The head of an Italian-American group is taking the fight over the city’s Christopher Columbus statue to the ballot box, planning to quiz each candidate in the upcoming election on their position on the monument. Angelo Vivolo, president of the Columbus Citizens Foundation, said his group would survey every candidate for city office in this year’s election to ask whether they think the statue of the explorer at Columbus Circle should stay or be taken down.

“We want to expose everyone, let everyone’s opinion be known, and then let the Italian-Americans and others in the public eye decide who should be elected and who shouldn’t be elected,” he said Sunday on the John Catsimatidis AM 970 radio show. “If they don’t respond to our letter, we’ll assume they’re not in favor of preserving the Christopher Columbus statue.”