By ROBERT GOLOMB T ell John Burnett, the Republican Party nominee for New York City comptrol- ler in the November election, that there are six registered Democrats for every registered Republican in New York City, and you’ll be a bit surprised to see a smile coming to his face. Tell him that in New YorkCity’s last citywide election in 2009 the Republican candidate for comp- troller, Joseph Mendola, won less than 20 percent of the popular vote in losing to current and now retiring Comptroller Democrat John Liu, and you’ll see the smile remaining. Tell him further that you have to go back to Joseph D. McGoldrick, who served from 1938-1945, to find the last elected Republican comptro ller of New York City, and you will see that he still appears unbothered. When I brought all this New YorkCity electoral history to Burnett’s attention during an interview in his Manhattan campaign office held Sept. 11 — the f irst interview he has granted fol- lowing the previous day’s Democrat Party primary won by Scott Stringer — he appeared undaunted. “Actually, I am well aware ofthe disparity [between Democrat and Republican registered voters], and I know how handily John Liu defeat- ed Joe Mendola, but none ofthat alarms me, ” he said. The reason the 6-1 outnumbering of Democrats to Republicans in the city fails to alarm Burnett is simple, he said. “If you look at the Republican victories in the last five mayoral elections, the elections ofMayor Giuliani and Mayor Bloomberg clearly show that New York City voters have the ability and intelligence to put their party affiliation aside and vote for the per- son whom they believe will best serve them.” Equally simple for Burnett is the reason Mendola was so crushingly defeated by Liu four years ago. “I like and respect Joe, but he did not run an active campaign, and the Republican Party quite frankly did not encourage him to do so. I promise you I am running to win and will have the Republican Party fully behind me. In addition, unlike Joe, who had an opponent run- ning against him on the Conservative line, I will be on the Republican, Conservative and the Independent School Choice lines.” As to the point about McGoldrick, Burnett maintained the same glass-is-half-full outlookon his chances in November. “I know it’s been a long time since a Republican was elected as comp- troller. To me that means the time is long overdue [to elect one].’’ Burnett, who told me he had done extensive research on the history ofNew York City comptrollers as he prepared for the race and thus knew just who McGoldrick was, added, “While its been almost 70 years since a Republican last served [as comptroller], many of the Democrats [who served as comp- trollers] were fiscally conservative. That includes Mario Procaccino [1966-1969], Harrison Goldin [1974-1989], William Thompson [2002-2009] and to a certain degree even John Liu now.” W hile both Democrat and Republican party leaders felt that Elliot Spitzer, with all of his publicly well known personal and political baggage, would have been the easier opponent for him, Burnett said he looks forward to the race against Stringer, which officially began the moment Stringer was declared the winner on primary election night. “Whether I ran against Mr. Trying to Reverse the T rend Will John Burnett become NYC’s first Republican comptroller since 1945?continued on page 1712 JEWISH WORLD • OCTOBER 25-31, 2013 John Burnett, Republican candid ate for New Y ork Citycomptroller. ELECTION 2013 ‘As comptroller , I will always remember that we are making investments for millions of men and women whose retirement benefits are financially crucial to them.’
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Long Island Jewish World and Jewish Sentinel Profile Of John Burnett
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7/27/2019 Long Island Jewish World and Jewish Sentinel Profile Of John Burnett