With incumbent Mayor Adams under federal criminal indictment and many of his top still under investigation, a crowded field of credible Democratic challengers all fired up and ready to fire him, not to mention the lurking specter of disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo desperately groping around in the dark for any slight Lilliputian chance at a political comeback, city Republicans are uniquely positioned to seize the limelight.
Provided they recruit the right candidate. What do they need, you ask?
Someone ready to break with the past, who can look towards the future, return the party to its roots as a font for practicable ideas that can make our city safe, affordable, and can shatter the public and private sector union cabal that’s kept a stranglehold over any attempt at meaningful progress in the outer boroughs, Manhattan, or Staten Island over the past twelve years.
But in order to crack the current dwarfish GOP citywide ceiling of 33%, any legitimate candidate would need to cobble together former Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s winning coalition from 2009: 65% on Staten Island, 53% in Queens, 44% in Brooklyn, 36% in the Bronx, and 55% in Manhattan — the bare minimum and still most likely path for clinching victory.
Tall order, sure. But with the city’s matching funds initiative providing a unilateral 8:1 financial boost to any underdog candidate who qualifies for the program, and given the omnipresent existence of political Super PACs, Republicans no longer need to dragoon a self-funding billionaire onto theirs and the Conservative Party ballot lines.
They just need someone willing to step up to the plate.
Term-limited City Councilman Robert Holden, who co-chairs City Hall’s Common Sense Caucus. He’s run as a Republican before. He might be persuaded to do so again. His central Queens district narrowly went for Curtis Sliwa in 2021, but to achieve 50.01% on Election Day, any opposition contender would have to win the 30th Council District in an overwhelming Bloomberg-ian style landslide.
Affable former Staten Island borough president and current city Department of Buildings Commissioner Jimmy Oddo could be formidable, should he enter the race. Since COVID-19, public school enrollment plunged dramatically versus pre-pandemic, and with the resignation of Adams’ own Schools Chancellor David Banks, Oddo could run a campaign laser focused on improving New York City’s sclerotic education system.
And he’d have the street cred to back it up. Over his 22 years in public service, Oddo helped allocate nearly $180 million in capital funding toward 719 individual projects requested by school principals, brought charter education to Staten Island, and simultaneously made it possible to construct a brand new brick and mortar replacement for P.S. 48 in Concord.
While Holden and Oddo may tick some of the necessary boxes, there’s one man who ticks all of them.
Manhattan Institute President Reihan Salam.
An elder millennial and Brooklyn native, Harvard alumnus (by way of Cornell), and a graduate of Stuyvesant High School, who now fills his days running the center-right Manhattan Institute. Side gigs include: contributing writer at The Atlantic, contributing editor at National Affairs, contributing editor at National Review, political commentator for CNN, and a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Salam also serves on the Public Scholars Advisory Committee at the Moynihan Center at The City College of New York, as well as the Advisory Council for The Public Interest Fellowship.
Not only has Salam witnessed firsthand how our city has risen and subsequently declined over the past 30 years, he’s spent a career proposing myriad solutions to help reduce crime, improve bureaucratic efficiency, make life here more affordable and more accessible for folks looking to work, retire, or raise a family.
Unlike most Big Apple political pachyderms, Salam does not pray at the altar of or pledge obeisance to any Mar-a-Lagan personality pyrite cult. His first and foremost loyalty is to the data, to the best idea regardless of partisan ideology.
Hokey? Sure. Idealistic? Absolutely. Sue the guy for committing the unforgivable sin of being an authentic technocrat.
He’s never sought personal glory, unlike our self-proclaimed and now indicted Mayor “Nightlife.” He’s not out for revenge, or looking to climb the next rung on a public sector pension. And that’s what New York needs now more than ever.
For city Republicans, Salam would be a game changing shot of political B-12, and someone capable of finally catapulting the party into the 21st century.
Schiffbauer is a political consultant and served as deputy communications director for the New York Republican State Committee from 2014-16.