New York Metropolis Republican leaders are blasting a marketing campaign to steer get together members to re-enroll as Democrats to vote within the main election for mayor on June 24.
Voters have till Feb. 14 to alter their get together standing.
“This year, NYC will hold a critical election to decide who will lead our city forward, but many New Yorkers do not realize that the election that is almost certain to choose the next mayor is not the general election but the Democratic primary on June 24, 2025,” mentioned a letter not too long ago despatched to Republican and impartial voters by the group Be Counted NYC, headed by Lisa Blau.
One of many recipients of the letter was state Assemblyman Michael Tannousis, who additionally occurs to be chairman of the Staten Island Republican Social gathering.
“Democratic leaders in New York City are resorting to sleight-of-hand tricks to deceive New Yorkers into switching their party registration back to the Democratic Party,” Tannousis instructed The Submit. “But the truth is clear: lifelong Democrats are fleeing because the party no longer stands for public safety, economic prosperity, and the hardworking people of this city.”
He mentioned it’s the Democratic model that’s tarnished, not the GOP.
President Trump gained the White Home and Republicans management the Home of Representatives.
The GOP, although nonetheless closely outnumbered by registration numbers in New York, have made deep inroads within the suburbs and even components of town in current election cycles.
Critics contend it wasn’t that way back that Rudy Giuliani and Mike Bloomberg mixed gained the mayoralty for 5 consecutive phrases mixed as Republicans, from 1994 to 2013.
Council Republican Minority Chief David Carr additionally urged fellow Republicans to carry agency.
“When I opined about this campaign as a candidate in 2021 in the pages of [the New York Post], I urged fellow Republicans to stay the course because this city was poised for a red wave. And that’s certainly come to fruition,” Carr, who represents components of Staten Island, mentioned.
“The unprecedented surge of GOP votes in November’s election has proven that Republicans are not only viable in New York City, they are ascendant. Rather than wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to convert more voters to the party that just lost the confidence of the American public, Be Counted NYC should be trying to register more Republicans to join this movement.”
In accordance with state Board of Elections data, Blau, the spouse of Associated Corporations CEO Jeff Blau, has personally contributed greater than $573,000 to encourage Republicans and voters not registered with a celebration to re-enroll as a Democrat.
It’s the second time Blau’s Be Counted group has mounted a party-switching marketing campaign to broaden the voting pool within the Democratic Social gathering. The group despatched letters and textual content messages forward of the 2020 mayoral marketing campaign as effectively.
Blau declined a request for remark.
However Be Counted isn’t the one group pushing extra reasonable to conservative Republicans and impartial voters to re-register as Democrats earlier than the June 24 municipal main elections that embody council races in addition to the mayoralty.
The Jewish Voters Motion Community additionally is attempting to get impartial and Republican Jewish voters and others to formally change to the Democratic Social gathering, to allow them to take part within the closely Democratic main races amid an area rise in antisemitism.
Whereas his group is non-partisan, Litwack, throughout a current interview, mentioned he desires to counter politicians who don’t take antisemitism severely or who toe the road of the lefty anti-Israel Democratic Socialists of America. The DSA sponsored an anti-Israel rally in Occasions Sq. a day after Hamas attacked Israel and slaughtered 1,200 individuals on Oct. 7, 2023.
One of many candidates for mayor, Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani of Queens, is a DSA member whose candidacy was endorsed by the DSA.
