In 2011, NYers working on the campaign to educate the public about Christine Quinn’s record had a busy year, with more than 20 protests at her public appearances and 2013 campaign fundraisers.

Occasionally, people ask us why we don’t campaign for a Mayoral candidate instead of working against one. Before the 2009 City Council election, a lot of people in her district told us they were planning to vote for Quinn because she was gay and/or a woman. Once they looked beyond her identity to her actual record, many were just as dismayed as we were and wanted to learn about the other candidates.

These voters who paid closer attention are part of the reason why Quinn struggled to win re-election in her own district, where, as the incumbent, she was expected to win by a landslide. We believe that our campaign made a difference in her district in 2009, and we intend to have a more profound impact in the 2013 city-wide election for Mayor.

Almost 250 people have signed up to volunteer with us, and Quinn continues to give new people from various communities reasons to join the movement against her.

Quinn receives second to lowest score in City Council on Human Rights

On December 2nd, the Human Rights Project at the Urban Justice Center released its annual NYC Council Human Rights Report Card. Christine Quinn received a D+, the second to lowest score in the City Council. In addition to voting against human rights bills, Quinn used her power as Speaker to kill bills that had a veto-proof majority of supporters. From the report:

“Both the political power of the Speaker and the reticence of the Council Members to challenge it are inhibiting the advancement of human rights in NYC. The Speaker has delayed hearings, stalled votes and restricted the passage of legislations.”

“Without the Speaker’s support, it is unlikely for human rights bills – or any bills – to gain passage, even if there is a veto-proof majority of the City Council in support.”

As the NY Times reported in October, “A year ago City Council members tried to push through a living wage in the Bronx and to mandate a few sick days for workers. Christine Quinn ensured each effort ended up baled, tied and set by the BQE for early sanitation pickup.”

Human Rights Activists Protest Quinn at her campaign fundraiser

Quinn’s Abuse of Discretionary Funds has stripped the City Council of the Democratic Process

The Speaker position, which was created in 1986, concentrates an extraordinary amount of power in the hands on one person. As Speaker for the past five years, Christine Quinn has abused that power to advance her political career at the expense of the democratic process and the public she alleges to serve.

One of the most powerful weapons in Quinn’s arsenal as Speaker is the discretionary funds — tens of millions of dollars that Quinn 1) doles out to reward campaign donors and loyal Council Members or 2) withholds from Council members who challenge her political or legislative agenda.

Because Council Members rely on discretionary funds to pay for projects in their districts, few are willing to challenge Speaker Quinn. When they do, they – and their constituents – pay a hefty price. As the NY Post stated in a recent editorial, “The judicious application of pork fat is a fail-safe tool for keeping lawmakers in line.”

In a NY Magazine interview after the slush fund scandal, Quinn reluctantly admitted that she uses these taxpayer funds for political purposes: “Did I think that, as a Speaker, having the money to give out through the year might give me political leverage? Of course I did. I’m not going to lie to people that I didn’t think that.” In fact, Quinn did lie (1:55) about that when the slush fund scandal broke.

Quinn leverages these discretionary funds, along with her power to distribute bonuses and assign committee chair positions, to exert absolute control over the city’s legislative process.

According to an editorial in the Guardian in December, “Quinn is not only the most powerful legislator in the city; she’s pretty much the only legislator in the city, and from her perch she has nearly unilateral control over lawmaking. She decides what comes to the floor – including, notoriously, the 2008 bill that scrapped mayoral term limits at Bloomberg’s behest – and her caucus votes for it, or she makes them pay.”

A Post editorial in December conveyed a similar sentiment: “Not only is the parceling out of taxpayer-funded bribes to lawmakers as a control device corrosive of democracy itself, the pork gives incumbent legislators near-insuperable advantages over electoral challengers.”

The fact that Quinn uses her power as Speaker to repay her campaign donors with our tax dollars might explain why she has already raised the maximum amount of contributions allowable 1.5 years before the 2013 primary.

Back Room Deal: A Bridge in Exchange for an Endorsement

In March, Christine Quinn strong-armed the City Council members to vote in favor of renaming the Queensboro bridge for former NYC Mayor Ed Koch. Several months later, Mayor Ed Koch endorsed her for Mayor – two years before the election.

How could Quinn, who leverages her sexual orientation whenever it’s politically expedient, name a bridge a former Mayor who turned his back on the gay community when AIDS struck NYC in the early 80s out of fear of calling attention to his own homosexuality?

