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John Catsimatidis is hoping to follow in Mayor Bloomberg's footsteps by becoming a Democrat who follows the path of least resistance into Gracie Mansion. The owner of the Gristedes supermarket chain has millions of dollars to burn and would like to become the Mayor of New York City. Even for a lifelong Democrat like Catsimatidis, the easiest road to City Hall is to bypass the scrum of party politics and simply get oneself elected as a Republican in a heavily Democratic city. Green apparently beats both red and blue in the media center of the world, and it's possible for enough cash to overcome many obstacles.
Mayor Bloomberg's office cost about $100 a vote in his bid to be elected Mayor. He spent $73 million and $85 million to be elected and re-elected, respectively. John Catsimitadis says that he is willing to outspend Mayor Mike during his campaign if necessary. Good luck to Democratic opponents looking to raise that type of money, no matter how many rubber chicken dinners they host.
Catsimitadis has not formally announced his intent to run for office, but did switch from a registered Democrat who donated a lot of money to the Clintons, to the Republican party. With a never ending stream of multi-millionaire, or -billionaire, Democratic candidates at the ready to run for Mayor as Republicans, we're not sure which party should be more happy, angry, or confused.
The number of Gristedes supermarkets in the city have been decreasing over the last decade, but Catsimatadis' wealth has grown as real estate and oil prices have soared.
(Groceries, by triborough at flickr)
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I'm confused as to why it's easier to run as a Republican than a Democrat ... in the end, can't you buy your way into the mayor's office regardless of party affiliation?
On a related note, it's disgusting that this works at all. People don't educate themselves and vote for a candidate they believe in. They just vote for whichever one sticks himself on TV the most. Faaaantastic ...
Recently, Republicans haven't put up a serious Republican candidate because they're generally doomed. No one wants to expend the time, energy, or political capital on a born loser in the heart of the Blue States.
Getting the Democratic nomination can be time consuming and involve making all sorts of promises to groups that will hamstring a Mayor once elected. It's just easier to buy oneself a nomination across the aisle and then blow tens of millions on media. It's sad that this is the state of affairs, but NYC has seen far worse.
Hopefully this guy won't further cut funding for feeding the homeless (ahem Bloomberg ahem).
this picture of a gristedes bag with a back drop of a garbage bag is ridiculous. who came up with that?
What passes for a politician in this town is almost as sad as what passes for a supermarket.
It's easier for a decently strong, moderate Republican to get elected Mayor because Democrats outnumber Republican in NYC about 4 to 1, which makes it difficult to get Dems to unite because there are so many interests for them to cater to. Even after a primary, many losing Democratic candidates continue to run (usually on smaller issues) rather than lining up to support the Dem primary winner. They end up splitting Dem votes about three ways, which allows any sort of reasonable Republican to win by getting all Repub votes plus a decent number of Independents and some Dems.
#4 What's more ridiculous is the twin towers on the bag...