GOP Fights for Foothold in Big Apple
Running as a Republican for the New York City Council is either a very brave or very foolish thing to do, depending on your point of view. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans five to one citywide, and Democrats control 48 of the 51 Council seats. Republican candidates face a steep uphill climb against negative stereotypes, low name recognition, and scarce campaign resources.
This year, however, there are a number of Republicans who have faced down these challenges to become candidates for the City Council. Among them are first-time candidates like Joshua Goldberg.
Goldberg is running in District 6, which encompasses what some Republicans jokingly refer to as the People's Republic of the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Restoring balance to city government is certainly an element of Goldberg's candidacy, but the issue that motivates his campaign is term limits. Goldberg puts himself in a tough position by standing against Mayor Michael Bloomberg on this issue. Bloomberg backed the City Council's 2008 vote to repeal a twice-passed voter referendum that limited elected officials to two terms. Bloomberg is likely to win the third term he is seeking, but Goldberg stands firm on the issue.
"There is a definite backlash, whether you're for term limits or not," he says, adding that personally he is against term limits. "But the people have spoken. The fact that it was repealed goes against the sense of fair play."
Bob Capano, Republican city council candidate in Brooklyn, is concerned with the council's profligate spending and the taxes and fees that hit small businesses and residents in his community.
"My opponent is part of the problem," Capano says of Democratic incumbent Vincent Gentile. "He's been in the cocoon of elected office."
Gentile has a level of name recognition that Capano admits is one of his biggest challenges, but Capano's race is one of the most competitive City Council races this year. He ran an unsuccessful race for the area’s state assembly seat in 2008, but he won portions of the assembly district that overlap with his current city council district. “That’s how I knew my message would resonate with voters in the city council race.”
Eric Ulrich has further proof that his own message resonates with voters. After all, he is a rarity in New York City, a Republican incumbent. The 24-year-old became the City Council’s youngest member in February by winning a special election to fill the seat vacated by a local Democrat who had moved on to the state senate.
Ulrich has been busy in the short time he has been in elected office. He has helped spearhead a graffiti clean-up effort and he secured $1 million in funding for libraries in his district.
"Very few of the people accomplish what they set out to do. I did,” says Ulrich. “So I'm asking the voters to give me another shot. You saw what I could do in seven months. Imagine what I can do in four years."
Liam McCabe, Ulrich’s campaign manager, likens the campaign’s strategy to establishing a beachhead. The wartime analogy is apt for all Republican candidates in New York City.
"We've got to change our game. We have to go after traditionally non-conservative, non-Republican groups,” says McCabe "Republican candidates always say ‘we're not going to go campaign there because they won't vote for us.’ But there's a flip side. The people of those communities say 'we're not going to vote for you because you're not coming here.’ You have to keep going back. You lose, but then you lose by a little less. And then eventually, you win.”