2013 NYC Mayoral Election Discussion

[Via Garibaldi 8]

@VG8, I was old enough to follow the politics during Guiliani's term and I don't even remember Lhota's name. He's going to have to do a big job of getting his past history out there to get votes.

 

He's going to have a challenge simply because he's a Republican in a heavily Democratic city. I don't think any of the Democrats running are that great to be honest, and Lhota has a proven track record as deputy mayor under Giuliani. Once folks that don't know about him find out about him they're going to see a real personable guy. He's an average New Yorker, raised in a middle class family and the son of a former lieutenant and unlike Bloomberg who took the subway for show, he rides the subway daily. He's certainly a true New Yorker who will relate to other middle class New Yorkers.

[QM1to6Ave]

I agree that Lhota seems like a nice, capable, intelligent guy. Since there is no clear frontrunner in the race, it's a good time to jump in. I think he may be too quiet to be a good (=loud) politician.

[lilbluefoxie]

hehe baltimore needs similar mayors and PG county. Back on topic I don't think its a good idea for republican mayoral run with all the bad press. However what makes other cities more progressive than NYC?

 

 

go to San Francisco and walk around the city, and then walk around Manhattan, you will definitely see a difference.

[CenSin]

liberal social stances and fiscally conservative economic stances

This is what has been lacking in the presidential races. Fiscally conservative candidates come with the socially conservative baggage (which turn away younger voters).

[GojiMet86]

A Libertarian.

[TriboroughBridge]

There's a reason Bloomberg has been here for so long. Just because some of you don't like him doesn't mean he's doing a bad job. I'm not saying he was the best mayor in the city, but a majority of the city (the HUGE New York City) likes Bloomberg and wanted him to stay this long.

 

 

No. nobody WANTED him to stay. It was either him, or Thompson. If it would have been Thompson, we would of had another Dinkins in office.

[Quill Depot]

This is what has been lacking in the presidential races. Fiscally conservative candidates come with the socially conservative baggage (which turn away younger voters).

 

 

I really don't see why what they are (Conservative or Liberal) matters. Damn... I thought this country was united and then I see these rich Democrats and Republicans argue on who is right. Nobody has right ideas because they are just ideas.

[CenSin]

I really don't see why what they are (Conservative or Liberal) matters. Damn... I thought this country was united and then I see these rich Democrats and Republicans argue on who is right. Nobody has right ideas because they are just ideas.

 

I'm saying to replace the Republican social values with Democratic ones, but keep everything else (like spending cuts) and then we'd have a winner.

[Quill Depot]

I see your point. (something Rebublican's and Democrats can never say! lol)

[GojiMet86]

 Candid and Uninhibited, Lhota Stands Out in Mayor’s Race

 

Joseph J. Lhota, the former chief of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, officially entered the mayor’s race on Thursday

 

Michael Appleton for The New York Times

 

 By MICHAEL BARBARO and MATT FLEGENHEIMER

 

Published: January 17, 2013

To pump himself up before municipal budget negotiations, Joseph J. Lhota listened to the soaring theme song to the film “Top Gun,” and to relax after jousting with the City Council, he would play the soothing tones of Gregorian chant.

Dispensing with diplomacy, Mr. Lhota once loudly challenged a 77-year-old Holocaust survivor to “be a man” at a public meeting of the region’s transit authority; on another occasion he gave the middle finger to a reporter in the rotunda of City Hall.

And on the morning of the Sept. 11 attacks, acting on instinct, he raced into the streets of Lower Manhattan to direct traffic and, at day’s end, delivered a copy of Winston Churchill’s biography to Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani for inspiration.

In a city whose once raucous and colorful politics have become remarkably button-down and tranquil over the past decade, Mr. Lhota, who filed documents to become a Republican candidate for New York City mayor on Thursday, is something of a throwback: an unapologetically outsize personality, known throughout his career for big emotions and an uninhibited style.

