Bloomberg Defends Quinn And Her Slush Fund

Don't think Herr Mayor coming in to defend her helps her that much, but, well, here it is:

Mayor Bloomberg – defending Speaker Christine Quinn today against attacks over the City Council’s discretionary funding policy – called his possible successor a “person of enormous integrity.”

Quinn has “done an excellent job running the city,” said Bloomberg.

The two have sparred recently over Quinn’s support for an NYPD inspector general, which Quinn says would provide needed oversight and Bloomberg says would hobble crimefighting. But the mayor put those differences aside today when asked about member items.

“I have always supported member items as long as they are administered and checked carefully,” said Bloomberg.

Quinn also supports the distribution of member items, a long-standing funding source which has come under renewed fire since Queens Councilman Dan Halloran was arrested on corruption charges.

Halloran, a Republican, allegedly offered to dole out his council discretionary funds to a cooperating FBI witness in a wide-ranging probe targeting state Sen. Malcolm Smith.

Quinn’s Democratic primary opponents – particularly Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and former Councilman Sal Albanese – have used the scandal to pounce on Quinn and call for an end to the funding.

Bloomberg said the arrest was not about member items.

“The real problem here is there is a group of unelected people who control the ballot access,” he said.

And “I’ve always said that I think Speaker Quinn, who is getting criticized for this, is a person of enormous integrity and I think she has done an excellent job of running the city. It’s not an easy job but I think she’s done it well,” he said.

I don't see how the billionaire mayor with the questionable integrity and his billion dollar slush fund/PAC coming in to defend the City Council speaker with the questionable integrity and the slush fund helps Christine Quinn in the Democratic primary.

Doesn't it just remind people of how scummy Quinn has been with the slush fund and how scummy Quinn has been in overturning term limits?

Quinn Jeered At Candidate Forum

The NY Times reports tonight that Christine Quinn has been drawn into the Halloran/Smith scandal:

It was a dark chapter in Christine C. Quinn’s political career, and the City Council speaker had hoped she could leave it behind. 

But a snippet of wiretapped conversation abruptly resurrected questions on Wednesday about Ms. Quinn’s oversight of a controversial City Council earmark program, igniting the latest flash point in the race to be New York City’s next mayor. 

The wiretap, released on Tuesday in a corruption case that had nothing to do with Ms. Quinn, featured the voice of Daniel J. Halloran III, a Queens councilman, boasting that he could extract tens of thousands of dollars from the City Council to be used as a bribe. 

There is no evidence that Mr. Halloran took steps to follow up on his promise, and Ms. Quinn, a Democratic candidate for mayor, said on Wednesday that the reforms she had installed during her tenure would have prevented any such illegality from occurring. 

But that did not stop her rivals in the mayor’s race from accusing Ms. Quinn of allowing corruption to blossom under her watch, and forcing the speaker onto the defensive on an issue that has dogged her for years. 

At issue is Ms. Quinn’s oversight of a pot of Council funds, worth nearly $400 million in 2012, that she doles out to lawmakers each year, to use largely at their own discretion to finance programs in their districts. The system has provided the speaker with leverage to reward and punish lawmakers as she sees fit; she chooses how much money each lawmaker gets to allocate. But at one period during her tenure, in 2008, misuse of the funds led to a federal investigation and the arrests of several council Members and aides. 

The earmarks, often referred to as member items, have been criticized by civic groups, and Mr. Halloran’s suggestion that he could exploit the system was quickly seized on by Ms. Quinn’s opponents. 

“This has reached an unsustainable point,” Bill de Blasio, the public advocate and a Democratic mayoral candidate, said at a news conference where he called for the earmarks to be eliminated. “The system is broken beyond the ability of small reforms to fix it.” 

“These things happened on her watch,” Mr. de Blasio added, in case anyone had forgotten who he was choosing to blame for the matter. 

Mr. de Blasio’s comments echoed a statement from William C. Thompson Jr., another Democratic candidate, who said Ms. Quinn had failed to curb “a history of corruption and a broken system” of earmarks in the Council. A third Democratic candidate, Sal F. Albanese, accused Ms. Quinn of “abuse.”

The Times story says de Blasio may be as vulnerable on the earmark attack as Quinn, since he received over $5 million dollars in earmarks over his eight year City Council career.  But then the Times story notes this:

But Ms. Quinn may ultimately be more vulnerable to attacks on a different issue: her vote in 2008 to overturn the city’s term limits law and allow Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to seek a third term. At a candidate forum on Wednesday, Mr. Thompson called the episode a disgrace; Mr. de Blasio said the speaker had “undermined the democratic process.” Ms. Quinn, who defended her decision, was met with loud jeers from the left-leaning crowd. It was one of the most blistering receptions she has received on the campaign trail thus far. 

They should be hammering her on the term limit shenanigans over and over and over and noting all the damage Bloomberg has done in the last four years as a result of her actions.

No term limit shenanigans, no third (illegal) term for Bloomberg.

At any rate, it's good to see her receive a blistering reception from a lefty crowd.

She deserves at least that.

Bloomberg To Use Slush Fund To Promote His Education Reforms

Just in case you thought the Mayor of Money was going to go away after he leaves office, beware the following:

Running a city is not enough for Mayor Bloomberg.

The billionaire businessman, philanthropist and issues advocate announced plans Wednesday to expand his influence in local, state and national politics by plowing more than $10 million into a new super PAC that aims to influence elections across the country over the next few weeks.

“It’s unprecedented for an outgoing three-term mayor to do this,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.

Bloomberg’s initial $10 million to $15 million investment is a relatively small one in the world of big-money super PACs, but Sabato predicted that Wednesday’s announcement is just a start for the mayor.

“I can’t imagine he’ll stop there,” Sabato said. “He’ll have to keep up with the Joneses. Mayor Bloomberg isn’t going to want to just be a garden-variety billionaire.”

Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson, a former top political aide to Hillary Clinton, will take a leave of absence from city government to lead the effort.

He said Bloomberg will support candidates who are moderate, independent and willing to work across political lines.

“The mayor thinks Washington is broken,” Wolfson said. “It’s paralyzed by partisanship. We need to elect people who can cross party lines to get things done.”

The mayor plans to focus on gun control, gay marriage and education policy, he said.

We do not live in democracy.

We live in an oligarchy and a corporatocrcy where a billionaire who somehow has gone from having $5 million in wealth when he took office to over $24 million 12 years later even as most of the rest of America was seeing a decline in their wages, home values and personal wealth can use this money to buy politicians to do what he wants on policy long after he leaves office.

Make no mistake, Bloomberg will be throwing that cash around during the 2013 NYC mayoral race.

And make no mistake, some of the 2013 NYC mayoral candidates will happily gobble up those funds.

So even after Bloomberg leaves office, he'll still be, essentially, pulling the strings on policy.

But on the plus side, at least it'll give Wolfson something to do.