John Catsimatidis was endorsed today by the New York Veteran Police Association. Catsimatidis discussed many campaign topics at a press conference announcing the endorsement.
At the press conference, Courtney Gross of NY1 asked Catsimatidis about the news that David Koch and his wife Julia have contributed $290,000 to a PAC supporting Joe Lhota. (David Koch (pronounced “Coke”), and his brother Charles, are major funders of right-wing political groups.) Here’s how Catsimatidis responded.
Update – Criticizing Lhota:
In a recent ad, Not Even Close, Catsimatidis criticized Lhota for essentially being meaner than Rudy Giuliani, Lhota’s former boss and prominent endorser. As I noted yesterday in reporting on my discussion with Lhota, the premise that Giuliani was a nice guy is, at best, a gauzy and inaccurate rendering of history.
Today I asked Catsimatidis how the notion in his ad reconciles with Giuliani’s sharp temper. In response, Catsimatidis went right to the point that, in his words, Lhota has a temper, and brought up Lhota’s run-in with Charles Moerdler, an MTA board member whom Lhota harshly rebuked at an MTA board meeting. Catsimatidis has used this incident in a campaign mailer and ad. As I pointed out to Catsimatidis, Moerdler has described Catsimatidis’s use of the incident as having “given a whole new meaning to the word sleaze.” Catsimatidis then added a new assertion.