Roberto Perez | 2011-11-02 | El Diario NY
The rumors that have, former Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion, running for City Comptroller in 2013, are largely unfounded. My sources tell me, that Carrion has his sights set on running for Mayor in 2013. Carrion, who will be 51 in March, and has over 2 million dollars in his war chest, apparently feels that now is the time.
Carrion may have some momentum, if he decides to run. The current leader for Mayor, in many people’s eyes is City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who could fall prey, to the Speakers jinx, which is the inability to parlay the Speakers post into higher elected office, take for example, the two previous City Council Speakers Gifford Miller, and Peter Vallone who had fundraising advantages by virtue of being Speaker, yet both were unable to connect with the city wide, and state wide electorate.
Another component, that may help Carrion’s candidacy, is the fact that both minority candidates being mentioned for Mayor, former City Comptroller Bill Thompson, and current City Comptroller John Liu, have their own issues to deal with. Thompson has to convince party leaders, to back him once more, after his losing bid, and Liu, who was considered by many to be the minority front runner, has recently been hounded, by questions about his fundraising. This could create, an opening for Carrion.
But any conversation concerning Latinos, and citywide office, would not be complete, if I did not mention Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. Initially, I was hearing that Diaz Jr. was reluctant to run for city wide office, because he was trying to mend fences, with the business community, whom he angered, when he opposed the development of the Kings Bridge Armory, over the developers refusal to pay a living wage.
In turns out the rumors were false, and Diaz Jr. is proud of his support of the living wage, a person close Diaz Jr. made it clear to me that Diaz Jr. has not made up his mind yet, but that the armory, and its development will play no role whatsoever in his decision to run for city wide office. Stay tuned.
