Among GOP Mayoral Candidates, A Fight For $craps

Article by Matthew Hampton

In the crowded freshwater fish tank that is the 2013 New York City mayoral election, the Republicans have thus far been the bottom-feeders. 

Democratic candidates like Christine Quinn, John Liu and Bill de Blasio have been vacuuming up cash for months and months, not to mention Anthony Weiner, who has raised over $5 million without even doing anything for the last two years.
Between them, the major Democratic candidates for the mayor's office — including Weiner — have raised more than $20 million. 

The ten-gallon hat at the poker felt belongs to Quinn, whose estimated $6 million in cash on hand would be enough to buy and sell the campaigns of almost any Republican in the race at least half-a-dozen times over.

In fact, the three "marquee" GOP candidates — John Catsimatidis, George McDonald and Joe Lhota — have about as much cash on hand between them as Comptroller John Liu has by himself.

According to the most recent campaign filings, submitted May 15, dark horse Republican McDonald, of the DOE Fund, is actually indebt to the tune of nearly $30,000. His campaign has always been a longshot, but with numbers like these it would be more accurate to call it out-and-out lame. 

Catsimatidis, the Gristides billionaire, isn't hurting for cash himself, but with roughly a million dollars on hand after spending $800,000-plus, he's nothing compared to his liberal opponents. 

God help us if he decides he wants to spend his own money. Nothing could spare us from Ross Perot-style prime-time informercials. (Based on Catsimatidis' performance in the recent Park Slope candidates forum, it might be more entertaining than whatever is on CBS.)

Lhota, who right now is the front-runner among Republicans, has right around $850,000 to spend, a pittance compared to whichever Democratic candidate he'd likely face.

All of this means that the Democrats can throw money at each other all summer in advance of a knuckle-bloodying September primary, and still have plenty of scratch leftover for November's general election. 

New York is a different city now than it was when it first elected Republican Rudy Giuliani after decades of having Democrats in charge. And that's no more obvious than in the campaign filings.