Curtis Sliwa --- The Reform Party --- AND --- “The Good…. and the Ugly” in less than a day

Curtis Sliwa got close to a hero’s welcome by the organizers of a Bay Ridge racket held at The Salty Dog yesterday   ---   Well,  let’s go so far as to say he got close to a “Local Hero’s” welcome…..

Almost as if to keep Sliwa and his Reform Party from gaining any momentum early in its 2018 campaigning,  or even any traction whatsoever,  for that matter,  the editors at the Daily News came out with a savage attack on the Reform Party on the same day as Sliwa’s unveiling in Bay Ridge

It was like night and day…..

In what some are describing as “Curtis [Sliwa’s] first public appearance as a possible gubernatorial candidate” at  the pro-veterans  Memorial Day Parade Benefit event held at the Salty Dog on Sunday,  many,, many people came up to Mr. Sliwa, in his iconic red beret just to get selfies and other pictures with him in frame.   In addition,   several other folks walked up to him,  talked about his conjectural run for the governorship and urged him to commit to entering  the NYS Governor’s race.   Oh,  and Curtis Sliwa was introduced by the Memorial Day Parade Benefit organizers and thanked for his participation in the event.

During the rather lengthy time that Curtis Sliwa was at the Salty Dog,  there was only one other pol In the house   ---   Max Rose,  the Democrat running for congress against GOP incumbent Congressman Dan Donovan.  However,  my sourceS have told me that several recognizable “unfriendlies” were in the house,  just inside the large garage-type door in the big area between the Salty Dog’s  bar and the old fire engine.   They were trying hard to look invisible and probably they were waiting around for one of their own local stalking horses to show up;  they were also obviously rattled about the fanfare for Mr. Sliwa.

But alas for the leadership of the Reform Party, there is no joy in Mudville…..

On the very same day, the Daily News Editorial Board launched an extremely harsh attack on the Reform Party as a whole  (See “Vote down this waste of the empty Reform Party primaries”  Daily News Editorial Board,  4/30/18,  Daily News/ Opinion/ Editorial   [http://beta.nydailynews.com/opinion/vote-waste-empty-reform-party-primary-article-1.3959753]).  

Here’s a taste of what the News’ editors had to say about  Curtis Sliwa’s Reform Party:   “Like locusts, the pests of the Reform Party, with only 360 registered voters out of 4,420,737 in the city, are once again causing the city Board of Elections to waste money, over a million dollars, to conduct essentially empty primary elections….They did this two years ago in four districts; the Board responded by only opening a few polling places to handle the tiny number of Reform voters….   The Reform Party then changed its rules to let both Reform and unaffiliated voters participate. So it's not just the 59 Reform voters who can cast ballots but 113,518. Which means now the board will need 230 polling places and 5,000 workers paid at least $200 each….   Reform this, right now.”

Reform Party supporters were quick to see and describe this as an attempted preemptive attack by insiders and their friends, who are afraid of the Reform Party’s prospects in 2018.