Republican recidivism-foe George McDonald is running for Mayor of NYC. He announced his entrance into the dull-so-far post-Bloomberg race yesterday at Grand Central Terminal, where 30 years ago he handed out sandwiches to the homeless while unsuccessfully running for US Congress. (To be fair, he supposedly handed out the sandwiches for 700 days.) Before that he’d worked on Ted Kennedy’s presidential campaign. But McDonald has been most successful as the founder and chairman of The Doe Fund. For the past 27 years, the Fund has helped thousands of formerly homeless, addicted and incarcerated individuals find treatment, jobs and housing. He built the Fund on the belief that most will seize the opportunity to change their lives if given the opportunity. “A hand up, not a handout” is a favorite mantra.
Mayor Bloomberg has been a Doe Fund supporter for years. In fact, in 2010, questions abounded as to whether donations to the Fund by Bloomberg were an attempt to influence testimony in his 2008 bid to overturn term limits. McDonald and about 20 Doe Fund employees testified in City Council hearings in favor of easing term limits. No undue influence was found. Bloomberg won the term. Who will he support now?