His combination of experience — on Wall Street, in the Giuliani administration and, most recently, running the Metropolitan Transportation Authority — differs significantly from the backgrounds of the Democratic elected officials who have dominated the 2013 campaign.

But above all, Mr. Lhota’s candidacy presents a question: is the city that elected Michael R. Bloomberg, a relatively measured, data-adoring technocrat, ready to embrace a hot-tempered, irreverent and unfiltered New Yorker, who as a deputy mayor once paused in the middle of a closely watched legal deposition to quote Aristotle and playfully contemplate the derivation of the word “ejectment” — “a new word form, when I first heard it,” he told his interrogators.

Advisers to Mr. Lhota argue that his candor and authenticity are his disarming charm, inevitably distinguishing him from a field made up of candidates they see as predictable political players.

“He can be very blunt with people without burning bridges,” said Anthony Coles, a deputy mayor in the Giuliani administration who is not involved in this year’s campaign.

Even Mr. Lhota’s supporters acknowledge that his challenges are significant. For every registered Republican in the city, there are six Democrats, making it difficult for any Republican candidate to prevail.

Mr. Bloomberg, relying on $100 million of his own money for a lavish campaign, struggled to win re-election in 2009 against William C. Thompson Jr., the city’s Democratic comptroller. Mr. Lhota, who is expected to participate in the city’s campaign finance system, will be limited to spending about $13 million, the same as his rivals, through the primary and general election cycle.

Mr. Lhota, in a brief interview on Thursday, said city voters had “a history of electing mayors on issues, not party label.”

“ That is how Fiorello La Guardia was elected in the ‘40s, John Lindsay was elected in the ‘60s, Rudy Giuliani won in 1993 and Michael Bloomberg won in 2001,” he continued.

Despite the Democrats’ registration advantage, no Democrat has won the mayoralty since David N. Dinkins in 1989.

Mr. Lhota has described himself as a kind of cosmopolitan conservative, determined to hold down the city’s spending and resist giveaways to public unions, even as he embraces same-sex marriage and abortion rights.

Mr. Lhota, 58, who was born in the Bronx and grew up on Long Island, has a biography that seems ready-made for a mayoral race: his father was a New York City police lieutenant, his grandfathers a New York City firefighter and a taxi driver.

After graduating from Georgetown University and Harvard Business School, he became a leader in the fast-growing Wall Street business of municipal finance.

Like many young conservatives frustrated by the city’s problems with crime and homelessness in the 1980s, he was drawn to Mr. Giuliani’s tough-talking message of reform.

Mr. Lhota began showing up for weekly tutorial sessions — quickly called “mayor university” — for Mr. Giuliani, then the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York. Mr. Lhota, by then an expert in municipal finance, focused on educating Mr. Giuliani about budget matters.

When Mr. Giuliani won election as mayor in 1993, he persuaded Mr. Lhota to join him at City Hall as an assistant in the economic development office, where Mr. Lhota’s rise was rapid, even by the standards of city government. By Mr. Giuliani’s second term, Mr. Lhota was deputy mayor for operations, overseeing three-fourths of the city’s work force and standing in as mayor whenever Mr. Giuliani was out of town.

Mr. Lhota was an influential figure in many of Mr. Giuliani’s signature pushes — the privatization of city services, like sanitation; a huge reduction in the welfare rolls; and a hard-nosed style of budgeting that sought to deprive the City Council of money it had relied on for years.

Mr. Lhota, working with Mr. Giuliani, pushed for drastic reductions in mainstays, like financing for the arts, knowing well that council members would demand their return. The resulting fury would be calmed by the return of basic financing, but often little else.

“Joe was the person who helped formulate that strategy,” Mr. Giuliani said. “Joe knew the inner secret.”

In an administration known for relishing political combat, Mr. Lhota emerged as a figure with whom opponents could work.

