Conservative Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro backed a Democrat in the primary for mayor, but he’s tacking back to the right for the general.
Molinaro supported City Council Speaker Christine Quinn
, but after she finished out of the money, the BP is going with Republican Joe Lhota in the race to November.
“Staten Island is benefiting enormously from all the great accomplishments made during Joe Lhota’s tenure as Deputy Mayor, including the free ferry service, establishment of The Petrides School, the opening of Pratt Paper, and the closure of the Fresh Kills landfill,” Molinaro (pictured) said in a campaign email.
Staten Island is a rare Republican stronghold in Democratic NYC — although Lhota’s top GOP rival, billionaire businessman John Catsimatidis, carried the borough on Primary Day, according to unofficial county-by-county AP results.
Molinaro, who won office on both the Conservative and GOP lines, got on board with Quinn in February, despite
differing with her on a number of issues
.
Among those: Same-sex marriage, although Molinaro cheerfully attended Quinn’s 2012 wedding to wife Kim Catullo.
Lhota comes into the general against Democrat Bill de Blasio with the support of the Conservative Party, which he captured
.
Quinn, of course, went on to get behind Democratic nominee Bill de Blasio, as did silver medalist Bill Thompson, who conceded before a complete count of paper ballots.
Incomplete Board of Elections tallies
that do not include the results of most paper ballots show de Blasio just over the 40% benchmark needed to avoid a two-man runoff.
Update:
Speaking of Staten Island, when I was there for
a Lhota fundraiser featuring ex-Mayor Rudy Giuliani
this spring, I tried to work over City Council GOP Leader James Oddo about who he’d support in November, since he’d only go so far as to say he’d back the Republican in the primary.
Oddo didn’t return a call Friday and Lhota spox Jessica Proud says the councilman — who is running to succeed Molinaro — has not yet formally endorsed the GOP nominee in the general.
IMAGE: APVOTECOUNT
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