From today’s Wall Street Journal:

City GOP Seeking Mayoral Candidates

By MICHAEL HOWARD SAUL

New York City Republican leaders are aggressively courting two men as potential mayoral candidates for 2013: Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and supermarket mogul John Catsimatidis.

But neither man has committed, putting the party whose nominee has won the past five mayor elections in the position of casting a wide net for its nomination.

Bloomberg News
New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, center, with wife Veronica at the Bloomberg Vanity Fair White House Correspondents’ Association dinner afterparty in Washington, D.C., last week.

“We’re not going to stop looking, waiting to hear from a particular individual,” Daniel Isaacs, chairman of the Manhattan GOP committee, said in an interview Wednesday. “Running for mayor—that is a tough campaign, and it’s a big campaign…and if you’re serious about it, then you need to decide sooner rather than later in terms of which way you’re going to go.”

The Republican struggle to settle on a formidable candidate has bolstered Democrats’ hopes of reclaiming City Hall for the first time since 1989, when David Dinkins defeated Republican Rudy Giuliani.

The Republicans’ difficulty finding a credible candidate was highlighted Wednesday by a joint statement issued by the five GOP county chairmen, summarizing their hope for keeping a grip on City Hall and urging potential candidates such as Mr. Kelly to talk to them.

The chairmen, the statement said, have discussed the “pros and cons” of potential contenders who have been “bandied about in the press,” including Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s longtime companion, Diana Taylor, a former state superintendent of banks; Richard Grasso, the former head of the New York Stock Exchange; state Sen. Marty Golden; Eva Moskowitz, head of a charter school chain and a former councilwoman; and Adolfo Carrion, a former Bronx borough president.

But so far, they have only spoken formally about running with Mr. Catsimatidis and Tom Allon, a declared Democratic mayoral candidate considering switching parties. Four of the party’s five county chairmen met Mr. Allon, a media executive, for dinner at Sparks steakhouse on Manhattan’s East Side on Tuesday night.

Such face-to-face meetings would be a “critical step” for Mr. Kelly or any other mayoral candidate, the chairmen said.

“What we’re basically saying is if you’re interested, and you think you want to run for mayor, you have what it takes, give us a call,” said Brooklyn GOP chief Craig Eaton.

Though New York City is a Democratic stronghold—the party holds a 6-to-1 advantage over Republicans in registration—it has a long history of Republican mayors, including Fiorello La Guardia, John Lindsay and Mr. Giuliani. Mr. Bloomberg won election as a Republican in 2001 and 2005, and as a Republican-endorsed independent in 2009.

“New Yorkers have recognized now for the better part of two decades that having a GOP endorsed mayor is a necessary check and balance over the excesses of the special interest controlled City Council,” the GOP chairmen’s statement said.

Republican hopes have largely rested on Mr. Kelly, one of the most popular figures in the city with approval ratings consistently hovering near 70%.

Mr. Kelly’s NYPD spokesman, Paul Browne, said Wednesday: “Commissioner Kelly is focused entirely on his current position, which he considers the best job in New York, and he has no plans to run for elective office.”

Mr. Kelly would have some disadvantages, such as no experience in campaigning for office. He would have to step down as commissioner if he ran for mayor and started fundraising.

Mr. Catsimatidis, who runs the Gristedes supermarket chain and considered running in 2009 before Mr. Bloomberg announced his intention to seek a third term, is waiting for Mr. Kelly to make a decision.

“I think parts of him want to do it, and parts of him have a problem,” Mr. Catsimatidis said. “I think we have to give him some time to sort it out.”

“If we don’t have the right person to run, I will probably do it,” Mr. Catsimatidis said. “But I’d rather have Ray Kelly.”

Mr. Isaacs said Mr. Kelly “knows where we stand.” “The door is open and hopefully he will choose to step through it,” Mr. Isaacs said. “In the meantime we’ll keep talking and reaching out to others.”

—Sean Gardiner contributed to this article.

