The Tide Is Turning….

 On December 13th, the NY Times published a story suggesting that Christine Quinn’s candidacy has weakened:  “After months of maintaining a cool, above-the-fray approach to the 2013 mayoral race, Christine Quinn. . . is enduring the first bumps of what may be a pockmarked road to the Democratic primary.”

Following are a few of those bumps:

On December 6th, Alec Baldwin went on Piers Morgan’s show and reminded viewers that Christine Quinn was responsible for overturning term limits after New Yorkers voted twice to keep them.  He described Christine Quinn as “untrustworthy” and said she has “blood on her hands.”

Alec Baldwin on running for office
Alec Baldwin says Quinn “has blood on her hands”

 

On December 5th, newspaper publisher Tom Allon, a 2013 Mayoral candidate, stated in a Huffington Post story that “Christine Quinn puts her political ambitions ahead of the public good again and again.”  One of the current examples he provides is Quinn’s back-room deal with alleged serial groper Vito Lopez: favorable district lines in exchange for a Mayoral endorsement.

On November 29th, Christine Quinn was the only Mayoral candidate who was heckled and booed at an education forum in Harlem in front of an audience of over 1,000 people. The  NY Times reported on the incident.

Harlem Boos Christine Quinn
Public school parents in Harlem Heckleand Boo Christine Quinn

 

Over the past several months, communities who believe they have been unfairly treated by Quinn (because she has refused to allow votes on their bills) have mobilized and started holding her accountable.  Examples are the paid sick leave and street vendor communities, whose bills have a veto-proof majority of sponsors in the City Council.

On December 13th, Tom Allon wrote a story for Huffington Post calling for a ban on horse-drawn carriages in NYC.  In the story, he states that Christine Quinn “has blocked the efforts to take these horses off the streets and out of harm’s way since a bill was introduced to ban the trade in 2007.”  Voters are starting to understand that Quinn has abused of her power as Speaker and that she has disregarded the principles of democracy in order to advance her political career.

While most public figures are afraid to speak out against Christine Quinn because she is notoriously vindictive, Alec Baldwin and Tom Allon have demonstrated that they are not.  As Quinn’s numbers begin to drop in the polls, others will find the courage to step forward to educate the public about Quinn.  As part of our campaign, we will continue to ask NYC voters to look beyond Quinn’s identity to her actual record.

Our campaign received some substantial media coverage in 2012, including a story in the Wall Street Journal entitled: Quinn’s Persistent Gadflies: “Quinn is the only likely mayoral candidate with her own dedicated band of protesters.  Since 2009, a small cadre of demonstrators has targeted Ms. Quinn at dozens of appearances, a rare public show of unwavering anger toward one New York City politician. Their complaints vary, but as a group, they stick to one overall message-that Ms. Quinn shouldn’t be mayor.”

Quinn_persistent_gadlfies

 On December 12th, we held our last voter outreach event of the year, a “Parade against Quinn” on the Upper West Side where our 22 participants reached hundreds of NYC voters with messages about Quinn’s record. (photos).  In 2012, we staged dozens of protests and voter outreach events, and we will have many more in 2013 with the support of a growing number of people who are joining our campaign.

If you support our efforts, please “like” our Defeat Christine Quinn page on Facebook and follow our campaign on Twitter.

Stay tuned for the launch of our new website in January, 2013.  In the meantime, please visit our Facebook page if you’ve read this newsletter and are wondering why hundreds of NYers, gay and straight, are taking to the streets in an effort to vote Christine Quinn out of public office.

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