Zablocki Runs For Advocate To Reign In Liberal Council
July 17th,
2009
Serving
as
public
advocate
is
supposed
to be
about
causing
trouble
for the
mayor
and
others
in
government.
But already just by what he has done in running for the job, 26-year-old GOP candidate Alex Zablocki has caused trouble between his boss, State Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island), and Bloomberg administration officials who called to complain about Zablocki’s criticizing the mayor for cutting the public advocate’s budget by 40 percent, according to a person with knowledge of the call.
That kind of pushback has not deterred Zablocki, who is running a spirited long-shot campaign for an office that has only been held by progressive Democrats. Even the people who ran on the GOP line for public advocate in 1993 and 1997 were registered Democrats.
“I’m probably the first real Republican to ever run for this office,” he said.
Running as a Republican for an office that is in many ways the official incarnation of the Democratic platform—more city services, expanded rights for New Yorkers—may seem counterintuitive.
But Zablocki wants to turn the position on its head, using it to curb the excesses of the liberal City Council rather than the broad powers of an often dominant mayor.
“With a City Council that’s overwhelmingly Democratic,” he said, “and a mayor that could one day be a Democrat—although a mayor that’s right now independent—you really need an independent voice in city government.”
Zablocki said he has been fighting to convince people, particularly members of his own party, that the public advocate can in fact be a Republican.
“It’s just a Democratic position because we live in a Democratic city and Mark Green was the public advocate for eight years, and people have ‘Democrat’ stamped all over it,” he said.
The campaign itself has had its share of setbacks. Raising money has been a chore, with a significant chunk of the little money he has raised coming from people also named Zablocki.
He has also had to forfeit the Conservative Party line because of his stance on gay marriage—he supports it—and lost his one chance at a newspaper endorsement when the New York Post called for eliminating the public advocate’s office. (Zablocki got into an argument with one Post reporter after the paper questioned why a Republican candidate would not want to eliminate the office as well.)
Those disappointments have at least freed Zablocki to run as a Republican who might be palatable to the city’s overwhelmingly Democratic electorate, and assure them that he is not, in fact, a fringe candidate.
“I’m not coming from some right-wing, non-compassionate type of views some people have of Republicans,” said the Staten Island native. “I’m a regular person from Richmondtown, right here in New York City.”
http://www.cityhallnews.com/news/128/ARTICLE/2031/2009-07-17.html
But already just by what he has done in running for the job, 26-year-old GOP candidate Alex Zablocki has caused trouble between his boss, State Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island), and Bloomberg administration officials who called to complain about Zablocki’s criticizing the mayor for cutting the public advocate’s budget by 40 percent, according to a person with knowledge of the call.
That kind of pushback has not deterred Zablocki, who is running a spirited long-shot campaign for an office that has only been held by progressive Democrats. Even the people who ran on the GOP line for public advocate in 1993 and 1997 were registered Democrats.
“I’m probably the first real Republican to ever run for this office,” he said.
Running as a Republican for an office that is in many ways the official incarnation of the Democratic platform—more city services, expanded rights for New Yorkers—may seem counterintuitive.
But Zablocki wants to turn the position on its head, using it to curb the excesses of the liberal City Council rather than the broad powers of an often dominant mayor.
“With a City Council that’s overwhelmingly Democratic,” he said, “and a mayor that could one day be a Democrat—although a mayor that’s right now independent—you really need an independent voice in city government.”
Zablocki said he has been fighting to convince people, particularly members of his own party, that the public advocate can in fact be a Republican.
“It’s just a Democratic position because we live in a Democratic city and Mark Green was the public advocate for eight years, and people have ‘Democrat’ stamped all over it,” he said.
The campaign itself has had its share of setbacks. Raising money has been a chore, with a significant chunk of the little money he has raised coming from people also named Zablocki.
He has also had to forfeit the Conservative Party line because of his stance on gay marriage—he supports it—and lost his one chance at a newspaper endorsement when the New York Post called for eliminating the public advocate’s office. (Zablocki got into an argument with one Post reporter after the paper questioned why a Republican candidate would not want to eliminate the office as well.)
Those disappointments have at least freed Zablocki to run as a Republican who might be palatable to the city’s overwhelmingly Democratic electorate, and assure them that he is not, in fact, a fringe candidate.
“I’m not coming from some right-wing, non-compassionate type of views some people have of Republicans,” said the Staten Island native. “I’m a regular person from Richmondtown, right here in New York City.”
http://www.cityhallnews.com/news/128/ARTICLE/2031/2009-07-17.html
