He could prove a fur-midable candidate.
Forget Mamdani, Adams and Cuomo — there’s a new Demo-cat shaking things up in Big Apple politics.
For the last month, stickers have been popping up on utility poles all across western Queens, urging voters to consider write-in candidate Leo Namuche.
Better known as Leo the Cat, 9, the former street feline seeks to replace term-limited moderate Dem Robert Holden in the City Council.
Leo, a lifelong Ridgewood resident, is the only four-legged pol seeking to lead District 30, which includes Ridgewood, Maspeth, Glendale, Middle Village, Elmhurst and Rego Park. Two others — including Holden’s budget director, Phil Wong — appear on the Nov. 4 ballot.
Wong is running as a Democrat against Alicia Vaichunas, another one of Holden’s top aides who is running on Republican and Conservative lines.
Only 139 people follow Leo on Instagram, where he’s promised to “dismantle the conservative chokehold Robert Holden has held on the district.”
Leo, a cinnamon swirl tabby, also claims to be the sole candidate to “give a meow” about the people.
Leo’s owner, Raquel Namuche Pacheo, a member of the Ridgewood Tenants Union, has been running his protest campaign.
“Ours is a campaign to uplift every paw that ever touched the snowy ground in the dead of winter, for anyone that suffered through the rain without shelter — for the dignity of everyone,” reads Leo’s campaign announcement from late July.
Namuche Pacheo, 41, a Mamdani supporter who lives outside the district, said the campaign began when no “viable candidates” presented any progressive ideas during their primary races.
“For decades, District 30 has elected individuals concerned only with ‘quality of life’ issues, but they lack the actual ‘common sense’ to understand high rents, the high cost of food, unaffordable childcare, and other survival needs impact quality of life more than graffiti,” Pacheo told The Post.
If elected, Leo plans to introduce legislation instituting a citywide, mandatory daily afternoon nap.
A Board of Elections source asked a Post reporter if he was “intoxicated” when questioned about the legality of Leo’s write-in candidacy and then said “we can certainly say that only a human being — specifically a US citizen — can hold elected office in NYC.”
Holden deferred comment on the Demo-cat targeting his seat to his beloved district office “spokescat,” Rocky.
“Nobody cares about Leo! He doesn’t even live in the district,” growled Rocky in a statement provided to The Post. “I feel bad for Leo though. His owner is a wackadoo lefty nutjob who’s using him against his will for political purposes, and maybe she should worry about the district she actually lives in.”
The post He’s a Demo-cat: Groundswell of support in Queens for write-in candidate Leo the feline appeared first on New York Post.
