You know Joe Lhota’s doing something right when the entire New York establishment is screaming how unfair he is.
What’s got them so upset? A new 30-second Lhota ad on “Bill de Blasio’s recklessly dangerous agenda on crime.” It features images of the West Side Highway motorcyle confrontation that terrorized an innocent family as it notes de Blasio’s response: “Visit motorcyle clubs and talk to bikers.” The ad ends with gritty images of the dirty, crime-ridden and violent New York of two decades ago and asks voters not to let de Blasio “take New York backwards.”
The reaction has been predictable. “It’s desperate. It’s divisive. It’s inappropriate,” complains de Blasio. Letitia James, Democratic candidate for public advocate, calls it “hateful” and “dog-whistle politics.” Others liken it to the Willie Horton ad that George H.W. Bush ran against Mike Dukakis. Horton was a convicted murderer who raped a woman while on a weekend furlough program supported by Gov. Dukakis.
What does all this mean? It means Lhota has hit a nerve, and the critics shout because they can’t debate him on the merits.
De Blasio has long been a critic of the stop-and-frisk tactic that has helped Ray Kelly and his police force bring violent crime in this city to historic lows. And de Blasio has also made clear that if elected mayor, he will have different police policies, and likely a different commissioner.
Lhota’s ad brings home these differences on crime. And that’s what political campaigns are all about. De Blasio wants to end police policies that have been successful and pretend this will have no consequences for crime. Lhota argues that if you take away policies the police believe have been essential in their work, you will take the city back to the bad old days when the bad guys owned the streets.
In sum, Lhota’s ad lays out the risks if this city elects a mayor who has made America’s most successful police force one of his targets. And the louder Lhota’s critics howl, the more you know he’s got it right.