By Gary Tilzer
Businessman John Catsimatidis is truly a man who loves NYC which has given him a good living, the American Dream. Red Apple supermarket owner and housing developer Catsimatidis is one of the few billionaires left who worked his way up on the streets of the city, who still wants to be part of civic life to make NYC better and has the ability to do so. He comes off as a friendly everyman, but really is another clever rumpled genius, whose ability to read people and issues, has made him rich, politically powerful and a leader in conservative journalism. To call former GOP mayoral candidate Catsimatidis, whose daughter Andrea is chair of the Manhattan Republican Party, a party operative is to sell him short. Just days after winning the Democratic nomination for mayor, Catsimatidis broke bread at storied Italian eatery Rao’s with Adams and said his dinner companion “is talking like he wants to do a good job (as mayor),” while his fellow party member and current radio host Curtis Sliwa was running against the new mayor. To call Catsimatidis a radio show host or owner also is a description that sells him short, he has a way of making all parts of his professional life, supplement his other endeavors.
Catsimatidis owns the WABC radio station, where he anchors news shows of reporters, political operators, and newsmaker guests, which are quite informative on top city, national and international issues. Catsimatidis comments on his show are inciteful, but an observer can get the feeling that he is at times holding back from hammering home his accurate analysis, because of the many hats the kid from West Harlem now wears.
On a recent show Catsimatidis says Adams “Pounded Sand,” when the new mayor was blocked by Albany from changing the bail law to give state’s judges the power to hold dangerous pre-trial suspects behind bars. He broke down and simplified the real effect of the proposed change in the bail law, better than the mayor or any journalist covering the issue. Catsimatidis tried to make the bail change more acceptable when he says, there are only” 3000 troubled criminals including those suffering from mental illness that would be affected by the mayor’s reform of the bail law.” Scott Hechinger a progressive executive director of Zealous, a nonprofit criminal justice reform organization, made the case recently in the Daily News that 99% of those released under the new bail law have not committed violent crimes. The troubled 3000 repeat criminals and mentally ill that Catsimatidis is talking about, is that one percent that Hechinger reported in his analysis. Catsimatidis and left-wing Hechinger inability to communicate and find a compromise is a good example of where a Tale of Two New York’s does it most harm. In 2022 NYC crime is up sharply and across the board, from rape & robbery to stabbing and assaults in the subways. The crime wave is destroying NYC’s economy, causing the city’s high unemployment rate 9.4% to almost triple the national average.
Catsimatidis gives his listeners a hint that he knows what is really going on when he says that the Assembly and State Senate are getting so strong, that the Governor fears being overridden. Catsimatidis tries to encourage hosts like Frank Morano and guests like former Governor David Paterson to explain the toxic politics behind what he is hinting at. Details that could anger the highly retaliatory left-wing that now controls Albany and the City Council. It is understandable why Catsimatidis the businessman and the governor up for election, do not want to get into the muck of exposing or taking on the left-wing blocking any changes to the bail law, for fear of becoming the target of their cancel culture weapon, which calls everyone racist who disagree with them. Preventing new crime victims while protecting minority or poor victims, who have historically been unfairly caught in the prison system, is something dysfunctional Albany leaders blocking bail reform are incapable of solving. New York lacks an informed public to pressure its elected leaders to find a way around cancel culture politics to negotiate a bail compromise to allow judges to remove from the streets and subways, what Catsimatidis calls the violent 3000 repeat criminals. Jewish Voice How Albany and the Nonprofits Stigmatize the Mentally Ill and Trapped the Mayor in NY’s Dysfunctional Politics.
Albany, Subway Crime and NY Politics Held Hostage By the Woke Culture
The once powerful NY media does not question the left who are blocking the bail law. They communicate with selfies on twitter and Instagram to their supporters, never asked by a reporter if they feel responsible for a repeat mentally ill offender pushing Michelle Go in front of a train or another repeat offender injuring two-year-old Sophia by pushing her the stroller her grandmother was pushing.
It is the new normal to hold your powder against the left, to avoid becoming the target of their cancel culture weapon. We know comedy has suffered because of cancel culture, but very little has been written about its effect on local NY politics. Albany’s leaders, afraid of the growing left-wing power to elect Assembly and State Senators, are now being held hostage by the woke cancel culture, not even the fact that 65% of New Yorkers in a recent poll want bail reform, matters to them.
