Which one of these NYC mayoral candidate do you plan to vote for and why? Is it Ms. C Quinn, Mr. G McDonald, Mr.J Lahota, Mr. S Albanese, Mr. B Thompson, Mr. J Liu, Mr. E. Salgado, Mr. B de Blasio, Mr. J Catsimatidis, or Mr. A Carrión?
C. Quinn - NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn is a powerful politician and a Manhattan Democrat. She is trying to become the first female and first openly gay mayor of NYC. She has a background in progressive politics, but in the past has allied herself with Mike Bloomberg, staking out centrist positions on several key issues like paid sick days, the NYPD’s inspector general and the city’s relationship with real estate developers. Quinn lives in Chelsea with her wife, Kim Catullo.
S. Albanese - This Democrat is making a third bid for mayor, after politicking for City Hall twice before, back in 1997 and 2001. He was born in Italy, but Mr. Albanese moved to Park Slope with his family when he was a kid. Albanese worked as a public school teacher for nearly a decade before he was elected to the City Council in 1982. He represented Brooklyn for 14 years as a Democrat before stepping down to run his first mayoral campaign. Since leaving public office, he has worked in finance and law. Most recently as a managing director at Mesirow Financial. Albanese lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn with his wife Lorraine and their two daughters.
B. de Blasio, Bill is NYC Public Advocate and a Democrat, who represented Park Slope and its surrounding neighborhoods on the City Council for nearly a decade before he was elected Public Advocate back in 2009. Bill began his career working for ex-mayor David Dinkins and later on was instrumental in the Senate campaign of Democrat, Hillary Clinton. Bill De Blasio has two children with his wife, Chirlane McCray, who is a writer, a poet and feminist activist. Their teenage son is a public school student at Brooklyn Tech and their daughter is a college freshman.
J. Lahota - Joe Lhota, a member of the GOP left his post as MTA chairman three months ago to launch this campaign to run for City Hall. He knows the city well, following years as finance director and deputy to ex-Mayor Rudy Giuliani. He was born in The Bronx, is the son of a cop and the grandson of a firefighter and a cab driver, Lhota has also worked as an investment banker and an exec at Cablevision and Madison Square Garden. Lhota is a graduate of Georgetown University and Harvard Business School. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Tamra and has one daughter.
E. Salgado - Rev. Salgado is a social conservative minister who represents the fast-growing community of evangelical Hispanics. His church is located in in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, he has a radio ministry and his campaign claims a potential base of about 300,000. However, he has little money, with limited name recognition among NYC’s liberal precincts.
B. Thompson - Ex-City Controller Bill Thompson is trying for his second chance at the Democratic mayoral nomination, after winning the party’s nod, back in 2009 but he lost to losing to Mayor Bloomberg, despite winning an unexpectedly strong 46% of the vote. Thompson is 59 years old and has served two terms as controller. He also headed the Board of Education, which ran the city school system back in the good old days before mayoral control. He is from Bedford Stuyvesant, but now lives in Harlem with his third wife, Elsie McCabe. He has two stepchildren from a grown daughter.
J. Liu - NYC Controller John Liu is a Democrat and was elected to the City Council back in 2001 to represent northeast Queens, then re-elected in 2005. When he won the race for City Controller in 2009, he became the first Asian American elected to city-wide office. Liu’s campaign fundraising practices are under a US Justice Department investigation. Two of his fund-raisers have been arrested on charges of wire fraud and obstruction of justice. Liu was born in The Republic of China, but moved to Queens with his family as a kid. Liu lives with his wife, Jenny, and their son in Flushing.
J. Catsimatidis - John is a Republican and was born on the small Greek island of Nisyros.
He came to New York with his family as a baby. Catsimatidis grew up in Harlem, went to school Brooklyn at Tech High School. After dropping out of New York University, Catsimatidis opened up a successful grocery store on UWS that is now a mega supermarket empire. He is the owner and CEO of the Gristedes market chain. John has an estimated net worth of $3 billion. Catsimatidis and his wife Margo have two children.
G. McDonald - George McDonald is an ex-Democrat and “homeless advocate” as the longtime head of The Doe Fund, which hires formerly homeless people to help clean the streets. He is a native of Spring Lake, New Jersey and started the large non-profit in 1985 during a sharp rise in NYC homelessness. Since then, the group has grown into a $50-million organization that aims to provide work, housing and education to people with histories of incarceration, homelessness and substance abuse. Before starting the Doe Fund, McDonald worked as an executive in the apparel industry and as a campaign worker in New York Democratic politics. He switched parties last summer in preparation for his mayoral run. He is the father of four.
A. Carrión, Jr. - Adolfo served as Bronx Borough President from 2002 to 2009. In 2010, The Obama Administration named him regional director for HUD's New York and New Jersey Regional Office. However, Adolfo left HUD in February 2012. The former Democrat dropped his party affiliation last year and is not currently registered with a party. Adolfo is now running as the Independence Party’s nominee and also hopes to run in the Republican primary. He is married and has four children. A Carrión, Jr. is also our neighbor and a proud resident of City Island. He lives right here on City Island Avenue.
