Can I 'count' on your vote?
Blas' census czar 'eyeing DA run'
Mayor de Blasio’s new census czar may be counting votes for her next election campaign, rather than Big Apple residents, stunned Democratic Party officials said.
Newly minted 2020 Census honcho Julie Menin is supposed to be finding ways to improve the city’s abysmal 60 percent participation rate in the every-10-year census by getting undocumented immigrants to participate.
But at the same time, she’s courting tony East Side political clubs to help solidify a future run for Manhattan district attorney, according to three borough district leaders.
“She’s doing this to build up her political relationships. Everyone assumes she took the job to brush up her political chops,” said one observer, who requested anonymity and said it’s an open secret that Menin plans to run for Manhattan DA in 2021.
“The city does have major underrepresentation problems with the census count in lower-income and immigrant neighborhoods. But the East Side of Manhattan doesn’t fall into either category.”
De Blasio tapped Menin for the gig in January to boost census turnout so the Big Apple doesn’t lose congressional seats or federal funding tied to population.
But Menin scheduler Marisa Redanty — an actress with credits on “Law & Order,” “30 Rock” and “The Sopranos,” among other Big Apple-based shows, and who is also active in political clubs — left messages for the East Side Democratic Club that seemed to mix official business with political glad-handing under the guise of census work, a tipster said.
“Hi . . . I’m Marisa Redanty. I work with Julie Menin at the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment. But we are now working on the census.
“I’m also a district leader, so, ‘Hi’ from Hell’s Kitchen Democrats,” Redanty says in a voicemail to one district leader obtained by The Post. It goes on to request an informational meeting with Menin.
“It was a political atmosphere as opposed to a civic atmosphere,” the observer said.
Menin denied she’s using the role as a political stepping stone, and said she had her staff call Republican and Democratic clubs after a handful of them had reached out for more information.
“I’m not running for office. I’m running the census,” she told The Post.
“Any assertion to the contrary is incorrect. We’ve done outreach with cultural groups, civic groups, political groups and immigration-rights groups all across the city.”
The average citywide participation in the census is 61.9 percent — compared with 76 percent nationwide. Participation in Midtown exceeded the city average, at 64.4 percent in 2010, while the East Side’s Murray Hill neighborhood reached 65.5 percent.