Governor Kathy Hochul is running again against left-winger public advocate Jumaane Williams who lost to her for Lt. Governor in 2018 by less than 6% of the vote. The governor’s political handlers are afraid agreeing to Mayor Adams bail reform before the primary will not only strengthen Public Advocate William challenge, but it also raises the possibility of her losing in a three-way split, with moderate Congressman Tom Suozzi is also running against her, on her right, already pledging to fire DA Bragg if elected.
Albany Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins only fear challengers to their power positions from the growing number of left-wing legislators. Their moderate legislative members who keep them leaders, who see the need for bail reform, are afraid to vote for it, because they have been warned that the growing left-wing would challenge their reelection. Jewish Voice: NY’s Woke Culture Politics
The Partnership With No Realistic Plan to Fix NY’s Politics and Elections Has Become Breslin’s New “Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight”
While interviewing Kathryn Wylde, CEO of the Partnership, Catsimatidis asked her how we can pressure Albany to pass bail reform to cut crime. Wylde said that “the legislators have to be deaf if they do not get the message that the public wants a safer city.” And then she added that “Albany will figure it out.” Wylde did not answer Catsimatidis’ question on how to pressure Albany for good reason. The two attempts by members of her very powerful organization to take on the left during the 2021 municipal races, failed badly. Jewish Voice: Do Real Estate Barons Know How to Protect City Hall and Albany? Or Will Left- Wing Team AOC Take Over?
Partnership Failed Attempt 1: The real estate PAC “Common Sense” funded by developer and Partnership member Stephen Ross in 2021 against left wing council candidates relied on boiler plate mailings to defeat them. was like trying to shoot down an F-18 with a peashooter. The Ross PAC ignored or was unaware that AOC was creating a machine with “Defund the Police” leader Brad Lander’s controller’s campaign to take over the city’s government. Not only did AOC machine win over a dozen council races, increasing its influence in City Hall, it also played a key role in winning Brad Lander comptroller race and brought about the surprise win of Antonio Reynoso as the Brooklyn Borough President. Reynoso won most of his votes above Prospect Park where the AOC machine received a ton of votes. The left-wing political machine led by AOC’s PAC “Courage to Change” interlocked with dozens of PACs and left-wing public interests’ groups and unions at a sophisticated level of coordination and organizing.
Partnership Failed Attempt 2: A political committee launched by Lisa Blau, a Manhattan real estate investor and the wife of Jeff Blau, CEO of The Related Companies spent several million dollars to increase moderate voter turnout in the mayor race, by changing registrations to democrat. Their effort failed to get more than a few thousand New Yorkers to change their party registration to democratic. If Blau’s PAC “Be Counted NYC” wanted to allow 1,616,451 non-democratic registered voters eligible to vote for mayor or anyone else, they needed to run a public relations campaign to lobby the charter commission to allow a vote on non-partisans elections in NYC.
The late William S. Paley, the chief executive who built CBS News, put together a team of investigative reporters led by Edward R. Murrow that toppled McCarthyism, starting in 1954“A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy” The Partnership must fund a similar team of independent investigative journalists (independent from them) to take on cancel culture and its political threats, which results in undemocratic control by fear in Albany and City Hall, to save New York’s economy and our Democracy. Buying the dying Daily News and using it to host the investigative team, as a base of operation would be a good idea. They also need to fund a project Veritas type journalist operation, who will chase after elected officials and ask them questions that the New York’s newspaper journalists like the late Wayne Barrett used to ask. This generation of the leadership of The NY Times caught in the Woke narrative bubble is clueless on how to fix the city, so are a lot of consultants who have passed their prime, who the Partnership still relies on.
The Growing AOC, Lander NY Political Machines Has Gone Unnoticed by the Media, the Partnership, But Not Albany
AOC’s endorsement in Brooklyn turned out to be more than an endorsement. After the 2021 primary election it can officially be labeled a movement that not only propelled Brad Lander to become Comptroller, the big Brooklyn progressive vote for council candidates, electing almost half of the borough’s delegation, also caused left-wing Borough President Antonio Reynoso a surprise win. This growing progressive AOC/Lander machine and vote helped mayoral left-wing candidate Maya Wiley’s rise to second place in the first round of the mayor’s race.
