This guy is just getting desperate:
http://www.nydailynews.com/...
In two back to back television appearances Wednesday morning, Republican mayoral candidate Joe Lhota was grilled about why, in contrast to Democrat Bill de Blasio, he doesn’t feature his family in campaign ads and on the trail.
“[Bill de Blasio] is using his family because he has no policies,” Lhota told anchors Greg Kelly and Rosanna Scotto on Good Day New York. “He has a wonderful family, and he uses that to get across that he’s a nice guy. Listen, being a nice guy doesn’t make you anywhere close what you need to be as mayor.”
De Blasio has featured his son, Dante, 16, and his daughter, Chiara, 18, as the stars of two campaign commercials. His wife, Chirlane McCray, is a constant presence at his side on the trail.
Lhota said his wife, Tamra, and his daughter, Kathryn, are private people. And he plans to keep it that way. Tamra Lhota, a former fundraiser for Mayor Rudy Giuliani, has been working behind the scenes on her husband's campaign. - New York Daily News, 10/23/13
Oh really? If de Blasio doesn't have any policies to run, then why is Lhota attacking his policies?
http://www.nydailynews.com/...
For all the fireworks, the debate appeared unlikely to alter the race, which de Blasio leads by a wide margin.
The two combatants also rehashed arguments over stop-and-frisk policing and charter schools.
Lhota said de Blasio’s plan to hike taxes on the rich to fund universal pre-K is “dead on arrival” due to Gov. Cuomo’s opposition. “He makes promises that he knows he can’t keep,” Lhota said.
De Blasio insisted, “We can go to Albany with the wind in our sails” and get the plan passed, but he did not answer what he would do if his tax hike is not approved. - New York Daily News, 10/22/13
By the way, I guess Lhota doesn't read the New York Times because they just discussed de Blasio's populist campaign:
http://www.nytimes.com/...
He talks about sharing the wealth. He is pro-tenant and anti-landlord. He wants to tax the rich to help the poor. He stands solidly in support of undocumented immigrants. He sides with workers over employers. He backs the teachers’ union in its struggles with the charter school movement. He supports programs to ensure that every New Yorker eligible for food stamps, health care, income security and social services gets on the rolls, effectively resurrecting the welfare rights movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The de Blasio platform, “One New York, Rising Together,” is a remarkable document, a statement of left principles rarely heard of from a major politician in recent decades.
Battling inequality will “be at the very center of our vision for the next four years” de Blasio, who leads his Republican opponent, Joe Lhota, 68-24, in recent polling, says in his platform. There’s more:
■ “New York City spends too many dollars in one-off deals for large, well-connected corporations.”
■ “Bill de Blasio believes that crime reduction and public safety are not served by aggressively pursuing incarceration of nonviolent offenders — particularly when cases demand rehabilitative and holistic multi-agency responses.”
■ “Gentrification, unscrupulous landlords, and the real estate lobby’s hold on government have pulled tens of thousands of apartments out of rent stabilization, and more are lost every year.”
■ “Nearly 400,000 millionaires call New York home, while nearly half of our neighbors live at or near the poverty line.”
■ “No family should ever be hungry in our city, and Bill de Blasio will work relentlessly to expand enrollment for eligible households to income and food assistance programs.” - New York Times, 10/22/13
By the way, Lhota wasn't the only one to attack de Blasio's policies:
http://www.nydailynews.com/...
Former Gov. Mario Cuomo said Tuesday that he had joined forces with a group that opposes the construction of a waste transfer station on the upper East Side — a project that de Blasio supports.
In an interview with the Daily News on Tuesday, Mario Cuomo, 81, pointed out that the E. 91 St. site of the proposed waste transfer station is in a densely populated residential neighborhood and next to Asphalt Green, a popular athletic field.
“The challenge is to find a way to get rid of the garbage without getting rid of a beautiful neighborhood, or giving it damage that it needn’t have,” Mario Cuomo said.
“I believe there must be a more intelligent way than simply saying, ‘Too bad, you’re going to have a dump.’”
The waste transfer station was proposed by the Bloomberg administration as part of a plan to change how the city handles its garbage.
Most of the city’s garbage is transported by truck to transfer points in the South Bronx, Jamaica, Queens and northern Brooklyn. The trash is shipped from those sites out of state.
De Blasio says the location of the transfer station on E. 91 St. would end a “history of unfairness” — the location of all transfer stations in poorer neighborhoods in the outer boroughs. - New York Daily News, 10/23/13
Here's another sign that Lhota is really starting to crack:
http://gawker.com/...
