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Supermarket Heiress Believes Manhattan GOP Can Be Victorious Again 

Republicans hold no elected positions representing Manhattan. Can Andrea Catsimatidis turn that around? 

Andrea Catsimatidis, second from right, with her family. She hopes to become Manhattan GOP chair. PHOTO: BESS ADLER FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

is she a chinese agent?

ATHENS — After years of struggling under austerity imposed by European partners and a chilly shoulder from the United States, Greece has embraced the advances of China, its most ardent and geopolitically ambitious suitor.

While Europe was busy squeezing Greece, the Chinese swooped in with bucket-loads of investments that have begun to pay off, not only economically but also by apparently giving China a political foothold in Greece, and by extension, in Europe.

Last summer, Greece helped stop the European Union from issuing a unified statement against Chinese aggression in the South China Sea. This June, Athens prevented the bloc from condemning China’s human rights record. Days later it opposed tougher screening of Chinese investments in Europe.

Greece’s diplomatic stance hardly went unnoticed by its European partners or by the United States, all of which had previously worried that the country’s economic vulnerability might make it a ripe target for Russia, always eager to divide the bloc.

Instead, it is the Chinese who have become an increasingly powerful foreign player in Greece after years of assiduous courtship and checkbook diplomacy.

Claude Solnik

(631) 913-4244

Long Island Business News

2150 Smithtown Ave.

Ronkonkoma, NY 11779-7348 

Home > LI Confidential > Stop scratching on holidays

Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012

Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.

By

Mike Vilensky

Updated Aug. 27, 2017 5:18 p.m. ET

17 COMMENTS

Andrea Catsimatidis has a bold idea for Manhattan Republicans: win elections.

“In 1993, (former Mayor Rudolph) Giuliani proved a Republican can be competitive in an overwhelmingly Democratic city,” Ms. Catsimatidis told donors and activists at a meet-and-greet last week. “We can be victorious again.”

Ms. Catsimatidis, an executive at her father John Catsimatidis ’ multibillion-dollar company Red Apple Group, is the front-runner to become the new chair of the Manhattan Republican Committee, offering a fresh perspective to a club that has struggled locally despite the party’s national gains.

While the national GOP has never counted on liberal Manhattan to help it gain power, the island holds a symbolic significance and serves as a fundraising stop for both parties.

“It’s the most important county in the country, no matter if you’re a Democrat or a Republican,” said Mr. Catsimatidis, a donor to the Manhattan GOP who ran for mayor in 2013. “You come to Manhattan to stake your flag.”

A 27-year-old moderate, Ms. Catsimatidis cuts an unusual figure for the chair role.

An heir to a fortune her father grew by founding supermarkets, including the Red Apple chain that bought Gristedes, she would be the youngest chair of a major party’s New York City county committee. Her past forays into political activism include running the New York University Republican Club as an undergraduate business student and working on Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign.

While a lifelong Republican, Ms. Catsimatidis hosted Bill and Hillary Clinton, friends of the family, at her 2011 wedding to Richard Nixon’s grandson, Christopher Nixon Cox, who she divorced in 2014. She describes her politics as “center-of-the-road” and has donated to Democrats including the city’s liberal public advocate, Letitia James, in addition to GOP candidates.  

Local Republicans are hoping Ms. Catsimatidis can help them expand the party as they face off with energized Democrats out of power in Washington and vowing to claw their way back.

“She appeals to a broader constituency that we need to win seats,” said Queens Councilman Eric Ulrich, one of three Republicans on the 51-seat City Council.

If elected chair by a few hundred committee members, Ms. Catsimatidis has her work cut out for her. Of Manhattan’s 1.6 million people, Republicans hold 112,000 registrants to the Democrats’ 780,400, according to the elections board.

In an interview, Ms. Catsimatidis touted growing the NYU GOP by bringing in out-of-the-box speakers and networking on campus. “At NYU I learned the animosity we face as Manhattan Republicans,” she said, “but that makes us work harder.”

Andrea Catsimatidis said she would recruit pro-business candidates and focus on local issues such as public transit. PHOTO: BESS ADLER FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Winning elections would be her priority as chair. She said she would recruit “pro-business” candidates tailored to local issues such as public transit. She noted a potentially competitive Upper East Side council district where the city’s Democratic mayor shows polling weaknesses.

There are no Republican politicians currently representing Manhattan on the council, in the New York state Legislature, in U.S. Congress, or in any New York citywide or statewide elected offices. Other boroughs have Republican representatives and Manhattan had several in the past.

The landscape is not poised to get easier for Manhattan’s GOP under Republican President Donald Trump, who is opposed by Manhattan liberals such as Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio and some local moderate Republicans.

The outgoing chairwoman, Adele Malpass, who is moving to Washington as her husband takes a job in the Trump administration, said the club has managed to gain members and raise money “in a very hard environment.”

Ms. Catsimatidis said she supports the president but “any political figure you’re going to disagree with part of the time.”

The election for chair is expected to be held in September. Another candidate may emerge, but Ms. Catsimatidis is backed by a powerful group, including Mr. Giuliani, former Gov. George Pataki, New York state GOP Chairman Ed Cox, and Ms. Malpass.

“A.J. is exactly the right person to run the Manhattan GOP,” said Mr. Giuliani, using Ms. Catsimatidis’ nickname. “I stand ready to help her.”

Democrats say they are not intimidated.

“Our party has successfully aligned itself with the interests and values of Manhattan voters,” said Barry Weinberg, the executive director of the Manhattan Democratic Committee. 

Last week, Ms. Catsimatidis held a cocktail party, attended by Mr. Pataki, at her family’s apartment overlooking Central Park to formally declare her candidacy and meet members. Republicans snacked on canapés and expressed optimism that a fresh face might help them win seats.

“Politics is cyclical,” said the committee’s vice chair, Alexandra Nigolian, who is backing Ms. Catsimatidis, “so I don’t think it’s over for us.”

Write to Mike Vilensky at mike.vilensky@dowjones.com

Appeared in the August 28, 2017, print edition as 'Heiress Believes in Manhattan GOP.'