Former federal housing official and Bronx borough president Adolfo Carrion Jr. officially launched his bid Tuesday to become New York City’s next mayor, casting himself as an experienced leader but an unconventional candidate.
A longtime Democrat who dropped his party affiliation last fall and lined up a third-party ballot spot last week, Carrion is also vying with several other contenders for the Republican Party nomination in November’s race. Regardless, he’s styling himself as a candidate who aims to hold himself apart from partisanship and influence.
“You cannot be beholden to any interests if you’re going to move the needle on the important issues that matter. … Declaring myself as an independent gives me that position of strength to negotiate on behalf of the No. 1 interest, which is the residents of the city,” Carrion said by phone Tuesday. He’s not registered in any party now but has secured the Independence Party’s backing and ballot line.
New Yorkers have “discovered that independent leadership works,” said Carrion, who’s running to succeed Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-independent Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg initially won office as both the Republican and Independence party candidate.
The Independence Party is the city’s third-largest, with more than 119,000 registered voters — far fewer that the 500,000 registered Republicans and more than 3.1 million Democrats. But its weight has been felt in city politics: In a notable example, Bloomberg won 59,000 votes on the Independence line in his first election in 2001, more than his margin of victory.
Carrion said his campaign would emphasize job creation, building and rebuilding the city’s infrastructure and improving schools by taking a page from successful charter schools.
Carrion, whose parents came to New York from Puerto Rico, would be the city’s first Latino mayor. He’s a former city schoolteacher, city planner and City Council member. He won the Bronx borough presidency in 2001. During his tenure, the borough added 40,000 units of housing, 50 schools and the new Yankee Stadium, a signature project that Carrion avidly backed over considerable community opposition to the loss of the parkland the city gave for the stadium.
In 2009, Carrion became the first White House urban affairs director, with President Barack Obama saying Carrion would “bring long overdue attention” to cities. Carrion became a regional administrator for the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2010, then left last year.
His time in Washington was shadowed by an investigation into his dealings with an architect who helped him on a home project in 2006 and later benefited from the then-borough president’s approval of a development deal.
Carrion ultimately paid a $10,000 fine in a settlement with the city Conflicts of Interest Board. He acknowledged he didn’t pay the architect for his work until after the Daily News contacted him about the project in 2009.
“It was certainly an oversight on my part, but it’s something that is already taken care of, and we’ve moved on,” he said Tuesday.
With Bloomberg term-limited, the mayoral race has drawn a roster of contenders.
Announced and likely Democratic candidates include former City Councilman Sal Albanese, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, Comptroller John Liu, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and former Comptroller Bill Thompson.
Republican hopefuls include billionaire businessman John Catsimatidis, former Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Joseph Lhota; Tom Allon, a publisher; and George McDonald, the head of an organization that helps the homeless.