Independent mayoral candidate Rick McCabe said in March it would send “a powerful message” if he could pull together a slate of running mates to join him on the November ballot.
But he has come up short.
McCabe, 52, struck out on his plan to build an independent coalition after weeks of pitching the idea of running for City Council to prospects.
“There’s not going to be a slate,” he told The Record on Tuesday. “I think it would have been great to have had partners in the race.”
Instead, the city’s Recreation Commission chairman will now have to campaign on his own he looks to defy the odds and pull off an upset over Republican Bill Henderson and Democrat Josh Nathan, both sitting councilmen.
Both political parties are also running full slates of council candidates.
McCabe, who announced his surprise candidacy back in March, said he had “great conversations” about running for the council with people he’s known for decades, as well as others he met along the campaign trail.
“It was a combination of some saying it’s not the right time, while others said they’ve seen the back and forth on the council and are understandably a little resistant to jumping into the fray,” he added.
And though he said he would have preferred to headline his own ticket, McCabe said he doesn’t see his lack of a slate negatively affecting his run.
Jake Delimani, a Democratic strategist, said that McCabe, as an independent candidate, faces an uphill battle.
“It’s very difficult for an independent candidate to win any election, unless that person has either very high name recognition and favorability and the opposition is unknown,” Delimani said. He added that an independent candidate would need to be well funded and able to sufficiently communicate his message to overcome the “disadvantages” of not running on a major party line.
The silver lining, the strategist said, is that running in an off-year election where only the most committed voters are likely to turn out could benefit a dark horse candidate like McCabe — assuming he is “well-known and liked and can communicate.”
Meanwhile, McCabe is still up against a May 27 deadline to submit petitions for his mayoral run with the Westchester Board of Elections. McCabe said he feels good about the number of signatures he’s collected already. He needs 336 of them to be certified.
Rye’s Republican Party is expected to challenge those signatures to try and knock McCabe off the November ballot.
A registered independent, McCabe briefly ran on the GOP line last year before dropping out, explaining that he had an undisclosed illness.
Election Day is scheduled for Nov 4.
