By William Lewis
John Catsimatidis is running strongly in the Republican primary election, to be held Sept. 10. He has been endorsed by former Republican Gov. George Pataki. His main opponent in that race is Joe Lhota, a former deputy mayor.
Catsimatidis has accomplished the American Dream. When he was in college, he began working in a family grocery store and built it into a supermarket chain which today is the Red Apple Group and Gristedes Foods. His career has exemplified the American free enterprise system.
In a recent interview, Catsimatidis gave his views on campaign issues. He favors having deputy mayors in each borough reporting to him about important developments. He does not think the borough presidents are enough. He wants city officials in charge who report directly to the mayor.
He opposes the Community Safety Act recently passed by the City Council. The act forbids a member of city government from classifying a criminal suspect according to race, sex, age or housing status, among other categories. Catsimatidis thinks this type of policy will hamper police efforts to combat crime.
One priority issue he intends to give a lot of attention to is the restoration of vocational high schools, where students, in addition to being taught academic subjects, are also taught trades such as electrical work, plumbing, car repair and woodwork. These schools worked well during the 1940s and ’50s. Catsimatidis believes bringing back these schools will have the effect of reducing the public school dropout rate.
He also intends to spend a lot of time overseeing contract negotiations with labor representatives. He has much experience in dealing with top labor contracts in his supermarket business. Catsimatidis, during his administration, would encourage foreign investment, which will bring more jobs to the citizens of the city, thereby reducing the jobless rate.
He intends to work on better police protection by hiring more police, possibly 4,000 new recruits. He wants to increase the use of modern technology in getting more effective crime fighting efforts and improving response time. He has a lot of respect for Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
Catsimatidis, as he indicated, is devoted to New York City. He wants it to continue to be a leading city of the country. He wants to make the city safe for everyone. He is concerned about our youth and elderly.
Considering the political realities of the situation, the Democratic enrollment is considerably higher than that of Republicans in New York City. Yet in spite of this, Republicans have won the mayoral position since 1993. That means 20 years of Republican rule under the leadership of Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg.
When we look at Queens, Democrats control all elective offices except two Council seats. In Manhattan and the Bronx, there are no Republicans holding elective office. Yet when it comes to electing a mayor, a significant number of Democrats will vote Republican.
We have had a long primary campaign lasting from January. It has been a hard-fought race in both political parties and will continue to be so up to Primary Day.
In New York City, the mayor’s race has always attracted a lot of attention and will continue to do so this year.
As we are living through difficult economic times, we need an effective leader as mayor.
