The 2013 New York Mayoral Election is just around the corner! With so much anticipation and excitement around the race, here’s a closer look at the candidates and views for which they are most noted:
- Age: 49
- Democratic Party
- Current occupation: Former congressman
- Mr. Weiner has been involved in two sex scandals, the second one occurring after his return to politics as a candidate for this mayoral election. The New York Times even took the time to write an article dedicated to Weiner, calling for him to withdraw from the race. He is also quite confident in his political potential: “I’m convinced that I’m going to be the next mayor of this city,” he stated in an interview with the Today Show. If elected mayor, Weiner wants to implement single-payer, universal health care in New York City.
- Age: 51
- Democratic Party
- Current occupation: NYC public advocate
- You might recognize Bill de Blasio as the politician whose televised ad campaign stars his son sporting an afro. He was the star of a Twitter outbreak when he decided to support and keep a staff member of his campaign who sympathized with a killer and cursed the Police Department. He also has a bold idea to have universal prekindergarten, paid for by a tax on those earning more than $500,000. Below you can watch the ad for his campaign which highlights his half-African-American, half-Caucasian son.
- Age: 63
- Democratic Party
- Current occupation: NYC Councilman
- Mr. Albanese ran in the 1997 New York mayoral race, and got third place in the Democratic Primary. He would like to have variable toll prices on bridges, based on the hour of the day and availability of mass transit. He also wants to legalize and tax marijuana (and wrote a Huffington Post article about it), even though he himself doesn’t use the drug and and believes that people shouldn’t smoke it.
- Age: 46
- Democratic Party
- Current occupation: NYC Council speaker
- If Christine Quinn were to become mayor of New York, she would be the first female mayor, as well as the first openly gay mayor. One of her big ideas is building 80,000 new units of affordable housing. Her election campaign is largely focused around the middle class of New York.
- Age: 46
- Democratic Party
- Current occupation: NYC Comptroller
- John Liu was the first Asian-American to be elected to a city-wide office in New York City and would be the first Asian-American mayor if elected. Liu, like Albanese, wants to legalize and tax marijuana; just this past Wednesday he proposed a measure for its regulation. He would also like to raise the minimum wage to $11.50 an hour.
- Age: 43
- Democratic Party
- Current occupation: Minister
- Reverend Erick Salgado represents the growing community of evangelical Hispanics of our state, as his primary message of social conservatism appeals to Hispanic New Yorkers. If elected, he plans to create a city-issued identification card for undocumented immigrants.
- Age: 60
- Democratic Party
- Current occupation: Former NYC Comptroller
- Thompson was a candidate in the 2009 NYC mayoral election, losing to now Mayor Bloomberg by just 4.6%. He has pledged to not raise taxes and also to hire 2,000 new police officers to ensure more safety in the city.
- Age: 58
- Republican Party
- Current occupation: Former chief of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority
- As former chief of the MTA, Lhota called Mayor Bloomberg “an idiot” regarding his prediction surrounding the flooded midtown tunnel. He wants to transfer control of bridges and tunnels from the MTA to the city’s government. Lhota claimed that he is “not the anti-kitten candidate,” referring to a remark he made when he said he would not have stopped train service to rescue beloved subway kittens, August and Arthur.
- Age: 68
- Republican Party
- Current occupation: Founder of the Doe Fund
- As founder of the Doe Fund, McDonald is focused on helping less fortunate New Yorkers and building an inclusive community. His goal is to get the city to buy from local suppliers, but he may have jeopardized his chances of becoming mayor and accomplishing that goal when his campaign strategy broke the law.
- Age: 65
- Republican Party
- Current occupation: Owner of Gristedes
- Catsimatidis, a father of Andrea “AJ” Catsimatidis ’08, wants to bring the World’s Fair back to New York. He compared President Obama’s taxing the rich to the way “Hitler punished the Jews,” so his Holocaust analogy has been stirring up hype and debates. Take a look at Beyond 75th’s exclusive interview with John Catsimatidis by reporter Audrey Rapoport-Martiak ’15.
Ballots open on Tuesday; don’t forget to vote!
UPDATE Wednesday, September 11, 2013
John Lohta is the clear winner of votes in the Republican Primary, currently with 52% of the votes. Some votes still need to be accounted for due to the mayoral race’s hiatus in observance of 9/11, but these votes could not bring Lohta down to less than 40% of the votes.
If no candidate has 40% or more of the votes, there will be a run-off election, another round of voting, between the top two candidates. It is unclear at this point whether Bill de Blasio has avoided a run-off in the Democratic Primary, because he currently has 40.3% of the votes, which could potentially decrease to less than 40% with the tallying of the remaining votes. Take a look at The New York Times report on where the Primary votes currently stand.