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The choice among the three Republican candidates is clear: In the GOP primary for mayor, The Post enthusiastically endorses former Deputy Mayor and MTA Chairman Joe Lhota.
Lhota stands head and shoulders above the field. He has valuable know-how and experience, in both the public and private sectors. By any measure, Joe Lhota is the leader best equipped to take on a bloated city government and make it work for the people who pay for it.
Lhota further understands — and campaigns on — something the candidates in the other party prefer to obscure: just how easy it would be for this city to slide back into crime and decay.
As MTA head, he managed a $13 billion budget and a workforce of 65,000.
We saw the fruits of his efforts when Hurricane Sandy hit: Within days, nearly all the trains were up and running and the public was kept fully informed at all times.
Before that, as budget director and finance commissioner under Rudy Giuliani, he managed the city’s $36 billion operating budget and $45 billion capital plan. And as deputy mayor of operations, he oversaw the city’s response to the 9/11 attacks, and performed admirably on that horrible day.
His chief rival, self-made billionaire John Catsimatidis, is an unlikely candidate who has shown surprising strength. A self-professed Clinton Democrat, he’s focused attention on the plight of city businesses. And his personal story of rising from rag to riches is engaging.
But there is a difference between running a business and running a government, and all of Catsimatidis’ policy proposals have fallen flat, or just been downright goofy.
Our biggest disappointment with the Lhota campaign so far has nothing to do with substance. He has fallen short in articulating a compelling and passionate message that makes clear what is at stake in this election.
That is more important for him than it is for his Democratic rivals, if only because they enjoy a 6-to-1 advantage in registered voters in this city. And Lhota does not have the kind of personal fortune that allowed Mayor Bloomberg to spend $100 million on his own campaigns.
To be elected mayor of this city, a Republican must run a campaign whose appeal reaches across party lines to attract Democrats unsatisfied with the direction of their party, independents who distrust both parties, residents of the outer boroughs, and the many New Yorkers who do not vote because they have simply given up on city politics. We believe Lhota, if he can get his message right, stands the best chance of doing just that.
The New York Post urges Republican voters to turn out on primary day and vote for Joe Lhota.