Ronnie Eldridge, who represented the Upper West Side on the Council from 1989 to 2001, said Mr. Lhota was an uncommon ally in a truculent City Hall — an administration, Ms. Eldridge recalled, that once halted construction on a capital project that she championed because her husband, the newspaper columnist Jimmy Breslin, had criticized Mr. Giuliani’s plans to overhaul Times Square.

“I had a terrible relationship with the Giuliani administration,” she said in a telephone interview. “But not with Joe, ever. He was respectful, he was responsive and funny, and willing to at least give you the impression that he was agreeing with you.”

After leaving City Hall at the end of the Giuliani term, Mr. Lhota returned to the corporate world, as a top executive at Cablevision and Madison Square Garden.

But he was drawn back into government, taking the reins of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in 2011 and becoming an unlikely cheerleader for an agency whose reputation for bloated spending is exacerbated by the daily complaints of its riders.

After Hurricane Sandy, as other regional transit systems strained to restore service, Mr. Lhota was widely praised for the subway’s rapid recovery, hastened by a decision to protect equipment by shutting down the subway and bus system the day before the storm.

But Mr. Lhota, who resigned as the authority’s chairman last month, also left it with unfinished business. Little progress was made on contract negotiations with Transport Workers Union Local 100, a transit union which has been working without a contract for a year. The storm complicated an already fragile budget situation. And despite the successful restoration of most service, some corners of the system — including the South Ferry station — remain in shambles.

Some transit workers also resent what they perceive as Mr. Lhota’s taking too much credit for the post-storm recovery. (Mr. Lhota did say earlier this week that “M.T.A. workers — union workers — deserve a lion’s share of the credit.”)

“The irony is, he didn’t lift a finger to put the system back together,” said John Samuelsen, Local 100’s president. “He didn’t settle the contract with us, and now, off the work that we did, he’s trying to launch a mayoral candidacy.”

Over the past year, Mr. Lhota has endeared himself to a wider audience with an active and frequently impolitic Twitter account, where he offered unguarded commentary on sports, politics and his own alcohol consumption.

In his original Twitter profile, he described himself as a “9/11 cancer survivor,” a subject he is not shy about discussing.

Shortly after he received a diagnosis of cancer in 2005 — a result, he believes, of prolonged exposure to the air around ground zero — Mr. Lhota e-mailed friends with characteristic defiance and humor.

Anticipating hair loss from chemotherapy, he asked for “ideas for temporary tattoos to slap on the side of my head.” He asked for prayers, but made clear he had already turned to his old standby, Churchill, for words of comfort.

“Never give in, never give in, never, never, never,” he wrote, quoting his hero.

Mr. Lhota’s cancer is in remission, and he said his doctors had cleared him for the rigors of a mayoral run.

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/18/nyregion/joseph-lhota-stands-out-in-new-yorks-mayoral-race.html?hp&_r=0&pagewanted=all

[QM1to6Ave]

This should probably be moved to the off-topic section.

 

At least we finally have a candidate with some personality that might make this election interesting. A debate between Lhota and Christine Quinn would be solid entertainment.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

Thank God Lhota entered the race... We need a Republican after Bloomberg and the crazy Democrats.

[Shortline Bus]

IMO Lhota has a good chance to win. The Democratic primary, could be a war and by the time the survior gets through (i.e Quinn, etc.) that battle, Lhota would have gotten the support of the GOP and ready to challenge. Again as i said in earlier thread, Lhota huge setback is that he not the best public speaker(even Bloomberg sounds like Martin Luther King lol compared to this NYC political "lifer")and needs to sell his broad experience instead to New Yorkers.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

IMO Lhota has a good chance to win. The Democratic primary, could be a war and by the time the survior gets through (i.e Quinn, etc.) that battle, Lhota would have gotten the support of the GOP and ready to challenge. Again as i said in earlier thread, Lhota huge setback is that he not the best public speaker(even Bloomberg sounds like Martin Luther King lol compared to this NYC political "lifer")and needs to sell his broad experience instead to New Yorkers.

