Category Archives: Mayoral Forums

Republican Lovefest (Updated)



The three Republican mayoral candidates faced off in a debate hosted by WABC-TV, and co-sponsored by Noticias 41 Univision, the Daily News and the League of Women Voters.  John Catsimatidis, Joe Lhota and George McDonald agreed on many issues and had a civil, friction-free debate.  (Some prior debates and forums, including a debate broadcast on NY1 on July 10th, have featured more fraught interactions.)  The debate was held on Friday, August 10th and will be broadcast on Sunday August 12th.

We spoke with each of the candidates immediately after the debate.  (Full video after the jump.) Continue reading Republican Lovefest (Updated)

Mayoral Forum: Laurelton Edition



Following a candidate forum hosted by the Concerned Citizens of Laurelton Civic Organization on August 1st, Anthony Weiner took questions from the press for a few minutes.  At times testy, he criticized the media’s focus on his sexting scandal.  He accurately noted that when a rival attacked him during the forum, the audience cheered not the attacking rival, but the moderator who demanded that the attacks cease.

Watch the full press availability.

Mayoral Forum: Friends of Rockaway Beach Edition (Updated x 2)



Friends of Rockaway Beach hosted a candidate forum on July 31st, with five mayoral candidates attending.

Update #2 – Anthony Weiner:

Here is Anthony Weiner’s full opening presentation.

Update #1 – International Coverage:

We spoke with a BBC reporter covering the forum about international interest in Anthony Weiner’s campaign.

Press Chases Weiner:

We’ll start our coverage with a quick look at the scene as Anthony Weiner concluded his presentation and, road show in tow, headed for the exit.

Be sure to see our extensive coverage of Rockaway’s post-Sandy recovery, here.

Mayoral Forum: Education, Arts and Culture Edition (Updated)



Teachers College, Columbia University (that’s the way they write their name, apparently), Young Audiences New York and One Percent for Culture hosted a mayoral candidate forum on July 30th focused on The Future of Education, Arts and Culture in New York City.

Update – Joe Lhota & the Brooklyn Museum:

In this excerpt, Joe Lhota discusses one of the more heated episodes of his time in the Giuliani administration.  As a deputy mayor, he led the Giuliani administration’s effort to force the Brooklyn Museum to remove a particular artwork which Giuliani and Lhota found deeply offensive.  In his current comments he acknowledges the legal defeat that he and the City suffered and that he “made a mistake.”  He goes on, however, to downplay the harshness of his attack at the time and, despite having tried to use the City’s role as the Brooklyn Museum’s landlord as leverage, to say that the City’s ownership of the land on which the Museum is located “had no bearing” on his approach.

To get you started, we have a couple of special, brief items:

Lhota v. Rudy

We captured Joe Lhota revealing a deep divide between Lhota and his opera-loving former boss.  Sort of.

An Experience That Turned You On … ?

In this excerpt, a moderator asks a candidate whether the candidate had any experience as a child that “turned you on as you hadn’t been turned on.”

Mayoral Candidate Forum: Bronx Community College (Updated x 2)



Bronx Community College hosted a mayoral candidate forum this evening.  Moderated by Errol Louis, in his 11th mayoral forum of the year, the forum featured separate panels with the Republican and Democratic candidates.

Update #2:  Weiner, The Audience & His Rivals

Anthony Weiner mostly succeeded with the audience, as shown in this report.  His rivals mounted several attacks on him, without success.

Update:  Weiner Media Availability

Here is Anthony Weiner’s full media availability following the forum, which runs about 4 minutes.  He repeats his continuing responses: what I did was wrong, it’s all behind me now, I’m not going to answer in detail and I want to talk about issues and don’t care what my competitors say.  (Note: The music you’ll hear was playing over the house sound system.)

Weiner Responds to Question of whether he uses “Facebook or Twitter”

The Democratic candidate segment featured a “Lightning Round” of yes/no and “pick A or B” questions intended to provide a peek into the candidates personalities.  The final question was not what Anthony Weiner was hoping for.

Republican Mayoral Tussle (Updated x 2)



This evening, NY1 hosted a Republican mayoral candidate debate.  NY1 graciously allowed us to watch the debate at their studio and to speak with the three candidates afterwards in the NY1 newsroom.  (Here is NY1’s coverage.)

Update #2 – JCats on JCats:

In this report, John Catsimatidis touts his dealings with elected officials of both parties as a significant reason to elect him as mayor.  He describes a meeting in December, 2012, with Governor Cuomo and Mayor Bloomberg in which they asked Catsimatidis to approach the Republican leadership in the U.S. Senate for eight votes in support of the then-pending Hurricane Sandy relief bills.  (On June 28th, we reported on similar comments by Catsimatidis, available here.)


Update – John & George:

John Catsimatidis and George McDonald displayed some personal friction at this evening’s debate.  We spoke with them about it afterwards.

Lhota on Democratic Voters

In our first report, we asked Joe Lhota why he thinks that Democratic voters would vote for him in the general election.  In the second part of our discussion he strongly rejects the idea that the last two mayors, both Republicans, were elected due to a sense of crisis among voters at the time which drove Democratic voters to abandon their party’s nominee.

Mayoral Forum: Sandy Recovery (Coney Island Edition)



On Thursday, approximately 20 groups from areas affected by Hurricane Sandy held a forum focused on recovery from Sandy and the future of New York City’s flood zone.

In this excerpt, John Catsimatidis describes being dispatched by Governor Cuomo and Mayor Bloomberg to ask the senate minority leader, U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell, to provide eight votes for the Sandy relief bills.

Mayoral Forum: Transportation Policy (Updated)



On June 19th, the University Transportation Research Center hosted a mayoral candidate forum focused on transportation policy.  The forum, at Baruch College, featured separate panels of Democratic and Republican candidates answering questions posed by a committee of experts.

Update:  In this report, we look at Anthony Weiner’s call for mayoral control of the MTA.

(In April, we spoke about this topic with John Liu, who offered a very different view.  Watch it here.)

In our first report, John Liu answers a question on the city’s capital budgeting and whether the Bloomberg administration’s current budget is realistic.

Queens Tech Policy Mayoral Forum (Updated x 2)



On June 17th, the Coalition for Queens, along with a number of other groups, hosted a Tech Policy Forum at the Museum of the Moving Image.

Update #2: – The “Most Important Question”

Candidates answer the “most important” questions – what phone and service provider do they use, and what is their favorite app?

Update:  Anthony Weiner and the SNAP Challenge

After the forum we spoke with Anthony Weiner about the SNAP, or Food Stamp, Challenge that he is participating in.  The challenge is to live for one week with all spending for food and meals limited to the average benefit amount for city residents enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.  That’s about $31 per person.

We’ll start our report with this exciting snippet in which Anthony Weiner’s forum standing strategy is stymied.