With the Democratic candidates for mayor pretty well locked up, much has been made about who will run on the other side. There have been lots of rich people pushing for Police Commissioner Ray Kelly to make a go for it, and billionaire John Catsimatidis has expressed interest if Kelly declines, but there are others! What would you think our current Mayor's girlfriend Diana Taylor made a go for Gracie Mansion? She's has been wanting to spend a night there and previously mulled a Senate run—and it appears that GOPers have noticed.
The chairmen of New York City's five Republican county organizations recently got together for a powwow and wrote a letter about it in which they discuss some of the pols they've considered supporting. And besides Kelly they are—desperate drum roll, please—"Diana Taylor, the former banking commissioner and girlfriend of Mayor Michael Bloomberg; Dick Grasso, the former head of the New York Stock Exchange and devoted critic of former governor Eliot Spitzer; State Senator Marty Golden of Brooklyn; former Democratic city councilwoman and charter-school-network founder Eva Moskowitz; and former Bronx borough president Adolfo Carrion, a Democrat who has veered from Democratic orthodoxy on economic and housing issues."
Another option the group is mulling? Persuading publisher Tom Allon, already announced as a Democratic candidate, to switch parties and run with the GOP. Catsimitidis, however, thinks Allon should make a run for Manhattan Borough President first. And speaking of the Cats, GOP leaders believe the supermarket owner "has developed a strong relationship with the Chairs based not only on his consistent support for party building efforts and for local GOP candidates, but also for his friendship, advice and counsel to all the chairmen."
The group of Republican leaders hope to settle on a candidate before the fall, so there is "plenty of time to prepare a campaign against the eventual Democrat nominee, who is certain to be to the left of the average city voter." The "average city voter"? Though NYC has had a Republican mayor since Giuliani time, it's not for nothing that registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans here by more than six to one. Here the average IS on the left.
