleague, Nan Hayworth, is currently trailing her Democratic challenger Sean Patrick Maloney. Seats in Rochester and Syracuse have already been called for Democrats Louise Slaughter and Dan Maffei respectively, with Mr. Maffei's being a pickup for his party.

Citing Hurricane Sandy, Mayor Bloomberg Endorses Obama

Colin Campbell — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 15:28:21 -0400

(Photo: Getty)

In a surprising announcement this afternoon, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who left the Republican Party in 2007 and has been courted extensively by both presidential candidates, endorsed President Barack Obama for reelection. Mr. Bloomberg publicized his decision in a Bloomberg View op-ed and said Hurricane Sandy's destruction and the need to tackle long-term climate change motivated his decision.

"We need leadership from the White House -- and over the past four years, President Barack Obama has taken major steps to reduce our carbon consumption, including setting higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks," he explained. "His administration also has adopted tighter controls on mercury emissions, which will help to close the dirtiest coal power plants (an effort I have supported through my philanthropy), which are estimated to kill 13,000 Americans a year."

In contrast, Mr. Bloomberg said Republican candidate Mitt Romney was "abandoning the very cap-and-trade program he once supported," and the issue is simply "too important" to let slide.

In his announcement, the mayor, who has been coy about whether he'd make an endorsement in this campaign, also cited his agreements with Mr. Obama's social policies.

"The two parties’ nominees for president offer different visions of where they want to lead America," he wrote. "One believes a woman’s right to choose should be protected for future generations; one does not. That difference, given the likelihood of Supreme Court vacancies, weighs heavily on my decision. One recognizes marriage equality as consistent with America’s march of freedom; one does not. I want our president to be on the right side of history."

The actual value of Mr. Bloomberg's endorsement is unclear.With election day only days away, it will be difficult for Mr. Obama's team to use it to leverage his appeal among the business community for additional contributions or to distribute targeted campaign mailers featuring the announcement.