While residents in the Town of North Hempstead have no vote in NYC municipal elections, we have legitimate concerns about how the outcome could impact our lives. Many of us shop, attend Broadway shows, go to events at Lincoln Center, Radio City Music Hall, Madison Square Garden, and Brooklyn Barclay’s Center, museums or patronize restaurants in the Big Apple. Others travel to and from work on a daily basis. Due to term limits, every eight years each new generation of municipal offices threaten to bring back the non-residents commuter tax. Many of us are also concerned about safety and quality of life when visiting various neighborhoods around the five boroughs of Brooklyn, Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island.
With Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. dropping out of the race, it appears the 2021 Democratic Party primary for New York City Mayor contest will be between three major candidates – Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer, and NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson. Any discussions about Republicans regaining control New York City Hall is wishful thinking. No wonder no one is even talking about it.
As of November 2019, there are 4,773,225,115 active registered voters in NYC. This includes 3,257,214 Democrats; 475,614 Republicans; 886,598 Blanks (no declared party affiliation); 104,983 Independence; 19,026 Conservative; 13,796 Working Family; 8,035 Green; 2,772 Libertarian; and 4,187 other registered voters. Any Republican running for Mayor of New York in 2021 would need both name recognition and $200 million dollars to compensate for this overwhelming seven-to-one Democrat to Republican deficit. A media buy of several million per week over many months, hiring full-time paid campaign consultants and staff, several dozen direct mail pieces, paid phone bank employees and a door-to-door vote pull operation would be required to remain competitive. All of the above will have to be supplemented by millions more from independent Political Action Committees. Only real estate developer/owner of Gristedes Foods, the largest grocery chain in Manhattan, and radio talk show host, John Catsimatidis, has the financial resources to provide Republicans with a real candidate versus a sacrificial lamb.
The last Republican Mayor (who really just rented out the party line to avoid a messy Democratic Party primary) Michael Bloomberg barely won a third term in 2009 against Democrat Bill Thompson. He spent over $160 million to overcome a citywide five-to-one Democrat/Republican voter registration advantage. Over the past eleven years, this enrollment gap has grown to a seven-to-one Democrat/Republican registration advantage.
The last time Republicans were really relevant in municipal elections was the 1990s. GOP Mayor Rudy Guiliani had a record seven Republican out of 51 NYC Councilmembers. They included Mike Abel, Alfonse Stabile and Thomas Olgibene of Queens, Charles Millard and Andrew Eristoff of Manhattan, Martin Golden of Brooklyn, and Fred Cerillo of Staten Island. They developed a working coalition with then-Democratic NYC Council Speaker Peter Vallone, Senior and more moderate Democratic Councilmembers. Mayor Bloomberg had only three Republican out of 51 NYC Councilmembers. Current NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson and virtually all of today’s generation of Democratic Councilmembers are far more liberal and anti-business.
Crossover Democrats, who voted for former Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush in the 1980s, former Senator D’Amato in 1980 – 1998; former Governor Pataki in 1994 – 2002; former Mayor Giuliani in the 1990s along with Mayor Bloomberg in 2001, 2005 and 2009, for the most part, have already moved out of town, retired out of state or succumbed to old age. There has been no successful GOP outreach to Caribbean, Hispanic, Asian or other new immigrants along with middle-class African Americans. Outside of Staten Island, Bay Ridge Brooklyn, College Point, Glendale, Maspeth, Middle Village, and Howard Beach, Queens along with several Hasidic or Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in Boro Park, Flatbush and Williamsburg, Brooklyn along with Briarwood, Kew Gardens, Kew Gardens Hills and Hillcrest Queens, there are few communities that Republicans remain competitive against what has evolved into an overwhelming Democratic NYC.
Republican one-party rule of Nassau County resulted in corruption and financial mismanagement. Continued Democratic Party monopoly of City Hall may result in the same outcome.
Larry Penner
Great Neck
