Harlem pastor Calvin Butts says he’s considering running for mayor — and would consider forming an alliance with the Republican Party against Mayor de Blasio.
“There are a lot of people looking for new leadership who are calling me to run for mayor, including prominent people in the business and civic communities. I’m looking at it,” Butts told The Post.
“If they want me to run as a Republican. I would think about it Political parties aren’t golden calves. I don’t think in terms of Democrats, Republicans. I’m concerned about people.” said Butts, a registered Democrat who is senior pastor of historic Abyssinian Baptist Church.
He also heads the Abyssinian Development Corp., a housing and social services not-for-profit affiliated with the church that has run aground.
The not-for-profit behemoth has been mired in debt and mismanagement and has lost millions of dollars in city social service contracts amid ongoing audits, not exactly a selling point for a mayoral run. He insists the agency is cleaning up its act.
Butts said he’s concerned about police-community relations in the city, particularly citing what he sees as the lack of accountability in the 2014 police choke-hold death of Staten Island resident Eric Garner.
“That can’t be covered over with slick remarks,” Butts said of de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton.
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