TA mayor launches reelection bid

Campaign manager: There’s no one who can match Ron Huldai’s leadership after 15 years at the helm.

By BEN HARTMAN
Huldai 311 (photo credit: Ben Hartman)
Huldai 311
(photo credit: Ben Hartman)
Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai launched his reelection campaign on Monday, calling on voters to remember what he and supporters described as 15 years of progress in the city.
Huldai described Tel Aviv as a city that was neglected when he came to office, and has in the years since thrived and become a center that answers all the needs of its residents.
“There are those who call this new urbanism; I call it an urban kibbutz. The idea of the kibbutz was that a person would need to be able to get all of his needs met in one place, within a walking distance. This is what Tel Aviv has become.”
Huldai and supporters who took the stage before him leaned strongly on the city’s burgeoning image as a tourism and party capital, with Huldai himself mentioning how The New York Times called Tel Aviv “the capital of Mediterranean cool” in 2008.
Campaign manager Danny Borovich, for his part, said that “Huldai has already been mayor for 15 years and has proven that there’s no one who can match his leadership.”
Borovich cited accomplishments such as the building of bike lanes, the municipal bikerental system, the renovation of the Habima theater, the promenade and Gordon Pool.
He also mentioned the city’s 1,700 bars, as well as the city’s support of the local LGBT community.
They also screened a video showing a clip of the famous “what have the Romans ever done for us” scene from the Monty Python film Life of Brian, with Hebrew voices dubbed over those of the actors, describing how Huldai built bike lanes and developed a municipal bike-rental system and renovated the city’s boulevards.
When it came to the problems facing the city, Huldai mentioned three specific issues: the high cost of living, “the inefficient public transportation”, and “the great influx of foreigners who have arrived in great numbers to the south of the city.”
Huldai and his One Tel Aviv party list will face competition in the October 22 elections from the Labor Party list, which Huldai used to be part of, as well as the Meretz party list, led by MK and mayoral candidate Nitzan Horowitz.