As the latest poll showed him trailing by a huge margin, Republican mayoral candidate Joe Lhota challenged Democrat Bill de Blasio to face off in weekly debates in every borough between now and the election.
Lhota called for at least five more debates, on top of the two the candidates are required to participate in by the city Campaign Finance Board, both of which are in Manhattan.
“The people of the city of New York need to have a vigorous debate between the mayoral candidates,” Lhota said. “It’s important that we go out to the people and they see the contrast between the two of us, the contrast in our approaches the contrast in our philosophy.”
More debates could raise the profile of Lhota, who suffers both from lower name recognition than de Blasio and the city’s overwhelming Democratic advantage.
Lhota said debates would lay bare a slew of differences between him and de Blasio on issues from schools and the economy, but especially emphasized their different approaches to the NYPD.
“In areas of public safety I think we differ tremendously,” Lhota said, citing a federal court ruling declaring stop and frisk unconstitutional and two City Council bills passed to rein in the practice, all of which de Blasio supports.
“All of these bills, all of these actions, have had a chilling effect upon the Police Department, and they’re not doing the proactive policing that’s necessary to keep crime down. We need to have this vigorous debate in all five boroughs.”
And how does he expect to fare against de Blasio in the showdowns?
“I’ll hold my own,” he said. “I’m not worried about having a debate. I’ve had them my entire life, no matter where I was.”
As for format, he had one preference: “Standing at a podium,” he said. “I find sittting to be too comfortable, and not appropriate.”
He brushed off the results of the latest Quinnipiac poll, which showed him trailing 66% to 25%.
“These are early polls. I expected to be in this position. I’m not worried about being in the underdog position,” he said. “I won’t be defending a position; I’ll be on offense the whole time.”
(The Daily News Blog)
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One Response
The guy is running 40 percentage points behind in the polls, so this is a desparation act saying “please give me a platform so I can get some attention”. If he really had the interests of New Yorkers at heart, drop out of the election and save the City tens of millions of dollars in election costs.