DARK HORSE LEADING THE WAY
Malliotakis proves all the doubters wrong as she grabs GOP reins in mayor's race
Some Republicans assumed that Staten Island Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis wasn’t serious when she announced in April she was considering a run for mayor.
“There was the whole issue whether she was just raising her profile. People didn’t know if she was in, or she would drop out,” said Manhattan Republican Party Chairwoman Adele Malpass.
Two months later, the daughter of Greek and Cuban immigrants is the GOP’s presumptive nominee to take on Democratic incumbent Bill de Blasio after her chief primary rival, businessman Paul Massey, quit the race.
And in a short period of time, Malliotakis has proven she’s the real deal, Malpass said.
Malliotakis, 36, immediately filed papers declaring her candi- dacy, participated in forums, stumped across the city and won the additional backing of the Conservative Party.
“The [Republican] party is going to unite behind her. Over the last two months she has proven to be an energetic, knowledgeable campaigner who could make Bill de Blasio a one-term mayor,” Malpass said.
Malliotakis — who would be the city’s first female mayor — is familiar with being an underdog.
Her initial claim to fame is defeating former Democratic Assemblywoman Janele Hyer-Spencer — a close pal of former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver — in 2010 in a district that includes parts of Staten Island and southern Brooklyn.
“I was outspent 2¹/2-to-1 against Shelly Silver’s favorite member. I had no union support,” Malliotakis recalled.
“I defeated an incumbent once. We can do it again.”
Speaking of her Cuban mom and Greek dad who came to America without a command of the English language, she said, “This exemplifies how special America and New York City are. In one generation their daughter is running for mayor.” Her parents became American citizens in 1971.
The assemblywoman is happily single. “It’s difficult to find someone who wants to put up with my schedule,” she said.
Her favorite historical political figure is President Theodore Roosevelt, who also served as New York governor at the turn of the 20th century.
“Teddy Roosevelt was a reformer who always did what was right, regardless of party,” she said.
Malliotakis long ago was bitten by the political bug.
She was senior-class president at New Dorp HS, from which she graduated in 1998.
She served as an aide to former Gov. George Pataki, working on New York City issues, and also worked as a staffer to late Staten Island state Sen. John Marchi, who twice ran for mayor.
A graduate of Seton Hall University and Wagner College, Malliotakis also was employed for four years as a public-affairs manager for Con Edison before her election to the Assembly.
A fitness buff, Malliotakis is a yoga enthusiast who sponsors classes for the public in Midland Beach and Bay Ridge. She also bikes and has taken boxing-fitness classes in Albany.
As for the campaign ahead, Malliotakis promises to be a takecharge mayor — especially when it comes to fixing the transit mess.
“I would be on the phone today reaching out to the governor and [to MTA chief ] Joe Lhota making a financial commitment to the subway system,” she said.
She hit de Blasio on the homeless crisis, the failure to stop child abuse and for going soft on illegal immigrants who commit crimes.
She even used de Blasio’s “tale of two cities” theme to tweak him — when it comes to the “unfair” property-tax system.
“The value of my home is a little more than a third of Bill de Blasio’s, yet I’m paying more in property taxes,” said Malliotakis, vowing an overhaul.
During her debate against Massey before his withdrawal Wednesday, she showed her sense of humor.
Asked what her campaign slogan might be, she responded: “Get New York City out of the hole, so vote for Nicole,” eliciting laughs.
Paul Massey’s surprise withdrawal from the mayoral race clears Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis’ way to the Republican nomination and a vigorous challenge to Mayor de Blasio’s re-election. A primary fight is usually a good thing, toughening up the eventual winner for the final faceoff. If Massey had done nothing else, his early entry got the beat-de Blasio ball rolling — and, when Malliotakis jumped in despite his initially impressive fund-raising, she proved she won’t shy away from a fight.
Of course, he did do more. She’d do well to steal from the position papers his campaign rolled out. And, in our sitdown the other day, the real-estate entrepreneur showed he’d made real strides in gaining the very different skills of a candidate.
But he still has a businessman’s eye for the bottom line: In pulling out, Massey said he didn’t “see a path to raising the necessary funds to beat an incumbent mayor.”
He didn’t need to mention that this incumbent has spent most of his time in office building a large campaign war chest and a huge “favor bank” — by selling access to City Hall and showering public resources on all those he expects to help in the future.
Malliotakis will have to wage the same uphill fight, but she’s already shown the skill to help neutralize that advantage. She wasn’t just right to call out de Blasio for failing to go to — or even talk about — Tuesday’s Atrain derailment, she was smart to say what most New Yorkers were thinking.
Just as she’d slammed him days before for sauntering off to feed his national ambitions in Miami Beach over the weekend, even as mayoral control of the schools hangs in the balance.
The Republican has developed a spot-on critique of the mayor’s failings, from his deadly mismanagement to his self-indulgent national politicking to his naked abuse of his office to serve his selfish political ends.
Not to mention his ideological obsessions — which, as Reps. Dan Donovan and Peter King note on the opposite page, are now endangering the NYPD’s anti-terror funding.
In short, Malliotakis knows what angers New Yorkers most about this mayor: the sense that he only truly cares about himself and his abstract agenda, and doesn’t even try to work at solving the real problems of the real New York.
It’s going to be a fun race.