Sal Albanese Withholds Endorsement From Bill de Blasio In Mayor's Race

From Capital New York :

Sal Albanese explains his non-endorsement of Bill de Blasio

Last week, Anthony Weiner became one of the last former Democratic candidates for mayor to endorse Bill de Blasio for mayor, joining Christine Quinn, Bill Thompson and John Liu in backing the winner of their primary.

Not joining them: Bay Ridge Democrat Sal Albanese, the former councilman who ran an iconoclastic campaign for mayor based on the belief that his principles and experience would win the day.

Albanese thinks that sort of "knee-jerk endorsement" is merely evidence that the endorsers in question are part of the "party apparatus."

"I don't want people saying to me, a year down the road, 'you supported this guy,'" he told Capital on Friday afternoon. "I want to make sure he's really committed to doing the right thing."

In 1997, then-councilman Albanese ran for mayor on a "tale of two cities" platform and won 21 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary. This year, he earned less than one percent. During the campaign, he publicly yearned for an election cycle with a little less "bullshit," and frequently targed de Blasio with his criticism.

So as far as the prospect of endorsing de Blasio is concerned, Albanese isn't quite there yet.

"Well, first of all, I'm concerned about his general saying one thing and doing another," he said, adding, "I think he's a very, very smart political operative, but I have concerns about his ability to lead the city."

Albanese points, by way of example, to de Blasio's early-in-the-campaign claim to be the outer-borough candidate.

"When he was running on that mantra ... he was undermining the expansion of taxi service to the outer boroughs," said Albanese, referring to de Blasio's energetic opposition to the Bloomberg administration's outer-borough taxi plan and his collection of more than $250,000 from industry donors. "Just recently he went before a business group and said he was a fiscal conservative, when he's promoting higher taxes for city residents. ... So my point is, I am a big believer in having a mayor who his word or her word counts for something."

Also, Albanese thinks de Blasio is "naive about public safety" and has "the thinnest resume of any mayor in recent memory."

De Blasio, who for the record has not asked for Albanese's endorsement, had no comment for this article.

Also for the record, Albanese doesn't plan to endorse Joe Lhota, the Republican candidate, either.