Broad Channel's Scott McCarthy is running for Public Advocate

Scott McCarthy is a resident of Broad Channel. 

He is running as a write-in candidate for Public Advocate.

“The Last Advocate”

Dispatches

The Wave | on January 10, 2019

By Scott McCarthy, Write-In Candidate For Public Advocate

The race for Public Advocate is shaping up to be crowded and expensive. This special election for a 10-month term is set to cost the taxpayers of New York City as much as $23 million dollars for an office that has an annual budget of $3.5 million dollars, only to need another set of elections at the end of the year for the same office that has amounted to nothing more than a way for politicians to pad their resumes on their way to higher offices.

Meanwhile, has the office effectively addressed and corrected any of the main issues facing our city since the office was created in 1993?

I would say public transportation has greatly declined, public housing remains in disrepair, corruption throughout our government hasn’t been this pervasive since the days of “Boss” Tweed and Tammany Hall, election reform has never been needed more and exactly what did the Public Advocate do to address the beach erosion that shut down several blocks of beachfront during the peak of the critical summer season?  

If any of the numerous established representatives running for the office is elected Public Advocate, they will immediately be focused on City Hall and its soon to be term limited Mayors seat, and the concerns of the residents become secondary to their career ambitions.

The office by definition should not be held by someone of the system they are supposed to be the watchdog of, as preexisting alliances could potentially create an immediate conflict of interest.

Right now the candidates and their volunteers are running around the city with clipboards in hand looking for the required signatures to get on the ballot, that will immediately be challenged by their opponents who are essentially trying to silence the voice of everyone who signed the petitions.

This is after each and every candidate has asked their supporters for their time and money, two commodities none of us have enough of.

These issues are why a vast majority of registered voters have become disenfranchised in the process and do not head to the polls on Election Day, with low turnouts being the norm which in turn keeps in power those who created the broken system that they benefit from.

This is the system and process that needs to be protested by the people of New York, not at a rally, but at a voting machine where it will actually send a message to our elected officials that we have had enough of the business as usual.

This is why on Feb. 26, when you head out to vote, I want you to bypass all of the candidates and their catchy one-off party names like “Fix the MTA” and go to the bottom of the ballot, fill in the circle next to Write-In and then write Scott McCarthy. The 10 months of the term will be spent bringing unprecedented transparency to the office, but it begins with on Day 1 finding enough members of City Council that will support legislation that would abolish the wasteful office at the end of the term, and putting the $3.5 million annual budget it requires to better use towards fixing or expanding transportation (like reactivating the Rockaway Beach Line), improving the deplorable conditions of our public housing or fixing our election system that always seems to have widespread disarray each and every election.

I am not a career politician; I am not a well-known political pundit. I am like every New Yorker who goes to work and collects a paycheck and with each passing year finds the city we love pricing us out, and being the ones dealing with the fallout of political gamesmanship of our politicians.

The Public Advocate has always been a “me” seat, I intend to make it a “we” seat it was always intended to be for the last 10 months of its existence. I believe political offices should be won based on good ideas and integrity and not bought and paid for by influential donors.

I am not asking you for a single cent to put in a campaign account.

I am not asking you for a single second of your time to volunteer that you should spend with your family and I won’t interrupt your dinner with a single phone call, I am only asking you for your vote.