Quinn, Thompson Say They Will Focus Attacks On De Blasio In Last Debate

Seven days to go, the last debate before Primary Day - Quinn and Thompson say they will aim their fire at de Blasio:

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."

...

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.

Even The Times Editoral Board Gets The Criticism Of The Bloomberg/Klein/Walcott Reforms

The Daily News and the Post editorial boards continue to shill for the mayor and his education policies, but it seems the usually supportive Times editorial board is seeing some daylight between themselves and the mayor on education:

Mr. Bloomberg’s schools chancellor, Dennis Walcott, called the criticism an “unconscionable” assault on the Education Department and accused the candidates of lacking vision. On Saturday, at a conference in Brooklyn for school administrators, he foretold a “tragedy” if the next mayor did not continue Mr. Bloomberg’s policies. 

But after 12 years, this mayor’s ideas are due for a counterargument. The critiques the candidates are offering hardly shock the conscience, and their complaints about the Bloomberg administration can be heard from teachers and parents in any school in the city. 

The school system has indeed gone overboard in relying on standardized testing. Tests need to be a means to the end of better instruction, not the pedagogical obsession they have become. Yes, Mr. Bloomberg has shown disdain for consultation, as in his rush to close underperforming schools without the full and meaningful involvement of affected communities. The system needs to strengthen neighborhoods’ connection to schools and reconnect with parents who feel shut out. And while charter schools can be a path to excellence, they can also cause problems. Shoehorning them into existing school buildings over local objections can alienate parents and reinforce among students a harmful sense of being separate and unequal. 

When Mr. Bloomberg won direct control of public education in 2002, it was a historic and necessary victory, ending a system of local districts that was grossly dysfunctional and unaccountable. The candidates should not be allowed to downplay or deny how bad things were when nobody was in charge. 

But there can be truth in applause lines. Comptroller John Liu spoke for many at the forum when he told of his frustrating inability, as a parent, to give input to school officials. And William Thompson Jr., a former city comptroller, answered Mr. Walcott in a statement on Saturday by noting the incompleteness of educational gains: “For 12 years, the mayor has vilified teachers, shut out parents, turned classrooms into test prep centers and closed community schools. We have tried those policies, and our kids are still not receiving the education they deserve.”

Let's not downplay the extraordinary nature of this editorial.

The NY Times editorial board is agreeing that there is an overreliance on standardized testing, that the mayor's closure policies have alienated parents and harmed communities, and that charter schools can cause problems for the schools in the rest of the system.

That they're admitting these three facts in black and white on their pages is important.

It means that even the usually supportive neo-liberal free marketeers at the Times see that the current reform trajectory is not sustainable.