I wouldn’t bet on Paul Massey being able to spell Nicole Malliotakis’ name -- but it’s likely that he’s muttering it under his breath today.
For those of you not keeping score at home, it looks like we have a real Republican primary on our hands in this year’s race for mayor. So let’s overlook the fact that the GOP is facing an uphill battle against Mayor de Blasio in November and instead focus on the start of a September stew of a primary.
While hardly a political heavyweight, Malliotakis upended the race yesterday by announcing that she’s chucking her hat into the ragged Republican ring. A Staten Island Assemblywoman, Malliotakis is the only candidate in the primary scrum to be an elected official -- or ever be elected by voters to do anything.
The presumptive frontrunner in the Republican race – at least until yesterday -- has been Paul Massey, a real-estate executive who seems to be interested in taking up politics in a manner that other people decide to start collecting stamps or butterflies. Until 2015, Massey lived in Westchester where – NY1’s Courtney Gross revealed – he took a ten-year vacation from voting in any elections.
“I was working, got up early, went to work, came home late," he explained later. Adhering to that logic, Massey better hope that most of his supporters are underemployed.
Lurking on the outside and hoping to be let in is retired NYPD Detective Bo Dietl, whose last big scene on TV came last year when he fatally bludgeoned a character played by Andrew “Dice” Clay on the failed HBO series “Vinyl.”
Because he botched filling out his voter registration card, Dietl isn’t enrolled in any party, meaning that he has to get the OK from GOP officials to run in the primary. It's unclear if they want him to join the party. And Dietl hasn't been doing himself any favors lately.
Apparently interested in the genealogy of the press corps, Dietl earlier this month asked one reporter if his surname was Jewish. And embracing the gorgeous mosaic of New York, Dietl proclaimed this week: “"I love Puerto Rican. I love black. I will go and do anything and come anywhere for anybody. I want to be your mayor.” It is sometimes a glorious country.
It’s through this tattered tapestry that Malliotakis emerges almost looking like Susan B. Anthony. There will be plenty of time to dissect her record or point out that Republican members of the State Assembly are typically as important as a vestigial toe. For now, we have a race on the horizon and handicappers of every stripe can at least clap hands.
Bob Hardt