Sliwa mayoral candidacy radical shift in NYC politics

[Gefn]

The Mayoral Candidate with a Mouth That Roars
Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee, expects his opponent to paint him as racist, sexist, and homophobic. But he’s ready to strike back.

It is a strange moment in New York politics. A once popular governor who won election three times has stepped down in disgrace, leaving his lieutenant to serve out the rest of his term. Locally, it is easy to forget that a mayoral race is under way, one that pits a former N.Y.P.D. officer with a war chest of many millions against a community activist with less than six hundred thousand dollars in campaign funding. That might not sound so odd, until one realizes that the cop is the Democratic nominee, and that the activist is the Republican.

Curtis Sliwa, the Republican challenger to Eric Adams, has little chance of being elected mayor of New York City, where there are roughly seven times as many registered Democrats as there are Republicans. But his candidacy is a radical shift in city politics. Republican mayoral nominees are usually corporate types, or those with backgrounds in government or law enforcement. Sliwa’s experience with government and law enforcement mainly stems from his fights at City Hall and his many arrests over the years.

In 1979, when Sliwa was twenty-three years old and working as the night manager at a McDonald’s on Fordham Road, in the Bronx, he founded the Guardian Angels, a volunteer safety patrol. At the time, crime in the city was soaring: there were roughly seventeen hundred murders that year—a more than fifteen-per-cent spike from the year before—and robberies were also spiralling. The subways, in particular, were the site of many felonies.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/the-mayoral-candidate-with-a-mouth-that-roars

[Gefn]

I remember him in the radio, but I had no idea he likes cats. Let alone supports no kill shelters.

[Kamaji]

I've seen him periodically on the subway.  He gets around just like every other schmuck; without a entourage.

[Bigun]

It would be damned near impossible to elect someone worse than the current mayor IMHO.

[sneakypete]

I am not going to be surprised if he wins. He might not have much money,but the denizens of NYC  damn sure know who he is,and most likely can identify with him.

Of course,if he doesn't have a staff that is VERY knowledgeable about politics and dirty tricks,the Dims will eat him alive.