Opportunity NYC
Opportunity NYC was an experimental Conditional Cash Transfer program (CCT) by the Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg. Announced in April 2007, it was the first CCT program to be launched in the United States or any other developed nation. Its initial phases were funded by a number of private partners including The Rockefeller Foundation, Robin Hood Foundation, the Open Society Institute, Starr Foundation, AIG, and Mayor Bloomberg's own Bloomberg Family Foundation. The program is being evaluated by MDRC, a nonprofit research firm, using a random assignment research design. Opportunity NYC is administered by Seedco, a nonprofit community development organization. The program ended on August 31, 2010.
Tom Allon
On July 12, 2011, Allon announced that he would run for mayor of the City of New York. He stated that New Yorkers need a leader "like me who thinks like an Israeli: tough and always ready to defend his people." On January 10, 2012, the Liberal Party of New York selected Allon as its mayoral candidate. Allon's chances at winning the Republican nomination dwindled after two better-known candidates, billionaire grocer John A. Catsimatidis and former Metropolitan Transportation Authority chief Joseph J. Lhota, entered the race. While Allon "made a strong impression at a series of candidate forums," his candidacy failed to gain traction, and "his polling numbers mired in the low single digits." Allon also had difficulty attracting campaign donors, reporting just $17,335 in contributions in the two months before he dropped out of the race. Allon withdrew from the race on March 17, his campaign more than $4,000 in debt. The Liberal Party subsequently endorsed Catsimatidis. At the same time, Allon acquired the news organization "City & State" from Manhattan Media.