Thursday, August 8, 2013

Anthony Weiner's Sexting Partner Endorses Christine Quinn, The Nation Endorses Bill De Blasio

Not sure this endorsement helps either Weiner or Quinn:

Anthony Weiner’s sexting gal pal Sydney Leathers is wading into the mayor’s race once again.
In an interview with Complex, Ms. Leathers, the self-professed “political junkie” who traded racy messages and photos with Mr. Weiner long after he resigned from Congress, enthusiastically endorsed City Council Speaker Christine Quinn for mayor.

Obviously she doesn’t have the impulse control problems that Anthony has. I love the fact that she is out and proud. I have so many gay friends and I feel like she would be a great ally for that community,” said Ms. Leathers of Ms. Quinn, who is running to become the city’s first woman and first openly gay mayor.

The Quinn campaign didn't respond to requests for comment.

Gee, I can't imagine why.

Who wouldn't be proud to trot out the Sydney Leathers endorsement?

Meanwhile, The Nation endorsed Bill de Blasio for mayor:

After twelve years, billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose mix of technocratic efficiency and top-down urbanism has come to define the city, is leaving office. For voters, this means a new opening to debate some of the most critical issues of the day, from stop-and-frisk to economic development to hurricane recovery. More fundamentally, it also means a chance to revisit the meaning of the city itself, to ask: What kind of city do we want New York to be? A city for the few, or a city for the many?

Among this year’s Democratic contenders, several have made thoughtful attempts to address this question. But only one candidate has offered a consistently compelling answer. That candidate is Bill de Blasio, the city’s current public advocate, and his commitment to reimagining the city in boldly progressive, egalitarian terms is the reason we are endorsing him for mayor.

“Without a dramatic change of direction—an economic policy that combats inequality and rebuilds our middle class—generations to come will see New York as little more than a playground for the rich…a gilded city where the privileged few prosper, and millions upon millions of New Yorkers struggle each and every day to keep their heads above water,” de Blasio said in a May 30 address crystallizing his portrait of New York as a modern-day Tale of Two Cities. Unfortunately, his speech was drowned out by the frenzy surrounding Anthony Weiner’s sudden return to politics (which quickly became a distraction from the real issues thanks to the media circus surrounding the revelations of his continued sexting activities). But in placing the city’s roiling inequality at the center of his campaign, de Blasio has offered not only the sharpest description of the problem—what he called “the most urgent priority of our time”—but also the most forceful solution.

...

There is a lot to like, from proposals on education and homelessness to public safety—but among the ideas that we found most persuasive is his unusually diverse economic development strategy, which embraces not only job creation but also enhanced labor protections and long-overdue investments in New York’s once-great public universities. De Blasio was a major force behind living-wage and paid-sick-leave legislation—indeed, he fought for much stronger bills than those ultimately passed by the City Council—and his platform contains additional policies to increase wages for the city’s working poor. He is also steadfastly pro-union, which is both a welcome change and a crucial one after 12 years of an administration so hostile to labor that all 152 of the city’s public unions are without contracts. And in an effort to stanch New York’s affordable-housing crisis, he has put forward an ambitious plan to build or preserve nearly 200,000 affordable-housing units over the coming decade, while pledging to remove wasteful tax breaks for real estate developers.

Perhaps most unexpected is the centerpiece of de Blasio’s platform: a city income-tax surcharge on New Yorkers earning over $500,000 a year to provide truly universal, full-day pre-kindergarten to every child in New York City—a game-changing investment in the next generation of New Yorkers. The revenue from this surcharge would also fund after-school academics, athletics and cultural programming for every middle-schooler. It is notable that de Blasio made this tax proposal in the belly of the beast, at a meeting of the city’s corporate leaders.

Finally, de Blasio has been one of the fiercest critics of the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policy, which has seen hundreds of thousands of young black and Latino men wrongly detained and subjected to searches. And of the candidates, he has been the most vocal and persistent supporter of a bill to prohibit racial profiling and impose greater police oversight. He has also pledged to replace Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who stubbornly defends stop-and-frisk.

In taking strong stands on these and other important issues, de Blasio has injected a valuable dose of substance into the election and earned our support.

If I were de Blasio, I would be happy about that Nation endorsement.

4 comments:

  1. Have you seen this blog?

    Highly resourceful:
    http://christine-quinn-sold-out.blogspot.com/

    At times, over the top, but usually quite informative.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have. Definitely over the top, but you know, sometimes I'm over the top too!

      Delete
    2. Over the top, really?

      I find you understated.

      Delete