I think he'll be fine. I actually would much rather him than the monotone Bloomberg.

[BreeddekalbL]

I think he'll be fine. I actually would much rather him than the monotone Bloomberg.

 

ha i wonder how joe's spanish is lol

[Quill Depot]

These roles are always fulfilled by democrats. In the vicinity of NYC people lean towards democrats much. Although, in reality, the party someone acquires does not have a significant affect. This issue may be heartbreaking but true.

[R10 2952]

I'm not much of a Lhota fan, but I'd rather see him as mayor instead of the mind-numbingly awful Christine Quinn.  Christ, if she were elected, she'd probably make it a crime to criticize same-sex marriage LOL (remember the Chick-Fil-A incident?)

[jgood6195]

I'm not much of a Lhota fan, but I'd rather see him as mayor instead of the mind-numbingly awful Christine Quinn.  Christ, if she were elected, she'd probably make it a crime to criticize same-sex marriage LOL (remember the Chick-Fil-A incident?)

NY is a guy's toon. I hope the MTA wins!

[QM1to6Ave]

IMO Lhota has a good chance to win. The Democratic primary, could be a war and by the time the survior gets through (i.e Quinn, etc.) that battle, Lhota would have gotten the support of the GOP and ready to challenge. Again as i said in earlier thread, Lhota huge setback is that he not the best public speaker(even Bloomberg sounds like Martin Luther King lol compared to this NYC political "lifer")and needs to sell his broad experience instead to New Yorkers.

I think he sounds better than the boring-ass bloomberg, who always seem to have a stick up his rear. Lhota seems to be very blunt and funny, which are 2 qualities I appreciate in a speaker. I agree that he needs to work hard to get his message out to New Yorkers, though it seems that the Post and Times are happy to write about him, which is basically free publicity for Lhota.

 

From what I've read, he supports small government, but also wants to legalize marijuana and supports abortion protections (and I imagine would be friendly to the MTA lol). Quite an interesting fellow.  

[Shortline Bus]

I think he sounds better than the boring-ass bloomberg, who always seem to have a stick up his rear. Lhota seems to be very blunt and funny, which are 2 qualities I appreciate in a speaker. I agree that he needs to work hard to get his message out to New Yorkers, though it seems that the Post and Times are happy to write about him, which is basically free publicity for Lhota.

 

From what I've read, he supports small government, but also wants to legalize marijuana and supports abortion protections (and I imagine would be friendly to the MTA lol). Quite an interesting fellow.  

Lhota is a rare breed in the GOP these days. He is politically what was only recently used to be called "Rockfeller Republicans" i.e everyone from Former Govs. Tom Keene, Christine Whitman, Al  D'amato and more recently Colin Powell, Pataki and Rudy G. Now the new "Rockfeller GOP" star is Chris Christie.

[jgood6195]

Lhota is a rare breed in the GOP these days. He is politically what was only recently used to be called "Rockfeller Republicans" i.e everyone from Former Govs. Tom Keene, Christine Whitman, Al D'Manto and more recently Colin Powell, Pataki and Rudy G.

What is Rudy doing these days anyway? It's like, after 9/11, he went into hidding.

[QM1to6Ave]

What is Rudy doing these days anyway? It's like, after 9/11, he went into hidding.

Remember he had this little thing called a run for the presidency?

[Via Garibaldi 8]

LOL... Went into hiding...   

[Grand Concourse]

 

I'm not much of a Lhota fan, but I'd rather see him as mayor instead of the mind-numbingly awful Christine Quinn.  Christ, if she were elected, she'd probably make it a crime to criticize same-sex marriage LOL (remember the Chick-Fil-A incident?)

power mad is more like it. To hell with what most people thinks, she'll make moves because its what she thinks is best. It's like having Rosie o'donnell in office.

[Urbanfortitude]

LOL... Went into hiding...   

I'd hide after that embarrassing tryout for the presidency too.