Vickie Paladino, New York City Council Member Interview.

Mendte in the Morning talks with Vickie Paladino to discuss the mayoral race in NYC and her issue with rank choice voting.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now let's get back to the race for mayor. Vicky
Palladino is a New York City Council member. She represents
District nineteen, that's Northeast Queens. Vicky, it's always great to
talk to you when you have all of these Democrats
now running for mayor and they're all going to be
attacking each other. It's already started between Mayor Adams and

(00:23):
and former Governor Cuomo. When you're a Republican, do you
just sit back and watch it and smile and eat
some popcorn?

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah? I do. How how I'm not good good?

Speaker 1 (00:35):
I'm doing real good. I'm doing real good. I'm enjoying.
I'm enjoying the infighting.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
You know, the infighting is always good. The outcome is
what what you worry the hell out of everybody. Uh.
You know, we have Cuomo who put his waight until
the very last moment to put his hat in. You
have Adams. Uh. But I'm a little concerned about this
Zoran Mandabi guy. He's out of his mind. He's right

(01:04):
there with the guy from Chicago, the mayor of Chicago
that has an approval rating of six percent. He's right
along those lines and a dark horse in this particular
that everybody's forgetting about is ranked choice voting, Larry, rank
choice voting is a problem. This is where you get

(01:28):
to place I at a horse race first place, second place,
third place, and so on, and now whoever gets to
fifty wins. Okay, that's not good. I will tell everybody
out there, for the sake of the city, in whatever
race that's got a primary in it, please go in

(01:48):
there and just just check off the box for the
one person. Don't complicate things, because you know this city's
gonna have two choices. Is it going to reach a
moderate here or is it going to go by way
of Chicago. So in San Francisco. That's an interesting, interesting point.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
It is an interesting point. Let's get back to Zorhan
mom Donni for a second, because I want to explain
to people who he is and why you're concerned about him.
Zorhan mom Donnie is a state assembly person from Queens.
He runs as a Socialist Democrat, so he tells you
what he's going to do. He's probably the most liberal
person in the race for the Democrats, and recently a

(02:31):
poll was out and this is I think, while you're
concerned about him, he finished second a distant second. But
he was nowhere to be found in the polls at first.
So he is rising, and you're right that he's someone
to watch, and the fact that you brought him up
means that you're concerned about him.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
Why I'm concerned because he's raising money like crazy as
of last week. I didn't check his numbers. This week
he rsed two point eight million. Uh immatchable. Now remember
everybody matchable is eight to one. Uh. Not just that, uh,
test the mood of the city. Look what's going on

(03:10):
in my city council. So that's why I said earlier
in the conversation that we really need with this and
this is a race that's very difficult, uh, first time
I think in New York City's history, we really have
a Uh it's a tightrope. We're walking here. Are we
going to go by way of the progressive line? Which

(03:31):
is what they and uh these the said it like
you said, he titles himself socialists, So you know what
you're getting? Or are we going to go with the
war between Cuomo and Adams? And Cuomo comes with a
lot of baggage he's got I mean, how how good
are people's memories. Really, they're going to be tested. We're

(03:52):
gonna find out covid uh, the loss of lives in
the nursing homes. We've had them cripple him, cripple our city.
His governor and his hand reached down here as well
the entire state, and he locked us all down. We
had our businesses, small businesses shut down. We've had our

(04:16):
schools shut down, our churches shut down, only to find
out in twenty twenty four that the shot didn't mean
a damn thing. We saw our first responders lost their jobs, Doctors, firemen, policemen,
teachers go down, run the gamut. So is Cuomo. So

(04:39):
here's another question. Is Cuomo going to be able to
survive that? So you've got a progressive lunatic. You've got Cuomo,
and now you have Adams. And let's not forget brad Lander,
who I think is gonna get his knees bloodied on
his way begging to get to this finished line.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
You're right, how about Adrian Adams. She's talking about jumping
in the race.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
I forget no, forget it, forget it. She knows if
she jumps into the race and people like her. When
you start to see these people at the last moment,
like her, she was the only speaker of the city council,
not even a strong speaker of the city council. Throw
their hat in. You have to wonder what their future

(05:27):
aspirations are, Larry, because what happens is they get their money,
they bank it, and they use it for another day.
So that's that's what could happen there, you know. And
also remember Cuomo's got a ton of money. Adams does not.
Adams isn't even allowed to make matching funds. So, uh,

(05:49):
you know, do we go moderate, do we go you know,
moderate left, or do we go off the charts, off
the rails?

Speaker 1 (06:00):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (06:00):
With these liberal progressives pulling us that way the way
they do in city council. Remember, everybody, my city council,
there's only five of us normal folk, five out of
fifty one five and that's crazy stuff. So it's for
the life of this city. Please think wisely. If you're

(06:23):
dead on straight about who you want for your Democratic candidate, remember,
you know, vote once, just vote for the person that
you want. And if there's any primary throughout this city.
I'm not being primaried in city Council for my seat,
but I do have my race. If you don't mind, Larry,

(06:46):
I'd like to plug that a little bit. Ah, thank you,
thank you dear. My race is also in November. And
though I'm not being primaried by a Republican, of course not,
I am being there's three running on the Democratic side
and that needs to be considered. So I am going
to be in a race for my seat. Do take

(07:09):
it lightly. Don't take anybody's seat lightly. If you want
to keep that person there, volunteer for their campaign, help
them raise money, and make a donation if you can.
But that's what this race is about. This most important, though,
is who's going to steer our ship?

Speaker 1 (07:25):
Yeah, I get it, and I'll tell you what. I'll
tell you what. There's nobody that doesn't want you in
the city council. You are the best thing about the
New York City Council.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
So thank you, Lack.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
You keep coming on. No, you're awesome. I love talking
to you. Vicki Palladino, thanks so much, New York City.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
Good luck, good luck with Rick later. He's a great guy,
all right.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
Thank you.