From today’s New York Times:

Republican Leaders in City Seek Candidate for Mayor

By KATE TAYLOR

Published: May 2, 2012

Saying that the likely Democratic candidates for mayor are too liberal for the average New York voter, the city’s five Republican county chairmen said Wednesday that they wanted to identify by the fall a candidate to run on the Republican line.

In a news release, the five chairmen suggested that their first choice was John A. Catsimatidis, the billionaire supermarket magnate who considered running in 2009, before Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg had the law changed to run for a third term.

“Obviously, he’s our first choice,” Craig Eaton, the Brooklyn chairman, said in an interview. “He has the necessary business acumen, he has the funding, and he’s got a great story.”

But Mr. Catsimatidis said in an interview that his own first choice was the city’s police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, whose name has been mentioned in discussions of the 2013 mayoral race but who has given little indication of whether he is interested in running.

“I’ve been supporting Ray Kelly,” Mr. Catsimatidis said. “I’m in the bullpen if Ray Kelly doesn’t do it.”

Mr. Catsimatidis said he was part of a committee looking for a candidate, along with the county chairmen and the state party chairman, Edward F. Cox.

Registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans in the city by more than six to one, meaning that any Republican candidate would have an uphill battle.

Perhaps with that in mind, the county chairmen in the news release appeared to give Mr. Kelly, and anyone else who might be interested, a deadline to throw their hat in the ring, saying that they hoped to settle on a candidate by the fall.

“We have our process, and we’re not going to wait, for example, for the commissioner to make a decision,” the Manhattan chairman, Dan Isaacs, said, referring to Mr. Kelly.

Mr. Isaacs said that if neither Mr. Kelly nor Mr. Catsimatidis decided to run, the chairmen would look at Tom Allon, a newspaper publisher, a declared candidate for mayor and a registered Democrat, who has expressed interest in the Republican Party endorsement.

Mr. Allon had dinner on Tuesday night with four of the five chairmen — all except for the Staten Island chairman, Robert Scamardella — at Sparks Steak House in Manhattan.

Mr. Catsimatidis, however, suggested that Mr. Allon was not ready to be mayor and should run for Manhattan borough president instead.

The news release also said the chairmen had discussed other candidates whose names had been “bandied about in the press” as potential candidates, including Diana L. Taylor, who is Mr. Bloomberg’s girlfriend; Richard A. Grasso, the former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange; Martin J. Golden, a state senator from Brooklyn; and two Democrats: Eva S. Moskowitz, the chief of a charter school network, and Adolfo Carrión Jr., the former Bronx borough president.

Mr. Eaton said in an interview that he was a strong supporter of Mr. Golden. Through his spokesman, Mr. Golden said he was honored to be considered but was focused on serving his community in the Senate.

Mr. Grasso has said that he wants Mr. Kelly to be mayor, and he is involved in an effort to set up a “super PAC” to support him if he decides to run.

Ms. Moskowitz said in an interview that she was still considering a bid for mayor and would decide in the next month or so, but that she would run as a Democrat. Among the factors that would determine her decision, she said, was whether any of the Democrats expected to run — Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker; Bill de Blasio, the public advocate; William C. Thompson Jr., a former city comptroller; and Scott M. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president — articulated what she considered strong policies on education.

“If a candidate came out really strongly in favor of reform, that would certainly influence my perspective,” she said.

Mr. Carrión said he was not ready to discuss his plans. Ms. Taylor did not respond to e-mails requesting comment.

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Brooklyn Republican Chairman Craig Eaton invites you to join us on Monday, June 11 for our Annual Lincoln Dinner Celebration.

Our annual Lincoln Day Dinner will be held on Monday, June 11 at Gargiulo’s Restaurant in Coney Island, Brooklyn.

This year we are celebrating the memory of Abraham Lincoln with guest speakers that include Senator Marty Golden, Congressman Bob Turner, Attorney David Storobin, along with Congressman Mike Grimm, Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, and other special guests.

For more information, or to purchase tickets online, go to http://brooklyngop.com/?page_id=300

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