Massey debates . . . & then quits
Just a couple of hours after participating in a mayoral debate, Republican candidate Paul Massey suddenly announced Wednesday that he’s dropping out of the race for City Hall.
Although he has already spent more than $4 million, the realestate executive said he didn’t believe he could raise the funds needed to oust Mayor de Blasio in a general election.
“Because of a confluence of things, I stopped seeing a path for fund-raising to a level I thought we would need to be a competitor,” he told The Post. “We had been talking about this for several days.
“There was a lot of back-and forth over strategy.”
Massey said he made the final decision Tuesday but that he decided to participate in a Crain’s New York Business debate at the Yale Club because he had already committed to it.
His departure left Staten Island state Assembly member Nicole Malliotakis as the leading GOP contender and also freed up Massey’s endorsement from the Independence Party.
Malliotakis told The Post she was caught off guard by her rival’s decision.
“I am very surprised,” she said. “We just had a spirited debate about the issues this morning . . . I’m now proud to go head-to-head with Bill de Blasio and hold him accountable for his failed leadership.”
Massey raised $5.7 million for the race, but $2.7 million came in the form of loans out of his own pocket.
More than a half-dozen consultants and firms earned sixfigure sums during his ninemonth campaign, raising the eyebrows of political veterans.
Several said it never quite seemed like Massey had his head or his heart in the game — particularly when he skipped out on the Celebrate Israel Parade earlier this month for a trip to France with his wife.
Massey, who didn’t rule out future political options, called the claim “ridiculous.”
“My heart was in it — and my heart’s still in it,” he said. Additional reporting by Carl Campanile yoav.gonen@nypost.com