On the eve of today’s runoff election for public advocate and city comptroller, only two candidates hit the campaign trail — discounting concerns about offending Jewish voters on the high holy day of Yom Kippur.
Public-advocate candidate Bill de Blasio and comptroller contender John Liu attended rallies and campaigned in predominantly non-Jewish neighborhoods as their respective rivals, Mark Green and David Yassky, observed the holiday.
De Blasio and Liu both said they tried to avoid offending anyone while campaigning on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.
“We’ve talked to a lot of our Jewish supporters . . . and the answer we heard was it’s perfectly appropriate to campaign today outside of Jewish neighborhoods,” de Blasio said.
Liu said his campaign is “very respectful” of Yom Kippur and said he was far more low-key yesterday than he would have been on a typical pre-runoff day.
Yassky’s spokesman, however, took exception with Liu’s campaigning and bringing up negative topics on Yom Kippur.
“David is observing Yom Kippur in synagogue and not actively campaigning. It is up to our opponent to determine the appropriateness of engaging in negative campaigning of the holiest day of the year for millions of New Yorkers.”
A Green spokesman declined to comment.
De Blasio and Liu appeared together at a rally near Union Square at the Workers United Union Hall, where Liu said he would vote for Bill de Blasio today — leaving de Blasio to say he would not publicly discuss his vote ahead of time.
“The polls this week have us at a comfortable margin,” Liu said. “The fact of the matter is, with just a few days to go, a highly negative campaign has been aired on TV, on radio. Mailboxes have been polluted with that garbage.”
Liu was referring to Yassky’s negative mailings that question his honesty.
Today’s turnout, without a mayoral candidate on the ballot, is expected to be low. But de Blasio is counting on turnout generated by a huge field campaign being planned by the Working Families Party, which also backs Liu.
De Blasio yesterday waved off concerns about recent attacks Green leveled against him for his ties to the WFP.
Green recently blasted de Blasio for getting paid $33,000 for doing work for a WFP affiliate in other states, which was cleared by the city Conflicts of Interest Board.
Meanwhile, de Blasio continued campaigning in Chinatown last night. He was joined by newly elected Councilwoman Margaret Chin, who stumped with him outside the Grand Street subway station.
As Yom Kippur ended last night, Yassky greeted voters at a Fairway supermarket on the Upper West Side.
The runoff is required by city law, because the Sept. 15 primary did not produce a winner with a minimum of 40 percent of the vote for either office.
In the public advocate’s race, de Blasio had 32 percent to Green’s 31 percent. Liu, in the comptroller’s race, had 38 percent to Yassky’s 30.
The runoff is expected to cost $15 million.