Marty Dolan, 66, who describes himself as “from Main Street and Wall Street,” announced earlier this month that he will challenge U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the June Democratic primary.
Dolan faces an uphill battle in his quest to represent the 14th Congressional District of 700,000 people living in the Hunts Point, Co-op City, Troggs Neck and Parkchester neighborhoods in the east Bronx, plus the Queens neighborhoods of Astoria, East Elmhurst and part of Jackson Heights.
Ocasio-Cortez won the 2022 general election with nearly 70% of the vote and is one of the most prominent elected officials in the country. But she hasn’t faced a major challenger since 2020 — and Dolan believes the time is right.
In an interview with the Bronx Times, Dolan said he will use the next three months to get his name out there among CD-14 voters, many of whom he says are fed up with progressive leadership. He argues that progressives have made the city worse—not better—in dealing with social problems.
On his campaign website, he lists the impact in New York of what he called “radical” Democratic politics: “bail reform is a disaster, the National Guard in the subways, toothpaste locked up in pharmacies, but criminals run free, scarce resources aimed at (non-asylum) immigrants coming from all over the world.
Dolan presented himself as a clear alternative to liberal incumbents such as Ocasio-Cortez and U.S. Rep. Jamal Bowman. At first he set out to Bowman challenge in the CD-16 race, but moved on to challenge Ocasio-Cortez in CD-14. The Bronx Times has contacted Ocasio-Cortez’s office for comment.
“All I ever cared about was helping people,” Dolan said.
Dolan grew up literally on Main Street in the small village of Irvington in Westchester County in an “Irish Catholic Latino” family. His father, a native of Argentina, immigrated to the United States by steamboat.
Dolan’s father, a doctor, mainly cared for other immigrants who worked in a General Motors factory, and his mother was a nurse. They had 10 children in 12 years.
Dolan went to Union College—supporting himself by bartending and other odd jobs—and then Harvard Business School, which landed him a “start-up job” managing information between desks at a Wall Street firm.
He spent 25 years on Wall Street in the risk insurance industry, which he calls “the global safety net.” Dolan said that when disasters happened — from the 9/11 attacks to natural disasters — his job was to collect the money and take it to where the problem was.
Although Dolan’s career has taken him all over the world, he said he’s never been away from New York for long. He said he is currently looking for a permanent place to live in Queens or the Bronx.
Dolan said he has a perspective on how other big cities operate, something he says is crucial to his candidacy. “It’s beneficial that I’ve worked all over the world because I can look at the United States and say, ‘What’s different?'” he said.
“Taxpayers Export and Import Immigrants”
Contrary to Wall Street’s image, Dolan said his ideas — particularly on taxation — are both provocative and progressive.
He acknowledged the credit of Alexander Hamilton, whom he called his own website “one of the greatest New Yorkers” for his vision of a more equal United States that “works[s] as one country.”
According to Dolan, income inequality is a huge problem in New York and across the U.S. — and state-imposed tax policies are to blame.
At least in New York, Dolan said, “Taxes are too high.”
He cited wildly varying income tax rates — which can be as high as 14 percent for New Yorkers, but zero in Florida — as the reason people are fleeing the state, leading to reduced services and conditions for those who stay.
Dolan said it’s not the ultra-rich who are leaving, but people from the “backbone of the city” whose households earn $100,000-$200,000 a year.
He proposes shifting the cost of pensions and Medicare to the federal government instead of the state, which he says would reduce taxes by 25% to 30% in New York.
But aside from tax disparities, Dolan said another problem is that New York is “exporting taxpayers and importing immigrants who cost money.”
Dolan said immigrants “take advantage of the people in the city who need them” — and he believes there are many Bronxites who are fed up with Ocasio-Cortez and fellow liberals not addressing the issue.
Dolan also floated the idea of a Bronx-specific congestion pricing model. He said the Bronx, with its many interconnected bridges and roads, has a sophisticated transit layout, but “very little of the system is local community oriented.”
“The 20 million people who move up and down every year are not paying their fair share,” he said, while contributing to local problems such as congestion, asthma and other health impacts.
It would be fair, he noted, for the state to charge vehicles outside Bruckner’s state, for example.
“In the Bronx, the transportation system exports more problems to the area than it generates revenue, and we need to be compensated for that,” Dolan said.
Here he again draws on his international experience. Ideas, he said, like protected bike lanes and congestion pricing don’t come out of nowhere; they are implemented in New York because they have proven effective elsewhere.
Focusing on the Bronx’s assets, such as its connecting infrastructure and major business centers like Hunts Point Market, Dolan said the borough is well-positioned to gain prominence under his leadership.
“The Bronx needs a champion to stand up and say, ‘We have world-class stuff in the Bronx,'” he said.
“People’s Campaign”
Voter turnout in the Bronx typically lags behind the rest of the city, especially for primaries. But Dolan said he has faith in voters to understand what’s at stake in this year’s election.
“The June primary is a chance for people to vote on the future of New York,” he said, adding that he has spoken to Bronxites eager for change. “I think we’re going to have a great turnout.”
Dolan said he is heavily involved in his campaign and that he and his team will be going all over the Bronx.
“We’re going to run a people’s campaign,” he said — and by contrast, Dolan called Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign “wasteful” — especially in light of the nearly 20% poverty level in CD-14.
According to Federal Election Commission records, Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign has nearly $6 million in cash by hand while Dolan has $34,925. Records also show he made $55,000 in loans to his own campaign and collected only a few thousand in contributions.
But “people respond to the truth,” Dolan said, and a big-budget campaign won’t help. After all, “it’s up to voters to do their homework.”
Contact Emily Swanson at [email protected] or (646) 717-0015. For more information, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
