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.)

The short items we’ve posted here point to an intriguing intersection of the three candidates.

George McDonald:

George McDonald is the founder and CEO of the Doe Fund.  As a major social services provider, he has dealt extensively with the past four mayors and their administrations.  I asked McDonald whether he had interacted with Joe Lhota during the Giuliani administration, when Lhota was Budget Director and Deputy Mayor for Operations.  McDonald gave a brief, interesting overview of his interactions with the Koch, Dinkins and Giuliani administrations.

Here is McDonald’s full press availability.

Joe Lhota:

In this excerpt, Lhota responds to a question from the NY Post’s Sally Goldenberg on whether he is seeking Mayor Bloomberg’s endorsement.

Here is Lhota’s full press availability.

John Catsimatidis:

During the debate, John Catsimatidis made reference to an episode during the Giuliani administration in which, by his description, the administration “stole” a $40 million social services contract from Hanac, a charity Catsimatidis was affiliated with.  (Reporting on the episode can be found here, here and here.)  I asked Catsimatidis about it after the debate.

Here is Catsimatidis’s full press availability.