Feeling the pressure, Christine Quinn (D) is doubling down on her attacks against progressive champ, Bill de Blasio (D):
http://www.nydailynews.com/...
Locked in the political fight of her life, Christine Quinn is unleashing a fierce attack campaign that paints her surging Democratic rival as a serial flip-flopper, most especially on the hot-button matter of term limits.
“A Tale of Two De Blasios,” a riff on de Blasio’s “Tale of Two Cities” slogan, includes a Web video and Tumblr page — a departure from the feel-good messages that she previously rolled out.
The video opens with a 2005 clip of de Blasio backing a repeal of term limits “through legislation” — a popular stance among the City Council colleagues he was wooing in the race to become Council speaker.
He lost that fight to Quinn. And this year, he has bashed her for joining with Mayor Bloomberg to overturn the law.
De Blasio now says the process of repealing term limits wasn’t sufficiently transparent. - New York Daily News, 8/21/13
And Quinn isn't just going after de Blasio, she's also attacking his wife:
http://politicker.com/...
Today, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd quoted Bill de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, criticizing her husband’s rival, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, calling her “not the kind of person I feel I can go up to and talk to about issues like taking care of children at a young age and paid sick leave.”
The remark, which comes as the contest becomes increasingly nasty, prompted a furious statement from the Quinn campaign criticizing Mr. de Blasio for discriminating against childless families.
“I have spoken fondly of Ms. McCray and Mr. de Blasio’s family. It’s unfortunate that they cannot do the same about mine –no matter how different it might be from theirs,” Ms. Quinn said. “But for anyone who is interested, I have a large, loving family of Catullo’s and Quinn’s, with 10 nieces and nephews who I absolutely adore, like [they're] my own.” - Politicker, 8/21/13
The de Blasio campaign shot back saying that Dowd has misquoted Ms. McCrary. Here's what McCracy actually said:
“Chirlane McCray was misquoted,” de blasio campaign manager Bill Hers said in a statement. “As the transcript makes clear, her actual comments were about Speaker Quinn’s unwillingness to listen to the people on education, and paid sick leave, and any suggestion otherwise is disingenuous and absurd.”
“I don’t see her speaking to the concerns of women who have to take care of children at a young age or send them to school and after school, paid sick days, workplace, she is not speaking to any of those issues,” Ms. McCray actually said, according to audio released by the campaign. “What can I say? And she is not accessible, she is not the kind of person that I feel that you can go up and talk to and have a conversation with about those things.” - Politicker, 8/22/13
Quinn is going negative before tonight's debate in hopes that she can step up her game and crush de Blasio's momentum. But de Blasio's campaign isn't going to let that happen. Quinn's going after de Blasio's wife because de Blasio's family has been a key aspect to his campaign:
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/...
This is an explicit, important part of de Blasio's strategy, and has been for as long as he's been a politician. His family and his message are inseparable.
Talking about the Dante ad during an appearance on MSNBC this weekend, de Blasio said, "The important thing to me was portraying who I am, and my family and I have been in this together. My wife and I met in City Hall, working for Mayor Dinkins. ... We always had a sense of our family as part of a community, and then when I started running for office, local school board, an unpaid position, the first time I was campaigning it was with my daughter. She was four, and we were outside her school giving out leaflets. This is very natural to us.
"And I think that family as [an] idea is powerful in New York City today, where we've had a mayor who has not been responsive to the needs of parents, for example public-school parents. I happen to be a public-school parent. ... That's a very important part of what I'm trying to say, is that it's time to have a mayor that actually listens to public-school parents, and so I think this was very natural thing for us, and the response has been warm and positive, and I think people like seeing a loving family together." - Capital New York, 8/21/13
de Blasio is also using his celebrity supporters to help woo voters. He recently appeared on Piers Morgan with Sex & The City's Cynthia Nixon:
http://piersmorgan.blogs.cnn.com/...
"I've known him fighting in the trenches for public schools and for public school funding and to fight back budget cutbacks. For me, there is no other candidate that is going to, you know, change the course of the last 12 years and create a fairer and more equitable New York for everybody," said the woman who made "Sex and the City's" Miranda Hobbes a household name. "There was never any choice in my mind."
Referencing another, slightly more controversial Democratic candidate, Morgan asked Nixon if the "subtle charms of Anthony Weiner" have appealed to her.
Grinning, the 47-year-old Grammy and Emmy award winner said she hasn't been impressed:
"I feel like in a race that's been marked by scandal and really small ideas, in Bill de Blasio, we have a guy with big ideas who's a real game changer ... it's so welcome and so overdue," Nixon told Morgan.
Joining "Piers Morgan Live" in the program's New York City studio, Nixon detailed the ways in which her candidate differs from the others:
"He is the only person running who has the guts to go out there and say, 'we need to have a small tax on the rich so we can provide universal, full-day, Pre-K for every four-year-old in New York City.'" - CNN, 8/20/13
And if you're a huge Boardwalk Empire fan like I am, Nucky Thompson himself has also been helping out with de Blasio's campaign:
http://politicker.com/...
Cramming about 30 volunteers into the chic Southside Coffee shop on 6th Avenue near the Prospect Expressway, the de Blasio camp once again rolled out one of its many celebrity backers. This time it was Steve Buscemi, star of Boardwalk Empire and many Hollywood movies, who came to rally the young, left-leaning crowd. As volunteers gnawed on cookies and scones, they looked on a bit star-struck as Mr. Buscemi spoke briefly and posed for pictures.
According to one member of the campaign, the group could make as many as 3,000 phone calls in three hours.
Mr. Buscemi, a fellow Park Slope resident who has a long history with Mr. de Blasio, including getting arrested together in a local firehouse protest, told Politicker that Mr. de Blasio’s rise to the top in the latest polls did not surprise him at all.
“It doesn’t surprise me that when all the noise died down, when people started to pay attention and after they had seen what Bill stands for, that he had an uptick in the polls,” he said. “I’m just grateful that people are starting to pay attention.” - Politicker, 8/20/13
Don't forget to check out tonight's debate. Here are the details:
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/...
The first televised general topic debate for the Democratic nomination that features all seven main mayoral candidates can be seen tonight at 7 p.m. on NY1.
Among the panelists asking questions will be David W. Chen, the City Hall bureau chief of The New York Times. - New York Times, 8/21/13
If you want to donate and get involved with de Blasio's campaign, you can go here:
http://www.billdeblasio.com/