He’s a transactional politician who simply wants back in and figures that he can be a Bloomberg, minus $20 billion or so. UPDATE: Mark Green, the former public advocate who spent years sparring with then-mayor Rudy Giuliani and was the Democratic mayoral nominee in 2001, emails: “This says nothing about the Democratic Party but alot about Carrion. It is an opportunistic move that reflects badly on an otherwise exemplary career.” or Malcolm Smith would run for Mayor on the Republican is an affront to the integrity of the Republican Party. ![]() In an email, Samuels told me, “The idea that either Adolfo Carrion Jr. UPDATE: The former fund-raiser for the New York State Senate Democrats, Bill Samuels, who actively supports Bill de Blasio for mayor, laments the recent defections by Carrion and Smith. We look forward to hearing how support of the same economic policies that have brought three straight years of higher poverty and unemployment to New York fit with the GOP and future job growth.” David Catalfamo, a former Pataki aide who represents Republican mayoral candidate George McDonald, said, via email, “Welcome to the race. UPDATE: Not every Republican is embracing the former Democratic lawmaker. “While there are scenarios where the Democratic nominee could lose, it would probably have to be to a different opponent who had real, specific expertise in a time of crisis. “There’s nothing right now to suggest that the circumstances are extraordinary enough or that Carrión is different enough from whomever the Democratic nominee will be to expect voters to cross party lines again and vote for the Republican. “When the voters first elected Republican mayors, you had extraordinary people running during extraordinary circumstances: Giuliani in ’93 coming off of a crime wave, and Bloomberg in ’01 in the wake of 9/11,” this consultant said. One political consultant, who is not affiliated with any potential mayoral candidate, expects that streak to end. No Democrat has won the mayor’s race since David Dinkins in 1989. The Republican line has grown increasingly appealing since Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg both overcame the city’s massive Democratic advantage to win election, and re-election. “I hope he’s not doing this to avoid running against five Democrats in the Democratic Party,” Catsimatidis added. John Catsimatidis, the billionaire supermarket magnate who is also a potential Republican candidate, said Carrión “has to get the business community behind him if he wants to be viable.” That, by his own choice, will not be Adolfo Carrion.”īut Carrión’s battles with labor could be beneficial in another regard. New York City is ready for a Democratic mayor in 2013. I don’t believe he will be any more successful in this makeover either. “He is now trying to remake himself as a Republican leaning Independent. And the Democratic party has now apparently not worked out for his ambitions as well. “New York didn’t work out, especially after the scandal involving the abuse of his public office regarding his home on City Island. “Adolfo Carrión has been trying to find something - anything - in public life for some years now,” Appelbaum emailed me, in response to the news of Carrión’s switch. “If we settle on someone who is not in the party,” he said, “we’ll only give a Wilson-Pakula to one individual.”Ĭarrión was never a particularly liberal Democrat, and he inflamed some existing tensions last year when he said residents in Kingsbridge didn’t aspire to be retail workers, a comment that rankled some in the progressive and labor scene, like Stuart Appelbaum, the president of the Retail Wholesale Department Store Union. “We need to settle on one candidate and one candidate only. “I personally don’t think a primary is beneficial,” Isaacs said. Isaacs said he was inclined to grant a Wilson-Pakula to only one candidate, rather than several, in the hopes that the party could avoid a costly primary and focus on the general election. Smith recently convened the chairmen at a Harlem steakhouse for a similar meeting. The New York Times, which broke the news of Carrión’s decision, reported that he had been speaking to several chairmen individually, and would meet with them as a group on Wednesday night. To run as a Republican, Carrión and Smith, and anyone else not enrolled in the party, would have to obtain a Wilson-Pakula waiver, granted by at least three of the five Republican County leaders. Local publisher Tom Allon switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party last month, and Democratic State Senator Malcolm Smith has publicly flirted with the idea of running on the Republican line.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |