When he is alone in the field: a Russian-speaking republican is fighting for a seat in the New York City Council

Everyone is used to thinking of New York as a democratic city. The mayor is a Democrat, 48 out of 51 seats in the city council are occupied by representatives of the Democratic Party, all the attention in the elections is focused on the Democrats and their primaries. From the outside it seems that there are no Republicans in the race at all. But actually it is not. In New York City, very prominent Republican representatives are often nominated for elections. Strong personalities are needed in order to establish effective work, being in a minority. One of them is Inna Vernikov. She is fighting for a seat in the city council from the 48th arrondissement.

Vernikov is a lawyer who moved to the United States from Ukraine as a child. She has her own immigration and divorce law firm. For Inna, this is the first nomination for an elective position, but she is no stranger to politics. Previously, Vernikov served as Special Assistant to New York State Assembly Member Dova Haykinda. She is also the Chair of the American Against Anti-Semitism Women's Committee, an organization founded to combat the growing threat of anti-Semitism in the United States.

Being a Republican in the New York elections is easier and more difficult at the same time. It's easier because Vernikov, as the only Republican nominee in the constituency, has no competitors within the party, which means he goes straight to the main elections; more difficult because this is New York - a city where conservative views are not part of the mainstream.

ForumDaily New York talked with Inna Vernikov about how she wants to change the city, and also learned what problems the politician considers to be of top priority and how she intends to solve them.

Democrats on paper, Republicans at heart

The first question I want to ask, you've probably heard already 100 times. How do you assess your chances of winning, given the democratic sympathies of the majority of New Yorkers?

I have a very, very high chance of winning because the 48th arrondissement is incredibly conservative. In the last elections, 65% of voters voted for Donald Trump there. Many of them, registered as Democrats, will vote Republican in the main election. And they are actually Republicans in their views, and Democrats register only to be able to vote in the primaries. But ideologically they are Republicans.

Let's say you won. Now there are only three Republicans in the New York City Council, and after the elections, the situation will not change dramatically. Can you be effective in such an environment, in the minority?

In the course of the development of my campaign, I have already managed to achieve quite a lot of influence, my opinion is important for society. My work is already quite effective, I would even say - more effective than in the case of some elected officials.

As an example, Inna cited the story of the headmaster of a high school in Brooklyn. Amanda Bueno used her work mail to urge staff to publicly support the Palestinians in the conflict with Israel. This is a violation of work ethics as the headmaster is not allowed to use work mail and resources to promote personal views and likes. Moreover, it offended the feelings of the Jewish teachers. Vernikov intervened, wrote a letter to the head of the city's Department of Education and eventually forced the director to apologize for the misuse of work mail.

Politicians' statements are more important than they seem

Let's continue the topic of anti-Semitism. After a new escalation of the conflict in Israel, a wave of anti-Semitic attacks swept across America. What ways do you see to counter this?

There are many ways to counter this. First, officials and politicians are not opposed to this. They are afraid to talk about it, most of them are members of the Democratic Party. And its members are now prohibited from publicly speaking out against anti-Semitism. This is such an unpleasant situation now in the Democratic Party, which has gone strongly into the left ideology. Unfortunately, anti-Israeli views are now part of the so-called progressive movement.

But the main thing here is not so much Israel and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as that politicians are afraid to speak out openly against anti-Semitism, against the fact that Jews are beaten in broad daylight on the streets of New York. It's just incredible! Where are we now? Is this really America of 2021 ?!

Schools and universities are also facing this problem en masse. From the moment the story of the principal surfaced, I have received a ton of letters and letters from students and teachers telling me that their schools are publicly supporting BLM (Black Lives Matter - African American Rights Movement), publicly supporting Palestinians, but refusing to do simple a statement condemning anti-Semitism and supporting Jewish students and teaching there. It's just crazy!

That is, you just need to break the silence?