Of course, it was not only AOC and Lander that affected these Brooklyn races. It was a combination of interlocking progressives, liberal groups, and PACs, including AOC’s Courage to Change, that worked remarkably well together. They helped in acquiring extra money and resources for their chosen progressive candidates, beyond public funding limits. Progressive groups and PACs with money and resources that are the new dark money in campaigns, are difficult to trace, where the funding and campaign workers come from. Much of the dark money can be traced to government funded nonprofits and the lobbyists who work for them.
One of the left coalition’s main leaders is the Working Families Party (WFP). They not only won most of the competitive city council races in Brooklyn, but they also won races in Queens and the Bronx. Tiffany Cabán, who narrowly lost a race for Queens District Attorney in 2019, easily won her council race. And in Astoria the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) now have a candidate elected on every level of NY’s government. Jewish Voice AOC & the Progressives’ Interlocking Directorates are the New Bosses of Brooklyn & the 2022 City Council
This year Brad Lander is already petitioning for Alessandra Biaggi for congress on City Island, who is a socialist State Senator who supports defunding the police. In 2020 How New York City’s Democratic Socialists Swept the Competition. All five of DSA’s New York legislative slate won in June. Here’s a closer look at how it happened. Working Families is the only New York party to grow since November, How de Blasio Used the Working Families Party to win and build a Pay to Play shadow government to govern.
In 2020 Democratic Socials of America (DSA) Has a Chance to Take Another Leap Forward in New York Politics. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez campaign staffer Jonathan Soto is waging a primary challenge to take on an entrenched Democratic incumbent Bronx Assemblymember Michael Benedetto. NY1 2022 Working Families Party endorses Stewart-Cousins, dozens of Democratic lawmakers. Working Families Party endorses Socialist Candidate Jumaane Williams for Governor, rallying at “Occupy” site AOC PAC makes pledge to slash police, defense spending a litmus test for candidates seeking support. So far, the NY Press has not asked Biaggi, Lander and AOC if they agree with DSA that the United States should pull out of NATO. In Brooklyn the left-wing is trying to take down what is left of the Brooklyn Democratic Machine, by running district leader candidates. When they take over expect ideological NYS Supreme Court Judges, they pick to compete with Manhattan DA Bragg in releasing those that commit crime.
Murderers’ Row is Not Enough to Take on NY’s Cancel Culture
Catsimatidis has created a Yankees style murderers’ row of moderate to conservative radio hosts and guests who understand local NY politics, including: McGuirk, Giuliani, Carter, Morano, and Sliwa. Unfortunately, not one of them has made a dent in changing or building a movement to change the bail law to make New York safer. Catsimatidis team expertly cover the GOP, Staten Island, and NYC establishment VIP silos, but need more exposure to the law makers causing the problems they cover on the radio. While the guests on the Catsimatidis radio shows are informative, there is room for others to join their usual rotation to describe the growing power of the left and those lawmakers who fear them. It would be informative to have Harlem Assemblywoman Inez Dickens who recently after the subway feces attack and an AOC back opponent pop-up against her, soften on her support on changes to the bail law according to the NY Post, on Catsimatidis radio show. He should not run a tape of her or read her quote, he needs to ask the Assemblywoman on the phone who has represented her community since 2006, and press her on how do we find a compromise to change the bail law to make NYC safer?
“Only Journalism Can Save New York” John Peter Zenger
Journalists need to inform New Yorkers about NY voter suppression controlled by the left, designed to elect ideological left-wing activists who want to reimagine government, not community leader candidates with ties to the neighborhood who want to help their neighborhood and its people. The fact that two million registered voters in the city cannot vote in the Democratic Primary whose results choose 95% of elected officials that occupy Albany and City Hall, is unknown by most, it is not even an issue that is discussed in the media. Change is not coming from one-party incumbent politicians in control of Albany and City Hall. Even the growing left-wing elected office holders, who ran on the pledge to make Albany more open and fairer, showed us their true colors, by their silence during the recent partisan redistricting that cut so many neighborhoods apart to protect incumbents, it caused Robert Moses to blush in his grave. Only the members of the Partnership have the resources to build any army of investigative journalists to take on the left’s control of NY, however their leadership does not want to, does not understand the need to, and does not know how to. Until members of the Partnership and others in the know stop trying to keep New Yorkers as informed as the Russian public, the only fair elections occurring in the city are New Yorkers and businesses voting with their feet as they leave NYC.
“A democracy that does not have an informed public is destined to decay, unjust legislation is passed, laws unequally enforced, and elected officials fall to corruption.” NY Times
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