Democratic candidate Christine Quinn (Helayne Seidman)
Republican candidate Joe Lhota (William Miller)
Christine Quinn (Helayne Seidman)
Two weeks from tomorrow, New York City Democrats and Republicans will go to the polls in primaries to choose their candidates for mayor. Some voters had hoped for a different set of candidates, or a race free from discussions about Anthony Weiner’s crotch. But we cannot escape the reality of the New York political class, and this is the race we have been given.
And make no mistake, this is a historic and incredibly important election.
Under Rudy Giuliani and Mike Bloomberg, this city was transformed from a grimy, crime-ravaged urban wasteland into a safe, vibrant metropolis that continues to attract new residents and businesses. New York today is far and away the greatest city in the world, but we can very easily slide back into the abyss. Many of the candidates in this race would have you take for granted the gains of the past two decades — they say we can strip the police of their powers, give giant raises to the municipal unions, and tax our way to utopia.
But the voters must not be fooled — we can end up like Detroit faster than you can say David Dinkins. Thugs could take over the streets once again and businesses can pack up for the suburbs. It can happen, and it will happen, unless New Yorkers take this campaign seriously and elect a serious mayor who is ready to tackle serious problems. A way of life we now consider normal is at stake. Our children’s education and future is at stake. Lives are at stake.
The key question of this campaign needs to be whether we continue down the path of revitalization and renewal, or allow ourselves to be fooled into complacency and let the rot and the filth and the criminals return.
New Yorkers must not be afraid to fight for the future, to get out and vote, to throw away cynicism and dare to keep dreaming of a better city.
We urge you to make your voice heard in this election, and we hope you will follow our advice — or else we could all look back with regret just four years from now ask how we allowed our city to become a punch line again.
For the Democrats, we believe Christine Quinn is the only candidate who has shown the basic common sense any mayor needs. On the Republican side, Joe Lhota’s record of achievement and solid ideas on tough issues offer the best chance for an accountable and effective government.
We need to end the silly season of the mayoral campaign and get down to a vigorous race between Christine Quinn and Joe Lhota so New Yorkers can hear two competing visions of what the future will be.
On Sept. 10, New York Democrats will have many names to choose from. Of them, three candidates — Christine Quinn, Bill de Blasio and Bill Thompson — lead the polls. There are other minor candidates, but these are the ones with a real chance to win or, more likely, qualify for a primary runoff. Choosing from among them is a difficult task — not because the selection is so good, but because each comes with considerable downsides.
In this race, The Post today endorses Christine Quinn, the speaker of the City Council.
If we were seeing today the Chris Quinn that we saw a few years ago, this would be a more enthusiastic endorsement. As speaker, Quinn often showed courage and responsibility by siding with Mayor Bloomberg, as well as by opposing the dangerous proposals of her far more radical council members.
Ever since her mayoral campaign kicked in, however, she has lurched hard to the left, embracing the kind of ridiculous nostrums for which she had previously shown considerable and rightful contempt.
A perfect example: the ill-advised mandatory paid sick-leave bill, which for years she courageously refused to bring to a council vote, only to reverse herself last spring when she was sharply criticized by her mayoral opponents and the unions.
Similarly, she first declared unconditionally she would retain Ray Kelly as police commissioner. Then she made her proposal for an NYPD inspector general, a new and unnecessary layer of oversight. That turned the race into a referendum on the police, and stop-and-frisk came under withering political attack. Hard to imagine Ray Kelly would take her up on the job offer now.
She further remains deaf to the dangers of pork spending, known as member items, which she used to control the council — but led to rampant corruption. Her so-called reforms are inadequate; by lavishing taxpayer money on the pet projects of council members — even those under indictment for member-item fraud! — she made herself an aider and abetter of cheats and chiselers.
Yet when set against the others, she shines. Former Comptroller Bill Thompson may be a decent man, and he has shown flashes of common sense (he’s the only Democrat to side with Madison Square Garden, for example), but he’s also signaled where his allegiances lie when he accepted the United Federation of Teachers endorsement. Make no mistake: Any of the Democrats would gladly have taken the UFT’s support. But Thompson is now the candidate who is directly beholden to the union and its president, Michael Mulgrew.
And that has disastrous implications for New York. With a UFT puppet in City Hall, mayoral control over the schools would inevitably be rolled back, and you can kiss the successful charter-school movement goodbye. It also has serious implications for the city’s finances, with the UFT demanding an enormous chunk of taxpayer cash in retroactive raises for its workers.
As Bloomberg has wisely noted: “If the UFT wants it, it ain’t good.”
Meanwhile, there’s Bill de Blasio, who’s pushing the tiresome class-warfare theme, promising to jack up taxes on the rich, overload our already stressed small businesses with even more regulation, and give unlimited tax dollars to whatever left-wing interest group asks for it. De Blasio is so far out of the mainstream that even the thought of him as mayor should frighten every New Yorker. A de Blasio mayoralty would be an express train right back to the bad old days of the 1970s.
The hope for Quinn is that her recent disappointments are a function of the election-year silliness that getting ahead in today’s Democratic Party sadly seems to demand. The Democratic race comes down to a question of leadership and sensibility. Unlike her rivals, Quinn has shown both over the years. There is reason to hope that a Mayor Quinn, free from election-year pressure, would revert back to her more moderate and sensible judgments.
So The Post urges a vote for Christine Quinn in the Democratic primary.
The choice among the three Republican candidates is clear: In the GOP primary for mayor, The Post enthusiastically endorses former Deputy Mayor and MTA Chairman Joe Lhota.
Lhota stands head and shoulders above the field. He has valuable know-how and experience, in both the public and private sectors. By any measure, Joe Lhota is the leader best equipped to take on a bloated city government and make it work for the people who pay for it.
Lhota further understands — and campaigns on — something the candidates in the other party prefer to obscure: just how easy it would be for this city to slide back into crime and decay.
As MTA head, he managed a $13 billion budget and a workforce of 65,000.
We saw the fruits of his efforts when Hurricane Sandy hit: Within days, nearly all the trains were up and running and the public was kept fully informed at all times.
Before that, as budget director and finance commissioner under Rudy Giuliani, he managed the city’s $36 billion operating budget and $45 billion capital plan. And as deputy mayor of operations, he oversaw the city’s response to the 9/11 attacks, and performed admirably on that horrible day.
His chief rival, self-made billionaire John Catsimatidis, is an unlikely candidate who has shown surprising strength. A self-professed Clinton Democrat, he’s focused attention on the plight of city businesses. And his personal story of rising from rag to riches is engaging.
But there is a difference between running a business and running a government, and all of Catsimatidis’ policy proposals have fallen flat, or just been downright goofy.
Our biggest disappointment with the Lhota campaign so far has nothing to do with substance. He has fallen short in articulating a compelling and passionate message that makes clear what is at stake in this election.
That is more important for him than it is for his Democratic rivals, if only because they enjoy a 6-to-1 advantage in registered voters in this city. And Lhota does not have the kind of personal fortune that allowed Mayor Bloomberg to spend $100 million on his own campaigns.
To be elected mayor of this city, a Republican must run a campaign whose appeal reaches across party lines to attract Democrats unsatisfied with the direction of their party, independents who distrust both parties, residents of the outer boroughs, and the many New Yorkers who do not vote because they have simply given up on city politics. We believe Lhota, if he can get his message right, stands the best chance of doing just that.
The New York Post urges Republican voters to turn out on primary day and vote for Joe Lhota.