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Friday, March 29, 2024

Lhota Stands Tall to Uproar

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Joseph J. Lhota, 59, chairman and CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and the Republican nominee in the 2013 election to become Mayor of New York City.
Joseph J. Lhota, 59, chairman and CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and the Republican nominee in the 2013 election to become Mayor of New York City.
When the streets of New York shriek with fear about how unfair Joe Lhota is, you know it’s a signpost he’s doing something right.

What could have caused so much rage?  A new 30-second Lhota ad on “Bill de Blasio’s recklessly dangerous agenda on crime,” according to the New York Post.  It portrays the West Side Highway motorcycle catastrophe that terrorized an innocent family as it notes de Blasio’s response: “Visit motorcycle clubs and talk to bikers.”  The ad ends with lugubrious and pitiful images of a dismal New York of the 1990s imploring voters not to let de Biaso “take New York backwards.”

The reaction has been as expected.  “It’s desperate.  It’s divisive.  It’s inappropriate,” laments de Blasio, according to the New York Post.  Democratic candidate Letitia James calls it “hateful” and “dog-whistle politics.”  Others draw comparisons to the Willie Horton ad that George H.W. Bush ran against Mike Dukakis.  In this occasion Horton, a convicted murderer, raped a woman on a weekend program supported by Gov. Dukakis.

This uproar means only one thing.  Lhota has penetrated a poignant issue with real merit, and the critics can only rebuke with no debate, just shouts of hysteria.  De Blasio’s history of criticism towards the stop-and-frisk strategy has been instrumental with helping Ray Kelly and his police force decrease the occurrences of violence in this city to record lows.  De Blasio has made it clear that if elected mayor, he will have new police policies, and likely even a different commissioner.

Lhota’s ad hones in on the differences in both parties, and that’s what makes a political campaign effective.  De Blasio attempts to put an end to police policies that have proved to work acting as though it will cause no changes in crime.  Lhota believes if you change the police’s policies, the streets will appear as they did in the 1990s when crime was running rampant.

Whether you are shouting with the best of them, or in quiet tacit agreement, this political ad has demonstrated the risks if this city elects a mayor whose main target is one of America’s most successful police force.  As Lhota’s critics gain volume in their disapproval, you know only one thing; the truth will be even louder.

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