Brooklynite Sal Albanese hits mayoral campaign trail again

After 15 years out of the public eye, a former Bay Ridge councilmember has thrown his hat into the ring in the 2013 mayoral race.

Sal Albanese, who left the City Council after 15 years to run for mayor in 1997, filed papers with the Board of Elections kicking off his campaign to replace Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is term-limited.

This time around, he acknowledges he is an “underdog,” yet says he believes that his steadfast independence is an asset that can not only help him win the election but also be an effective chief executive for the city.

“I think independence is very important when governing a city,” Albanese said. “If you are indebted to every special needs group out there, you can’t do a good job.

“During my 15 years on the City Council, I had a very independent record,” he went on. “I bring that into the race, and I think that’s what New Yorkers are looking for. While I don’t agree with him on everything, Mayor Bloomberg is a true independent.”

When Albanese ran for the Democratic nomination in 1997, he got 21 percent of the vote, coming in third behind the party nominee, Ruth Messinger, and activist Al Sharpton.

Among those generally acknowledged to be seeking the post in next year’s election are City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, City Comptroller John Liu, former Comptroller William Thompson (who lost narrowly to Bloomberg in 2009) and MTA Chair Joe Llota, who has announced his resignation from the authority as of December 31 to explore a mayoral bid.

Like Albanese, Quinn, de Blasio, Liu and Thompson would be vying for the Democratic nomination; Llota would potentially be going after the GOP line. “One of the good things about the race,” Albanese contended, “is that there is no clear front-runner.”

This means that candidates like Albanese, who hope to capitalize on grass-roots support, will be able to compete thanks to the six-to-one matching funds that they can qualify for if they agree to abide by the rules of New York City’s campaign finance system. “It’s going to be challenging raising money but we will have enough money at the end of the day to wage a competitive campaign,” he said during an interview with this newspaper.

“People are going to try to minimize my campaign but we are going to run a very strong campaign,”  Albanese added.

Should he snag the top city post, among Albanese’s priorities would be pushing for non-partisan elections, which would mean an open primary in which voters could cross party lines to vote for candidates, something that cannot occur now. “It’s not going to appeal to the Democratic machine but I think it’s important to governing the city,” he said.

Second on his list is improving early childhood education, beginning from the age of about six months, by working with the families, particularly in “low income communities.” To improve outcomes, he said, “It’s very important to intercede early. The first three years are pivotal.”

As a public school teacher for 11 years, Albanese would also focus on improving teacher accountability, in part by “enhance(ing) the student teaching experience [so that student teachers] come out of the experience with a license and can demonstrate that they are effective to become full-time teachers.”

Thirdly, Albanese said he would tackle the city’s huge infrastructure problems. “Infrastructure is not a frill. I think we need to do an awful lot of work on mass transit,” he stressed. “The capital program is significantly underfunded and this is going to create significant problems for the city. If we don’t have decent mass transit, the economy will suffer.”

How do you get people interested? “You have got to build a constituency for it,” Albanese replied. “The only way you can do that is by making people understand that it is important to the economy of the city.”

Finally, Albanese would focus on public safety, which he called “essential.” With 15 years on the council’s public safety committee under his belt, Albanese counts himself as an expert on the issue. “We have to make sure police strategies continue to be as effective as possible,” he concluded.