Christine Quinn and Bill Thompson, fighting for second place in the race for the Democratic nomination for New York City mayor, are expected to train their fire on frontrunner Bill de Blasio on Tuesday night in the campaign's final televised debate.
Ms. Quinn, the City Council speaker, and Mr. Thompson, a former city comptroller who nearly unseated Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2009, have the most at stake Tuesday night as they try to stop Mr. de Blasio's momentum before the Sept. 10 primary. If no candidate gets 40% of the vote, the top two vote-getters will compete in a run-off election scheduled for Oct. 1. Mr. de Blasio has opened a wide lead in several polls.
"Guns will be drawn on de Blasio," said George Arzt, a veteran political consultant who isn't affiliated with a mayoral campaign. "His two main opponents will try to slice into his lead and meanwhile, Thompson and Quinn will be trying to get into the runoff. So they will have some spirited interaction as well."
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Much of the fire is likely to be targeted at Mr. de Blasio, the city's public advocate who spent much of the summer lurking in the middle of the field before charging to the front in recent polls, casting himself as a bold, liberal break from Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Ms. Quinn and Mr. Thompson have been relentlessly attacking Mr. de Blasio as an untrustworthy flip-flopper. His record has started to receive more scrutiny in the press.
"De Blasio has a troubling pattern of saying one thing and doing another," said John Collins, Mr. Thompson's communications director. "Those kinds of troubling patterns of behavior will be pointed out, as they have been in the past."
Mr. de Blasio said Monday he is ready for the onslaught.
"I'm looking forward to another chance to debate the issues," he said. "There's real differences between me and the other candidates."
The campaigns see Tuesday as an especially important moment. "I think this one is of particular importance because it's after Labor Day," an aide to one of the candidates said. "It is aired on a network broadcast and... at the same time it is right at that moment where people are starting to crystallize their decision."
Ms. Quinn, long the frontrunner until recently, is also expected to attack what she sees as inconsistencies in Mr. de Blasio's record, according to a person familiar with her strategy. "You know I was the frontrunner for a long time and took a lot of slings and arrows and had a target as a result of that," she said Monday. "I'm prepared to fight."
Mr. Thompson and Ms. Quinn won't be sequestered preparing on Tuesday. Mr. Thompson likes to have a full day of campaigning scheduled on debate days, Mr. Collins said, before relaxing with his family ahead of the event. Ms. Quinn will also be campaigning, an aide said. But just before debates, she likes to prepare by listening to Bruce Springsteen with her wife, Kim Catullo. Mr. de Blasio is expected to have a lighter schedule.
The Daily News, Times and Post have been printing at least one negative de Blasio article a day this past week in effort to help soften him up for Quinn, Thompson, or Lhota.
So far, the stories haven't been terribly damaging to de Blasio.
De Blasio has an ego and used his public advocate's office to advance his career.
Well, no kidding - that's what the office was created for.
De Blasio took money from real estate interests.
Well, Thompson and Quinn actually took more.
De Blasio was once for changing term limits before he was against changing them.
Well, Quinn's stance - she was for getting rid of term limits, then not getting rid of them, then getting rid of them once again, is much more hypocritical than de Blasio's.
De Blasio used to be against getting rid of the horse and carriages, but changed his mind.
Well, good, I'm glad he changed his mind after animal rights activists convinced him the horses are treated badly.
Guess what, people are allowed to change their minds, especially when new evidence or information is introduced to a person.
So far, little of this "damaging" information has been all that damaging to de Blasio.
Tonight is the last time the other candidates get to have that face-to-face moment where they can go at de Blasio and try and get some ad video to use against him.
Tonight the Wall Street Journal is co-sponsoring the debate.
You can expect them to go at de Blasio too.
Let's see if de Blasio can fend off the attacks.
He's a savvy campaigner - notice he is on a light schedule today unlike the other two main candidates.
He doesn't need to be campaigning all day with his lead in the polls.
Rest up, be at his best, get ready for the barrage of attacks.
Seven days to go.
We're almost through the Bloomberg Era.
A little more than a month ago, this was looking like a Weiner/Quinn runoff to take on Lhota in the general.
My, how things have changed.
Every knock is a boost so DeBlasio should thrive this evening. It looks more and more like a Bill vs Bill runoff. Today Newsday has the results of a poll taken in verylate August. It shows a large number of voters who once were for Quinn and Weiner defecting to DeBlasio and Thompson. Again, it is shaping up as a two dollar Bill for the dems.
ReplyDeleteThis morning at * WPIX had a segment at PS 65 in Queens as Bill Thompson was campaigning on the first day of public school alongside Randi Weingarten, Mike Mulgrew and Gregory Meeks. I could not but help think about the poor teachers now entering this struggling school with the impossible evaluation system and the UNCOMMON CORE hanging over the system as a guillotine.
ReplyDelete