David Casavis

David Casavis is the 2009 Republican candidate for Borough President of Manhattan, New York City, USA.
Campaign Platform
Casavis' campaign platform calls for the elimination of the office, based on the idea that the power of the office has diminished since the 1989 abolishment of the New York City Board of Estimate, which the Supreme Court of the United States declared unconsitutional. Casavis argues that setting aside money to pay the salary and perks for an office that many might consider vestigial and superfluous is wasteful of taxpayer money, and inappropriate in a time of economic hardship. On his campaign website, Casavis writes, “There is only one issue in the 2009 campaign for Borough President, Manhattan. That is whether to get rid of it or to continue siphoning off stimulus money, slowing any hoped-for recovery in New York.”
Casavis has been endorsed by several other political parties, most notably the .

His opponent in the race is Scott Stringer, the current incumbent, who began to serve in 2006.
Political Career
Casavis, who has long been active in New York City politics, currently serves as the Treasurer of the Metropolitan Republican Club. Casavis has been a campaign manager for several Republicans in the past decade. While he has never been able to win a victory, given the overwhelming odds against Republicans in a city where they are outnumbered five to one by Democrats, Casavis has earned the gratitude of dark-horse candidates he saved from defeats of humiliating propertions. Casavis claimed to an Our Town reporter that he was able to “pull campaigns out of the brink,” earning him the nickname “David Can-Save-Us.”
When it appeared that the Republicans would not be able to field a candidate, Casavis reluctantly agreed to run for an East Side New York State Assembly district in 2008. He spent only $200 on the campaign, money he loaned to himself, but garnered over 26% of the total vote, more than any other losing candidate that year.
Academic Career
Casavis writes occasional articles and book reviews for the Foreign Service Journal, the United States Department of State's official magazine. He has appeared on a wide variety of television discussion programs as an foreign affairs analyst and a commentator on US and international politics.

Casavis investigated the Thomas Carroll visa selling case in Guyana, and is currently working on a non-fiction book series about crimes at US embassies abroad.

As an academic, Casavis has taught at CUNY, most recently as an adjunct professor at the York College, City University of New York campus. Recently, Casavis, who has done considerable research on the African country of Equatorial Guinea, the only Spanish speaking country south of the Sahara, presented a paper at a Hofstra University symposium on the origins of genocide and the destruction of democracy in Equatorial Guinea. Casavis gave the keynote speech to the Mother Tongue Story Writing Workshop while he was in Kathmandu, Nepal earlier this year. His speech, “Endangered Languages,” underlined the purpose of the Nepalese workshop, which was to produce publications written in the disappearing languages of Himalayan valley peoples.

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