Gov Is A 'Devil' And Mayor 'Criminal': Public Advocate Hopefuls

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK – Candidates hoping to be the city's next Public Advocate are playing off growing mistrust of city and state leaders, going so far as to call Gov. Andrew Cuomo a "devil" and Mayor Bill de Blasio's actions "criminal."

Hopefuls who appeared at a climate change forum at Brooklyn Law School Tuesday night repeatedly battled to position themselves as the person best qualified to hold Cuomo and de Blasio accountable.

"I don’t trust Andrew Cuomo worth nothing," said attorney Ifeoma Ike, who refused to declare support for the governor's congestion pricing plan, proposed during the State of the State speech Tuesday, until she'd read it.

"It’s beyond 'the devil's in the details,' she said. "I want to know the devils who are writing it."

And when the conversation turned to the lead poisoning epidemic in New York City public housing, many in the group were quick to blame Mayor Bill de Blasio, whom the New York Post revealed misrepresented the number of NYCHA children affected.

"When the mayor knowingly allowed the commissioner to falsify those inspection reports, that was downright disgraceful but it was also criminal," said Queens city councilman Eric Ulrich.

"Someone has to stand up to him."

Brooklyn city council member Jumaane Williams, who recently ran with Cynthia Nixon as she challenged Cuomo to become governor, blamed him and de Blasio for crumbling conditions in NYCHA, where more than 2,000 children have tested positive for lead poisoning.

“I want to be a public advocate who is unafraid to say there are two men who have been playing a male measuring contest with 400,000 lives of people who live in NYCHA," Williams said.

"[Cuomo] starved NYCHA for funding."

"What happened in NYCHA was criminal, people should have gone to jail," added City Councilman Raphael Espinal. "The reason this happened is because our current and past leadership doesn’t care about the people who live in NYCHA. "

Espinal promised as Public Advocate he would create a website where NYCHA residents could log building complaints that would go on the public record.

Throughout the evening, when moderator and Politico reporter Gloria Pazmino quizzed the candidates on how they would address climate change concerns such as electronic bikes legislation, recycling policies and air pollution, candidates responded with critiques of the mayor and governor.

Nomiki Konst, an activist who worked on Barack Obama's and Bernie Sanders' campaigns, called the governor's congestion pricing proposal "a band-aid"solution that put the onus on drivers instead of, as she argued it should, on corporations.

"This is a tax on hard working Americans," Konst said. "It should be these executives and these big companies who are getting huge tax benefits and are donors to the mayor and to the governor."

Ulrich summed up the sentiment in the room during his closing statement, arguing the Public Advocate's most important responsibility is "to hold the mayor's feet to the fire."

"This election is a referendum on Bill de Blasio," Ulrich said in his final bid for votes.

"I bet if you asked the mayor, 'Who is the last person sitting up here you'd like to be public advocate?" He would probably say me."

Photo by Kathleen Culliton