It appears Brooklyn has
dodged a second-coming
of the de Blasio administration.
On Oct. 15, First
Lady Chirlane McCray announced
that she will not
run for borough president.
I think I can safely say that
most of us are breathing a
sigh of relief.
“It was a difficult decision,”
McCray told NY1. “I
thought about running for
Brooklyn borough president
long and hard.” But ultimately,
she said, her “focus
is on the work I’m doing
right now.”
However, it is her work —
combined with the mass unpopularity
of her husband
— that made her candidacy
unviable. This is saying a lot
in a borough that the couple
calls home, and is so overwhelmingly
Democrat.
In an effort to boost her
public profile to run for
THE RIGHT
VIEW
Bob Capano
Brooklyn’s top spot, Mayor
Bill de Blasio put her in
charge of the mental health
program ThriveNYC, which
had noble goals. However, it
has been criticized by many,
COURIER L 28 IFE, OCT. 23-29, 2020
including Democrats in
the City Council, for wasting
$1.25 billion in taxpayer
money due to lack of results.
The mayor also put her in
charge of “She Built NYC,” a
contest designed to honor notable
women with statues in
the fi ve boroughs. This, too,
was a disaster, culminating
with her refusal to memorialize
Mother Frances Cabrini,
despite the fact that the patron
saint received the most nominations
from New Yorkers.
Predictably, McCray’s
biggest obstacle was her
husband’s dismal tenure as
mayor, which has become
more unpopular with each
passing month — including
among Democrats.
Indeed, southwest Brooklyn
elected officials like
Councilman Justin Brannan
and State Sen. Andrew
Gounardes have suddenly
become more outspoken in
criticizing de Blasio on various
issues. Clearly, they are
now trying to distance themselves
from the mayor. Unfortunately
for them, Brannan
and Gounardes can’t
erase the fact that they were
early, enthusiastic supporters
of his initial campaign
for City Hall in 2013, and
were on board with his reelection
in 2017.
This will certainly come
into play this Election Day, as
Gounardes finds himself up
against a fierce Republican
challenger in Vito Bruno.
Bruno has made Gounardes’
affiliation with de Blasio,
along with his vote for bail
reform, key themes of his
campaign. Gounardes, on
the other hand, has resorted
to negative mailings insinuating
that Bruno, because he
managed nightclubs in the
70s and 80s, participated in
illegal activities. This reeks
of desperation and feeds
into the unfortunate smear
that the success of an Italian
American businessman
must be because of his involvement
with the mob and
organized crime.
Next year, in his re-election
race, Brannan will similarly
have to answer to voters
about his support for de
Blasio, and of reforms to the
NYPD and the criminal justice
system that many feel
have made the city less safe.
Just as de Blasio has cost
McCray her chance at becoming
borough president,
it may also end the political
careers of Gounardes and
Brannan.
Bob Capano has worked
for Brooklyn Republican and
Democrat elected officials,
and has been an adjunct political
science professor for
over 15 years. Follow him on
twitter @bobcapano.
OPINION
Brooklyn just dodged de Blasio 2.0
The most important political
election in Brooklyn
The most important race
in Brooklyn exists more
on the airwaves than in
reality. Republican Assemblywoman
Nicole Malliotakis
is spending millions of dollars
to defeat Max Rose, and
Congressman Rose is spending
millions more — several
million more than Nicole —
to keep his job.
Almost all of that goes
into television. Turn on
the TV in Staten Island or
southern Brooklyn, or really
anywhere in the largest
media market in America,
and you’ll see ads for both
campaigns. Rose’s ads talk
about how he’s an independent
voice who is not a typical
Democrat, but even more
about how Malliotakis is a
fraud. Malliotakis’ ads are
about how Rose is an ally of
Mayor Bill de Blasio who
hates the police and wants
to defund them while siding
with criminals.
“Politicians are just actors
stuck in one role,” Nora
Ephron once said, and I
think she’s right. There’s
something fundamentally
fake about all of them. It’s a
constructed persona that you
have to inhabit all the time,
like a reality star, an on-duty
drag queen or a professional
wrestler. Look at Trump and
Biden: their persona is all
they have left after so many
decades of it.
On one hand, Rose is a
decorated Army offi cer with
a foul-mouthed independent
streak who hates professional
Democratic politicians
and hypocrisy and lies. Rose
is also a professor’s son from
Park Slope, who attended
Wesleyan and Oxford and
has a master’s degree from
the London School of Economics.
His searing attacks
on de Blasio are felt but also
calculated. The endless public
pushups and the swearing
are defense mechanisms,
protective coloring.
But Rose doesn’t hate cops
and he doesn’t agree with de
Blasio. Spend two minutes
with the guy (and his persona)
and that becomes obvious
— and that’s Malliotakis’
whole line of attack on him.
That means Rose’s line of
attack is correct: Malliotakis
is a fraud. She makes up
things to tear down her opponents
and aggrandize herself.
Rose has a great set of bipartisan
Staten Island validators
to cite chapter and verse
of all the times Malliotakis
claims credit or horror
where she shouldn’t — take
state Sen. Diane Savino, a
Democrat, and Staten Island
Borough President Jimmy
Oddo, a Republican.
I’m following a LOT of
races in New York and Pennsylvania,
and let me tell you
that these themes are pretty
universal. The Republican
says the Democrat is a radical
leftist who will bring
crime back. The Democrat
denies, and points out all the
Republican’s mistruths and
hypocrisies. At this point, I
believe that the vast majority
of the Republican base is extremely
gullible.
Compared to every other
Democrat I’m watching, Rose
is doing a pretty good job
hustling for the votes of some
Trump supporters. I doubt
I’d have the stomach for it, in
his shoes.
I hope he hangs on. In
fact, I hope all of these lying
Republican candidates lose.
There sure are a lot of them.
Nick Rizzo is a former Democratic
District Leader and a
political consultant who lives
in Greenpoint. Follow him on
Twitter @NickRizzo.
WORDS OF
RIZZDOM
Nick Rizzo