While the mayoral primary elections for New York City drew a lot of media attention, mostly due to a sex scandal involving Anthony Weiner, the actual mayoral race has flown under the radar until now; Republican candidate Joe Lhota released a vicious ad on Wednesday implying that the city would return to its crime-ridden past if Democrat Bill de Blasio wins the election, according to the Associated Press.
The 30-second spot focuses on a recent incident in New York involving a group of motorcycle riders getting into an altercation where they pulled a man out of an SUV and beat him while the whole thing was caught on camera.
The ad shows video from the biker incident as well as pictures of an overturned police car and other crime scenes from the 1980s and 1970s while attacking de Blasio. Members of de Blasio's camp called the ad divisive, according to the Associated Press.
"Lhota is right that we can't go back," Dan Levitan, a spokesman for de Blasio, said. "We shouldn't return to the days when Republicans like Giuliani used fear tactics to divide New Yorkers against each other."
Lhota, who served as deputy mayor under Giuliani, was offended that the de Blasio campaign attacked the former mayor, according to the New York Daily News.
"How dare he impugn the integrity of Rudy Giuliani?" Lhota said. "Because of him and the reductions of crime, so many people are alive today. We live in parts of the city we never thought we'd live in. Crime reduction has continued to go down, and it's been in the best interests of New York."
Lhota continued to slam de Blasio as being soft on crime when he was interviewed by "Good Day New York," the New York Daily News reports.
"There's no doubt in my mind that under Bill de Blasio, including the people he's thinking about making police commissioner, crime will go up," Lhota said. "There's no question."
