Dad’s support may hurt Andrew’s bid for gov
This is the first in a four-part series examining the major candidates running in New York’s Republican primary for governor. Primary Day is June 28.
On a recent spring day, just steps from New York’s City Hall, Andrew Giuliani stood with his father, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and the former Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa, inveighing about crime and the district attorneys elected to prosecute criminals.
He railed against the “defund the police” movement and vowed to restore funding to departments throughout New York State. He decried bail reform. And he promised that, if elected, he would move to recall prosecutors who have taken an approach that he views as far too soft on criminals.
Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan DA, would be his first target.
“On day one of my administration, I will remove Alvin Bragg or any of the other 61 district attorneys in the State of New York,” Giuliani said. “Alvin Bragg has failed his oath of office, so we would absolutely remove him.”
Bragg, who rode into office in January after running on a platform of criminal justice reform, became a favored target for Republicans earlier this year after issuing a memo stating, among other things, that prosecutors should not bring armed robbery charges as long as the suspect “didn’t create a genuine risk of physical harm.”
Bragg later walked back parts of the memo, but for many Republicans, the bell could not be unrung.
Despite the City Hall backdrop on the day he spoke against Bragg, Andrew Giuliani is not running for mayor like his father before him. He’s running for governor.
But he is campaigning on a platform much like his father’s, and he’s hoping his run will have enough resonance among enough Democrats concerned about rising crime to get him elected.
New York State is dominated by Democrats, and Giuliani, if he’s successful in the Republican primary, will need to peel away enough of their votes to win the governorship.