GOP Disaster

Today’s charges against Malcolm Smith, Daniel Halloran and four others are a political disaster for New York City’s Republican Party.  The alleged corruption goes to the heart of what little influence remains for the New York City Republican county organizations and their chairmen.

Leaders of two of the five county organizations and one of the four Republican members of the City Council were criminally charged.  The Complaint suggests that at least one, and possibly two, other county county chairmen were expected to support Smith in exchange for a quid pro quo payment.  According to the Complaint, Halloran expected to be able to drag along in his corrupt scheme any of the county chairmen who were not being bribed. Continue reading GOP Disaster

Christine Quinn’s Breakout Moment?

Here is why yesterday’s NY Times story on Christine Quinn is good, possibly great, for her:

  1. It shatters two lingering memes, first that she is weak-willed, indecisive and not strongly in control as speaker, and second that she is simply the mayor’s “lapdog”, doing his bidding.  Those don’t hold up well.
  2.  We have just concluded a months-long EdKochfest, celebrating his New York flavored orneryness.  Her NY Times profile sets her up as Koch’s emotional/tempermental successor.
  3. Most regular people think that yelling at “city officials, lobbyists and political operatives” is probably justified and a good thing.
  4. Bill Thompson must be jealous – a major part of his campaign is convincing voters that he has “fire in the belly.”  Wouldn’t he love a story like that about him?
  5. Every day that we spend talking about Christine Quinn is a bad day for Bill de Blasio, John Liu, Bill Thompson and Sal Albanese.

Rockaway Comes to City Hall

Today, Rockaway came to City Hall.  A group of Rockaway residents rallied on the steps of City Hall, seeking to draw renewed attention from Mayor Bloomberg.  We spoke with three mayoral candidates who attended the rally, and asked this question:  “If Mayor Bloomberg called and asked you ‘what’s one thing I can do to improve how we’re doing in the Rockaways’, what would you say”?

Their answers reflect what we’ve previously reported, that many Rockaway residents are deeply disaffected by what they perceive as the mayor’s lack of interest or engagement in their community and it’s post-Sandy challenges.

Political leadership has many components, including managerial, policy and emotional leadership, with the last including the sense of voters that their elected leader cares about them and understands their community.  The mayor’s tenure has included strong elements of the first two components, but much less of the third.  That lack of emotional leadership continues to reverberate in post-Sandy Rockaway.

Watch.

Check back for more coverage on the rally.

Also, be sure to watch our continuing coverage of post-Sandy Rockaway.

Mayoral Mashup

In our Mayoral Mashup we talk with voters, as well as political and policy leaders, about what they see as the most important issue facing New York City’s next mayor.

For this Mayoral Mashup we spoke with voters attending a mayoral candidate forum co-sponsored by the Daily News and Metro IAF, focused on crime and public safety, asking one simple question:  What do you see as the most important issue that our next mayor will face upon taking office?  Watch to find out what they had to say.

Republican Primary Voters – Where to Find Them #2

As part of our continuing coverage of the Republican mayoral primary, we look at Republican voter registration by council district.*

The most basic challenge for all of the Republican candidates is finding and reaching their potential primary voters.  Those potential primary voters are a small minority in the city, comprising 10% of all registered voters and only 6% of the total population.  They are outnumbered by registered Democrats by more than 6 to 1. Continue reading Republican Primary Voters – Where to Find Them #2

Public Advocate Candidates Give Their View of Mayor Bloomberg

We spoke with the four Democratic candidates for Public Advocate and asked a simple question:  How do you rate the Mayor’s tenure?  Watch.

Watch some of our earlier coverage of the Public Advocate’s race here, here and here.

Watch our discussion about the office and its powers with the current Public Advocate, Bill de Blasio, here.

Democratic Mayoral Candidates – All In, For Now

With John Liu’s expected formal campaign kickoff on Sunday, the Democratic mayoral field appears to be set.  Four “major” candidates, Christine Quinn, Bill de Blasio, John Liu and Bill Thompson, and a couple of lesser candidates, are in.

The next big change in the field will likely come when one, or both, of the citywide officeholders in the race faces a reality check.  Bill de Blasio and, presumably as of Sunday, John Liu have declared that they are giving up their current citywide office and running for mayor.  Presently, public polling shows both significantly trailing Christine Quinn, and with only modest recent gains for de Blasio and little change for Liu.  Both are in their first term, and term limits do not apply to them in this cycle.  Both would likely be readily re-elected, although John Liu would face the somewhat tricky circumstance of dealing with Scott Stringer’s candidacy.  (The four Democratic candidates for Public Advocate would not present such a problem for de Blasio.)

Will one, or both, rethink their target office when petitioning begins in early June?  Absent significant poll movement, it seems likely.  Stay tuned as they each try to emerge as the clear alternative to Christine Quinn.

~     John Kenny

Public Advocate 2013: Meet the Democratic Candidates

Here’s your chance to meet the four Democratic candidates for Public Advocate.  We spoke with them at a candidate forum hosted by the Community Free Democrats, an Upper West Side political club.

Here is our report.

Be sure to watch our prior coverage of the race, including a report from an earlier candidate forum and a lighthearted look at one moment of the Community Free Democrats’ forum, as well as a first look at the Republican race.

Calling All Republican Candidates for Public Advocate …

That list appears to be shorter than the list of Democratic council members calling for a 4th Bloomberg term.

As far as NYTrue.com can determine, there are not yet any Republican candidates for Public Advocate.  (There are four, recently down from five, active Democratic candidates.)

At the Republican mayoral candidate forum hosted by Crain’s today, I briefly spoke about this with two Republican county chairs.  Dan Isaacs of Manhattan and Craig Eaton of Brooklyn both confirmed that they do not know of any publicly declared Republican candidates for Public Advocate.  They also, however, said that they hope to make a unified choice of a candidate, suggesting that they hope that one of the current mayoral candidates ends up as the Republican Public Advocate candidate.  They both added that they think the office of Public Advocate should be abolished.

If you are, or plan to be, a Republican candidate for Public Advocate, please let us know – we would like to talk with you.

Update:  You can find our coverage of the Democratic candidates here.

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