In Tuesday night’s mayoral debate, Republican candidate Joe Lhota resorted to loud voices, eye rolls, and Rudy Giuliani-worship to prove that he deserves to be mayor of New York City. On the other side of the stage, Democratic candidate Bill de Blasio called out Lhota’s campaign for “race-baiting,” then stepped back watched Lhota self-destruct.
Lhota, after justifying why he called Mayor Bloomberg an idiot (“I call it the way I see it”), then made the claim that he’s done “nothing but work with people and bring them together.” To counter this, de Blasio asked about Lhota’s recent smear campaign that highlights New York City's history of racial unrest. Lhota defended the ad’s racial undertones and, like any good Republican, used the phrase “race card” a few times.
And then Lhota finally lost his mind because de Blasio had the nerve to “impugn” St. Giuliani. When de Blasio pointed out that Giuliani had actually divided the people of New York City, Lhota, shocked by this accusation, screeched, “What color is the sky in your planet?” Then he mumbled the word “impugn” one final time before giving up. - Gawker, 10/22/13
Way, way down in the polls, Lhota has no choice but to attack de Blasio:
http://politicker.com/...
Trailing by more than 40 points in public polls, the Republican mayoral candidate appears to have hit a reset button on his campaign, ratcheting up criticism of his rival, Bill de Blasio, following last night’s spirited debate.
In a fiery speech today in front of a real estate group, Mr. Lhota further demonstrated his new confidence.
He began with a thinly veiled joke about his opponent’s plan to raise taxes.
“When you think about the billions of dollars in revenue that your buildings provide for the City of New York [it] is extraordinary. But I want you to think about this: you’d be giving a lot more if my opponent wins,” he quipped to the Building Owners and Managers Association of New York.
He went on to attack Mr. de Blasio, contrasting his management experience with his opponent’s and threatening a return to the bad old days of crime if Mr. de Blasio is elected mayor. - Politicker, 10/23/13
While Lhota cracks under pressure and continues his campaign of lies and fear, de Blasio is picking up press endorsements:
http://observer.com/...
We like his focus on affordable housing and job creation—they are two of the most-important issues his administration will face. On housing, we’re concerned that to this point it’s just vague rhetoric. If he really wants to lower the cost of housing production and build more affordable housing, he will need to consider new labor work rules; simply imposing requirements on builders is not sufficient. But he’s absolutely right when he says we need to get more federal money for our infrastructure needs. He must also be a forceful advocate in Albany, where our governor seems to take the city for granted as he looks to build his brand upstate. Mr. de Blasio sounds sincere when he says that he wants to make the city an easier place to do business. We’ve made progress toward that goal since the 1990s, but there’s a lot more work to be done.
Despite his criticism of the city’s stop-and-frisk campaign, Mr. de Blasio knows that his administration will be judged a failure—and the city will take many steps backward—if crime begins to rise again over the next four years. As mayor, we believe he’ll be practical, not ideological, in dealing with public safety issues.
We’re concerned about his sympathy with the city’s public employee unions—many of which endorsed other candidates in the primary but all of which will be expecting big raises in next year’s contract talks—and his antipathy for charter schools. It’s imperative that he hear all points of view before making critical decisions on these two issues.
So our support is cautious, but hopeful. But we do believe he is the right choice for New York in 2013. - New York Observer, 10/22/13
http://chelseanow.com/...
As the city’s public advocate, de Blasio knows full well the challenges he will face when negotiating long overdue contracts with the municipal unions. His pro-labor outlook should give him a much better chance to get the unions to accept less than all of the retroactive raises as well as the health and pension benefits that they are expecting.
His main opponent, Republican Joe Lhota, the former deputy mayor under Rudy Giuliani, has run a misguided, lackluster campaign, which calls into question his credentials as an administrator.
We’ve heard irrelevant talk from Lhota about the Sandinistas, and suggestions that de Blasio somehow wants to take us back to the dark, crime-riddled days of the ‘70s and ‘80s.
The reality is that de Blasio has made it clear that one of his top contenders to become police commissioner is Bill Bratton. The best commissioner under Giuliani, it was actually Bratton’s successors who helped feed Giuliani’s well-deserved reputation for being the most divisive mayor in recent history.
Lhota would likely be somewhat of a departure from Giuliani, but not enough for our comfort.
At last week’s debate, he said one of the most valuable lessons he learned from Giuliani was developing a “message of the day” that applied to the entire administration. The practical effect of this policy was that city agencies feared disclosing the most rudimentary information to the public or press, lest they incur the wrath of City Hall.
Chelsea Now endorses Bill de Blasio for mayor November 5. - Chelsea Now, 10/23/13
The election is Tuesday, November 5th. If you would like to donate or get involved with de Blasio's campaign, you can do so here:
http://www.billdeblasio.com/