The candidates have been piling up endorsements in the election for Staten Island district attorney, but with just weeks to go, the city's top Democrat, Mayor Bill de Blasio, has not yet weighed in. NY1's Amanda Farinacci filed the following report.
Staten Island is the only borough Bill de Blasio lost in the mayoral race, and the liberal Democrat hasn't won over many converts here since then.
"The mayor is, really, like I say, he's all over the place," said one Staten Island resident. "He should never have been elected, actually."
"I don't really like the man too much," said another.
Which explains why de Blasio has emerged as a campaign issue in the surprisingly tight race for district attorney in the city's most conservative borough. Republican Joan Illuzzi has tried repeatedly to tie her Democratic rival, Michael McMahon, to the mayor.
"Anybody who votes alongside and with Bill de Blasio 97 percent of the time is a tax-and-spend liberal. Yes he is," Illuzzi said.
That attack, at a NY1 debate, was a reference to how McMahon and de Blasio often voted the same way when they served together on the City Council.
At the same debate, McMahon played the de Blasio card, too.
"There's only one person in this race who has a senior member of the de Blasio administration as a senior adviser to her campaign, and that's Ms. Illuzzi," McMahon said. "No one from the de Blasio campaign is working in my race."
At an Illuzzi fundraiser the day before the debate, Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani repeatedly attacked de Blasio, accusing him - falsely - of being a kingmaker trying to make McMahon DA.
McMahon has had Democrats stump for him, most recently Sen. Charles Schumer, but not de Blasio. At the Schumer event, we pressed McMahon why.
"The thing is, Amanda, I'm running for district attorney on Staten Island. I'm not running for mayor. I'm not running for a legislative post. And that's why Sen. Schumer's endorsement means so much," McMahon said.
"A de Blasio endorsement would hurt McMahon for sure," said Richard Flanagan of the College of Staten Island. "He's unpopular on the island, so if the mayor came out strongly in support of McMahon, McMahon would likely lose a lot of independent voters."
With a little more than two weeks before Election Day, analysts say either candidate could win. But one thing is certain: the mayor will not take an active role in the campaign.