Can A Bearded Candidate Become Mayor? Yes and No

Bill de Blasio is not a Hasid, although he represented Borough Park in the city Council. Nevertheless, the NY Post found issue with the mayoral hopeful getting rid of his beard as soon as he was considered a serious candidate for mayor.

“As a Brooklyn councilman, de Blasio sported a beard when elected in 2001, taming it to a rakish mustache and goatee by the time he was public advocate in 2010. Just a year later, he made his smooth transition,” the Post noted.

�I didn�t leave my beard � my beard left me,� de Blasio told The Post, explaining that it was vanity, not politics, that led him to shave it off. �I started to notice flecks of gray . . . and I didn�t like the look,� de Blasio admitted, adding he immediately felt younger after the shave.”

Experts said de Blasio�s close call makes sense, because conventional wisdom says facial hair doesn�t cut it in politics.

�In modern times, it makes the general public wince,� said political consultant George Arzt, who worked on de Blasio�s campaign for public advocate. Voters find facial hair �untrustworthy,� he added.

�You can�t keep switching off from beard to mustache and goatee to nothing � then you don�t have a steady image of that person. That could work against him,� cautioned Arzt.

Which raises the question, can a candidate with a beard become mayor of New York City? Maybe that’s why Joe Lhota, the Republican favorite, is considered a long shot. Joe Lhota � is the lone bearded candidate in the race. The last bearded mayor of New York City was William Gaynor, who served from 1910 to 1913. He�s also the only mayor targeted by an assassin; he survived being shot in the throat in 1910, but died three years later.

�Having facial hair is not a determent,� Lhota declared to The Post. I have no desire to shave it. That�s not going to happen. �Plus, Republicans can get away with it more than Democrats because they have this image of being self-made people.�

But Arzt told the post, if anyone can pull it off, Lhota can, because the beard is part of his personality.

(Jacob Kornbluh – YWN)