Lhota Visits Store Seeking Jewish Vote, Not Those Kosher Skittles Joseph J. Lhota, with Albert Friedman, the publisher of a Yiddish newspaper, at Gourmet Glatt Market on Wednesday. Joseph J. Lhota, the Republican candidate for mayor, was strolling the aisles of the Gourmet Glatt Market in Borough Park, Brooklyn, on Wednesday, stopping to admire a long row of kosher sorbets, and wondering aloud what made a vegetable kosher or not kosher. The answer: bugs. At one point, the store's general manager, Sam Segedin, picked up a bag of kosher Skittles, which until two weeks ago were available only in Israel. "People had to suffer for a long time," deadpanned Michael Fragin, a political consultant and Mr. Lhota's liaison to the Jewish community, adding that his wife loves the sweets. Mr. Lhota apparently does not. "I was at a party recently where some people had a bowl out, and I thought they were M&M's, and then it was Skittles," he said. Let me tell you: when you think it's M&M's, and it ends up being Skittles, it's a little shocking. Mr. Lhota, who also stopped by a Jewish social service agency in Midwood on Wednesday, is making a significant effort to attract the Jewish vote. And although he was raised Catholic and considers himself a Christian, he does have an ethnic trump card: his maternal grandmother was Jewish, which, according to Jewish law, makes Mr. Lhota Jewish, too. As he attempted to cultivate support in Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn, where there are a number of Republicans, Mr. Lhota did not bring up his heritage, instead asking questions about Jewish practices and connecting with people over pragmatic issues like their concerns about the costs of living or running a business in the city. He hired Mr. Fragin, who previously served as a Jewish liaison for both Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and former Gov. George E. Pataki, part time to help introduce him to leaders in the Jewish community. Although the residents of Borough Park are predominantly registered Democrats, there are several thousand registered Republicans there, and the area often elects Republicans in races above the local level. At Gourmet Glatt, which opened early last year, Mr. Segedin was mostly concerned about fines and aggressive inspections by several city agencies. The store offers valet parking, for instance, and several times a week, he has gotten a $115 ticket because the valet driver was not in the driver's seat when the customer walked in the store. We're not even out of the woods yet from the initial investment, and I've paid almost as much in violations as in other services that I'm trying to provide my customer. Mr. Lhota, who was trailed around the store by reporters from the Yeshiva World News and a Yiddish newspaper, pledged, as many candidates have, to change the relationship between the city and small businesses. "Many small businesses, and some large businesses, feel harassed by the City of New York," he said. Referring to the many visits by inspectors that Mr. Segedin had described, he said: "It's harassment. It's revenue generation, and it shouldn't be. We should be using our regulations to modify behavior, not as a budget balancer. He also spoke critically of how the budget had increased during the Bloomberg administration. "We need to put the budget on a diet," he added, saying that the budget "shouldn't grow greater than the rate of inflation."