Monday, July 1, 2013

Two More Negative Christine Quinn Articles Today

From the Daily News:

It's been a rough three months for New York mayoral hopeful Christine Quinn, who has been pounded by a $1.5 million blitz of television ads, robocalls and mailings skewering her.

And it's not over yet.

Quinn, the City Council speaker, has lost a third of her support in the polls since the "New York City is Not for Sale" political action committee began its single-minded — and largely unanswered — spending spree to bring her down.

The PAC now says it plans to spend at another $1 million on attack ads through the Sept. 10 Democratic primary.

And while former congressman Anthony Weiner's entry into the race also has siphoned support from Quinn, the attack ads clearly have taken a toll.

"There is a direct correlation between the launch of our campaign and her numbers going down," crowed Scott Levenson, a spokesman for the PAC, which is financed by a coalition of Quinn opponents, including advocates who call horse-drawn carriages a form of animal abuse.

It has been almost five years since City Council Speaker Christine Quinn helped change a city law so Mayor Michael Bloomberg could run for a third term in office, but many voters are still holding it against her.

Now that Ms. Quinn is in the thick of her own campaign for mayor, the lingering anger over that move has been stoked by her opponents and has already put some Democratic primary voters out of her reach.

In more than two dozen interviews last week with registered Democrats who participated in a Wall Street Journal/NBC 4 New York/Marist College poll that showed Ms. Quinn dropping to second place in the primary field, many volunteered that her handling of the term-limits issue led them to rule her out.

"I'm not voting for Quinn because I voted for term limits and they repealed them," volunteered Robert Shells, a 65-year-old hospital chef who lives in upper Manhattan, when asked why he was considering voting for former Rep. Anthony Weiner and former city Comptroller Bill Thompson but not Ms. Quinn. "It's going to come back to haunt her."

Voters across boroughs and demographic divides said that even if they didn't have strong opinions about term limits themselves, they were upset that elected officials had undone the will of the public. New Yorkers approved a two-term limit in 1993 and rejected a proposal to extend the limit to three terms in 1996.

"The fact that the public had voted for them [twice] and then just go around them because they're not convenient—not so nice," said Laurie Ankersen, a 66-year-old retired special-education teacher from Flushing, Queens, who is leaning toward Mr. Thompson but hasn't made up her mind. 

 Not a good media day for the Quinn campaign.

But Thompson isn't having such a good day either.

More on that later.
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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousJuly 1, 2013 at 10:08 AM

    Well it did not take very long for the business leaders led by Mort Zuckerman to figure out that Bill Thompson is the one to worry about. Todays Daily News lays the blame for the city time scandal at Thompsons doorstep as the city comptroller he failed to audit the out of control spending.Interestng that they waited until Jul 1 to plaster this on the front page of the newspaper. My read, they are worried as Thompson is closing fast and they want to mess up his campaign before it becomes unstoppable. Thompson should be able to deflect the majority of this attack while he shares in the blame the council and most of all Bloomberg deserves the lions share. How much damage will it do? less than term limits that is for sure. So far todays big winner is Weiner

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    1. reality-based educatorJuly 1, 2013 at 10:23 AM

      Yup - saw it and will post about it in a bit.

      The thing is, the criticism is fair. Thompson was a horrible comptroller who let stuff like this go all the time.

      Liu, on the other hand, does not.

      Ironically, the DN loved Thompson as comptroller but hates Liu.

      They want to have it both ways.

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  2. AnonymousJuly 1, 2013 at 1:23 PM

    right you are and believe me I do not Love Thompson I just hope he will be a mayor who can undo much of the destruction by Bloomberg & Co. Liu would be my first choice a stand up guy, but they have been successful at destroying his candidacy. Weiner is a problem but can he really win? DeBlasio is like the wind, so Thompson appears the best alternative in my view.

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    1. reality-based educatorJuly 1, 2013 at 7:00 PM

      There's a New York Magazine piece today that says private polling de Blasio has done shows him gaining support since Weiner joined the race - the only one. I don;t buy that, though. His candidacy looks pretty dead to me. So I'm with you - Thompson is the best of the worst.

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