Advocates hoping to swing the election by urging voters to elect “Anybody but Quinn” gathered across the street from the closed St. Vincent’s Hospital this evening for a get-out-the-vote rally they billed as an early “retirement party” for City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.
The event–which included the presentation of a series of mock parting gifts in honor of Ms. Quinn’s desired departure, including a “term limit-less watch from Rolex, so that Quinn will be reminded that her time is up”–came just hours after the release of the latest mayoral poll, which cast Bill de Blasio as the clear front-runner in the mayor’s race, with 36 percent of the vote, versus just 21 percent for Ms. Quinn. Attendees greeted the news with glee.
“I got tears in my eyes,” said Brian Gari, 61, who was one of the more than 100 supporters who turned up for the event and cheered as the results were announced. “I’m thrilled beyond belief.”
...
The campaign, run by a political committee called “New York City is Not for Sale” and founded by members of the anti-horse carriage group NYCLASS and other advocates, has already spent more than $770,000 on its anti-Quinn efforts–the largest independent expenditure of the mayor’s race, according to the city’s Campaign Finance Board.
And the group believes its efforts, including a negative ad campaign on television, are the primary reason why Ms. Quinn is no longer the front-runner in the race. “We are the single most important factor in her rise in negatives and her drop in the polls. There’s not a doubt in my mind,” said Scott Levenson, president of the Advance Group, which is running the campaign.
The "New York City is Not for Sale" folks launched the first negative ad of the campaign against Quinn back in April with a $250,000 ad buy.
That ad was memorable:
It was in March/April that Quinn's poll numbers began to slide.
"New York City is Not for Sale" continued to hammer Quinn from April onward.
You can make a pretty good argument that Quinn was never able to counter the "New York City is Not for Sale" ad and hasn't been able to recover since.
She has made a lot of enemies over the years.
Many of those ABQ people are former Quinn supporters who feel betrayed by her over various issues.
Quinn's arrogance blinded her to the danger that the ABQ people posed to her.
I'm not ready to declare her dead just yet, but she hasn't been able to get above 27% in the last 13 of 14 polls released, she's getting hammered in runoff matchups against either de Blasio or Thompson and all these newspaper endorsements and political endorsements and union endorsements haven't seemed to move the needle for her yet.
If Christine Quinn misses the runoff or makes the runoff but loses to either de Blasio or Thompson, we can thank "New York City is Not for Sale" for doing so much damage to her candidacy.
Endoresements are strange nowadays. Years ago an endorsement from a newspaper tended to be on the liberal/progressive side of politics. Now, forget it.
ReplyDeleteI hope people now see where endorsements are coming from, (1% driven editorialists and media owners) and are taking those endorsements with a grain of salt.
I would also believe many teachers are doing their homework on the democratic candidates and not just voting with the UFT leadership's candidate, but giving De Blasio strong consideration for their vote.
Unless the UFT and Thompson know something we don't, that Meryl Tisch>John King connection is an awfully curious one.
I hope teachers do realize that if Mulgrew and Weingarten are for something or somebody, it is in their best interests to run the other way!
DeleteI just read the paper and the Quinnipiac poll released yesterday was held August 22 thru the 27th. The polling was during and after the endorsements Quinn received from the big three papers. Also, the polling solicited cell phone and traditional polling techniques. While I still do not have confidence in polls the news is quite encouraging for those of us who hope that the Quinn campaign fails especially for the hijacking of democracy, TERM LIMITS!!
ReplyDeleteSome of the polling came before the endorsement - they polled through Tuesday, but I think pollsters would say a poll taken completely after the endorsement would give you a better gauge on where people are in relation to the endorsement.
DeleteThat said, I don't think most people give a rat's ass what the Times thinks about the mayor's race.
The Squadron endorsement down ballot might help because not as many people have been following the public advocate's race as the mayor's race.
But Weiner's entrance made sure the mayor's race has been front page news all summer - people know who is running. They don't need the Times to tell them how to vote.