Ex-Gov. George Pataki says a fellow Republican could win the New York City mayor’s race next year if Big Apple Dems skew any more to the left.
Pataki, the last Republican statewide office-holder when he left Albany in 2007, suggested Sunday that a GOPer’s chances would considerably improve if a lefty progressive such as city Comptroller Brad Lander defeats moderate incumbent Mayor Eric Adams in the Democratic Party’s primary next June.
“We know that Mayor Adams is going to be challenged. [Comptroller] Brad Lander … has already announced that he’s running for mayor,” Pataki said on 770 WABC’s “The Cats Roundtable” radio program.
“He is way left … like de Blasio was,” the three-term former governor said of Lander and ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Pataki noted that there were the two decades when Republican Mayors Rudy Giuliani and Mike Bloomberg ruled City Hall, from 1994 through 2013 — winning five consecutive elections combined.
“Don’t forget, a Republican can win in New York. We had Bloomberg for 12 years. We had Giuliani for eight years,” Pataki told show host John Catsimatidis.
“The city was better because we had intelligent, centrist Republican mayors,” the ex-gov claimed. “I’m worried that a far-left Democrat could win the primary and make things even worse.”
Pataki also took a shot at disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has not ruled out a run for mayor, pointing out that Cuomo approved the state’s troubled cashless-bail law.
“It’s the no-bail laws that Andrew Cuomo rammed through the legislature to tie the hands of those who want to put the criminals away,” said Pataki, who defeated Andrew’s father, the late ex-Gov. Mario Cuomo, in 1994.
“Everybody points to statistics that crime is going down. If you ride the subways or walk the streets, you know that’s not true,” Pataki said.
Giuliani, a then-popular former prosecutor, defeated Democratic incumbent David Dinkins in 1993 in part over concerns about crime.
Bloomberg, the billionaire businessman, was first elected in 2001 after the 9/11 terrorist attacks that leveled the World Trade Center towers.
Still, reclaiming the mayoralty from the Dems would be a daunting task for a Republican without such advantages as the personal fortune of a Bloomberg or the crime-fighting pedigree of Giuliani.
Left-leaning de Blasio — who succeeded Bloomberg — was easily re-elected to a second term in 2017.
Meanwhile, Adams, a retired cop, could first face off against several candidates in his own Democratic primary. Aside from Lander, other hopefuls include former city Comptroller Scott Stringer and state Sen. Zellnor Myrie.
New York GOP sources Sunday concurred with Pataki that the party would have a better shot at reclaiming City Hall if Adams loses the primary to a lefty rival. But they said they first need a credible candidate.
“I agree with Pataki — but we need a horse,” said a Republican official who requested anonymity.
Meanwhile, Pataki — who was governor during and after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, blasted the federal government for at first agreeing to plea deals for three accused 9/11 terrorists, including alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday quickly revoked the shocking decision that had been signed off on by his underlings. It would have spared the death penalty for Mohammed and two of his alleged accomplices.
Pataki said such a potential plea deal “creates enormous risk.
“It also sends a horrible message that when it comes to terror, [that] we’re not going to be strong,” he said.
“You contrast our approach, which is soft and mushy to terrorists, and look at Israel, where just recently they killed the top Hezbollah person and they killed one of the top Hamas people,” the former gov said. “They are not going to tolerate terrorism. They are going to stand up to it. We too often compromise with it, and that’s why … our country is at very great risk today.”