If the officials come out and just condemn anti-Semitism and support the Jews, it will help a lot. If colleges, where a lot of anti-Semitism starts and spreads, come out, make strong statements and really protect their Jewish students who fear for their physical safety, that will help too. And, of course, our city should restore the police budget, and the state should do something about their deranged reform to abolish bail for many offenders - it, in fact, provided criminals with immunity.

The police are now really facing huge problems. She not only lost part of the budget, but also public confidence. Do you see a way out of this situation?

First of all, we need to talk about it loudly. We need politicians to really support the police. The problem is not only that the police have cut the budget, the problem is also in the attitude, perception of the policemen. The police receive no support from the Mayor de Blasio. He allowed the city streets to be painted in honor of the BLM movement, but he puts residents in danger when he criticizes the police. The issue is not only about funding, but about public support for the police.

For example, in the summer of 2020, various attacks were made on the police, and no one did anything about this. When officials in their public statements speak out against the police, they push the crowd to attack the policemen, and there is no punishment for that ... What they are doing is incomprehensible. They are trying to punish the police.

The police no longer have protection, no one wants to be a policeman anymore. De Blasio is lying when he goes to the press conference and says that "the police department has no problems, there are no problems with hiring new employees." I meet cops on the streets all the time, they are scared, no one else wants to be part of the NYPD. This is a movement in the opposite direction from the goal of maintaining security in our city.

“Helping the homeless is not necessary at the expense of the middle class and child safety”

Another growing problem in the city is the homeless. In your program, you say that you are against the shelter system for them in the form in which it exists. What's your project to help the homeless of New York?

I'm not against homeless shelters at all. I am against building such shelters near schools. Children should not go to school past places where (let's face it) drugs and crime will be. It's just very dangerous for children.

In addition, such shelters will reduce the value of real estate in the area. People bought houses there with their savings, and now they will simply be deprived of the expected return on these investments due to the construction of shelters for the homeless in these areas. You cannot solve the problem of homelessness at the expense of the safety of children and the middle class!

Where, then, should they be built?

There are places in the city where you can build shelters for the homeless without harming other residents of the city. I propose to organize shelters near government buildings, courts - then it will not harm residential areas, and the homeless will have somewhere to go. Moreover, such areas are always well controlled by the police.

The second problem is mental disorders in many homeless people. And shelters, wherever they are, cannot be helped.

Yes, this is a huge problem indeed. De Blasio's wife started an organization called Thrive NYC, she spent a billion taxpayer money on it. But absolutely nothing was done and no one knows where this money went.

My point is that in creating an organization to help the homeless with mental problems, we must make sure that this money is not wasted, as was the case with the organization of de Blasio's wife, but actually goes to improve the situation with the homeless and people with mental disorders. ...

Strengthen the backbone of the New York economy

You said in one interview that New York has “horribly high taxes.” Do you have any ideas how to deal with this problem?

In New York, the problem is not only with incredibly high taxes, but also with small businesses. And one of my main tasks is to help small businesses. I myself have been the owner of a small business for 7 years, my legal practice, for the creation of which I worked hard and hard.

Even before the pandemic, small businesses suffered from bureaucracy, but during the pandemic, a third of small businesses in the city had to close. This is despite the fact that small business is the backbone of the New York economy. During the pandemic, politicians were completely irresponsible towards small businesses.

I understand: when it all started, we did not know what to do and we had to close everything. But when we mastered the methods of treatment and received more information about the virus, we should not have closed the economy the way we did, thereby destroying the business.

So what to do now?

When I go to the City Council, I will work to ensure that representatives of small businesses know about all the support funds available to them from the city. I will hire experts who understand this situation and know how to help small businesses get this funding. Because in the field of economics, helping and supporting small businesses is my main priority.

In conclusion, I would like to ask: who would you like to see the new mayor of New York?

I do not interfere in the race for the mayor's seat and do not publicly support anyone. But I hope that the winning candidate will fight crime fiercely, support the police, small business and put things in order in our wonderful city.