Nicole Malliotakis: Greek-American assemblywoman running for New York City Mayor

NEW YORK – Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, represents parts of Staten Island and Brooklyn and has filed paperwork with the state and the city to run in the mayoral election.

“My intention is to run, unless my good friend John Catsimatidis jumps into the race,” Malliotakis said, referring to the billionaire Republican who spent heavily in a failed bid in the 2013 election and has not declared his intentions this year, as reported in the New York Times.

Malliotakis would be the only woman running and local officials believed she might be the first woman ever to run for mayor of New York City as a Republican.

“As far as I know, she’s the first Republican woman to run,” said Adele Malpass, the chairwoman of the Manhattan Republican Party. The Times reported that Diane McGrath ran on the Republican and Conservative lines for mayor in 1985 but she finished third to Ed Koch and Carol Bellamy.

Malliotakis has challenged de Blasio on undocumented immigrants, saying the city has gone too far in protecting those accused of low-level crimes from deportation. She is one of two state lawmakers from Staten Island who filed a lawsuit seeking to stop the city’s destruction of documents used to verify a person’s identity in the obtaining of an IDNYC card, which is issued by the city’s municipal identification program, the Times reported.

“I think there hasn’t been much excitement in this race,” she said. “I feel that Mayor de Blasio is someone that many people across the political spectrum have expressed displeasure with.”

Malliotakis is proud of her heritage and noted that her father is a Greek immigrant and her mother is from Cuba.

At an event at the Republican Club in Manhattan on Wednesday April 26, when the Republican candidates were asked the funding of their campaigns, Paul Massey stressed that his campaign would be self-financing and that he has so far collected more money from current mayor who is running for re-election.

Malliotakis pointed out that in the seven years she has represented Brooklyn and Staten Island in Albany she has waged an unrelenting war on corruption.

At the same time she noted that she enjoys the support of the prosperous and powerful Greek-American community in New York.

All four Republican candidates described the situation in New York City, the homeless crisis, as well as the concerns of property owners, urban transport, the state of the infrastructure, and expressed their determination to fight together so that the mayor is not re-elected.

Malpass asked about the “path to victory” and Malliotakis pointed out that she is well known and that her election and re-election for seven consecutive years to the state assembly proves her path is clear.

At the same time, she observed that she speaks Spanish, being able to communicate with Hispanic women, she may receive votes even from women who are traditionally in members of the Democratic Party.

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