A majority of NYers (64%) were opposed to the renaming the bridge after Ed Koch. As one City Council Member stated, “This is against the will of the people. Every group that has taken a position on this is opposed to it. Every Queens newspaper, every poll, and more importantly, virtually every person in Queens.” As we learned when she overturned term limits, Quinn puts her political ambition ahead of the will of NYers.

To put this political stunt in historical context, the Triboro Bridge wasn’t renamed for Robert F. Kennedy until 40 years after his assassination.

Term Limits: An Assault on Democracy that Could Impact the 2013 Election

In October, the NY Times stated that Russia’s Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, who is “known for strong-arm tactics, was more scrupulous about observing the niceties of term limits than were New York’s political leaders: Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and his Medvedev equivalent, Christine C. Quinn.”

“You will recall that Mr. Bloomberg and Ms. Quinn could not bother themselves with observing the letter, let alone the spirit, of a voter-imposed city law limiting them to two terms. With the help of complaisant council members, they simply changed the law to reward themselves with third terms. Generally speaking, it’s not a good idea to look less faithful to democratic formalities than Vladimir Putin.”

By behaving like a Deputy Mayor to curry favor with Bloomberg, Quinn has virtually abandoned the City’s system of checks & balances, further stripping the City Council of the democratic process

After the 2008 slush fund fiasco destroyed her chances of becoming Mayor in 2009, Quinn strong-armed the City Council into extending term limits so that she would have four years to improve her image and distance herself from the scandal. As it turns out, her role in overturning term limits has been far more damaging to her politically than the slush fund scandal.

Quinn Puts the Health and Safety of Her Constituents at Risk to Repay Real Estate Donors

In an acknowledgement of the undue influence of real estate executives in NYC politics, Christine Quinn stated publicly during an early campaign that she had not and would not accept any money from them.

Since then, she has accepted millions from them. In fact, the vast majority of Quinn’s donors who have made the maximum legal contribution ($4,950) are real estate executives, as are almost all of the campaign bundlers who have raised more than $20,000 for her campaign.

The millions in campaign contributions may explain why she advocates tirelessly for real estate developers at the expense of her constituents. Recently, Quinn jeopardized the health and safety of her constituents to repay the Rudins, who donated $30,000 as of about a year ago.

Rudin Management is planning to build 450 luxury condos on the site of St. Vincent’s, a hospital that served hundreds of thousands of West Siders and was a lifeline to the community. Not only did Quinn refuse to tap into millions of dollars in available reserve funds that have saved other hospitals, but she also refused to support a resolution to keep the St. Vincent’s site zoned for community use. As stated in the following campaign ad, “The cynical back room deal that led to the closing of St. Vincent’s Hospital demonstrates clearly how much NYers have riding on who we elect as our next Mayor.”

True to form, Quinn publicly stated on several occasions that the West Side needs a full service hospital while helping her donors erect a condo in its place.

The Protests

Quinn must be humiliated by the unrelenting protests because, in order to avoid us, she has navigated through piles of garbage bags, entered buildings through basements and used her security detail and handlers to divert our attention so that she could scurry past us without being noticed.
At our protests throughout the year, NYers thanked, criticized, joined and engaged us to learn more. Several people told us that they would like to join us but are afraid of retribution. At one protest, we were honored to be joined by Honey LaBronx, NY’s ninth favorite drag queen.

Outside of a campaign fundraiser in July, Quinn’s Director of Community Outreach told a group of protesters to “tell Donny Moss to go fuck himself.” The Daily News ran a story about the incident, in which they reported, “The City Council speaker’s office has issued an apology after Simone reached out to protesters outside a Quinn fund-raiser last Monday by lobbing a few F-bombs their way.”

How much campaigning are Quinn’s “Director of Community Outreach” and other City Council staffers doing compliments of NYC taxpayers? In the last election, it was quite a bit, according to this exposé in the Village Voice entitled “Quinn Pads Campaign Staff with City Council Staffers.”

Quinn has a vast amount of taxpayer-funded city resources at her disposal for her campaign – discretionary funds with which to make deals, a team of City Council staffers, a chauffeured SUV, etc. She also has the Mayor inviting her to speak at high profile events, thereby increasing the tremendous exposure that she already has as Speaker. But perhaps that’s not a bad thing because, in speaking to NYC voters, the more they are exposed to her, the less they like her.

Drag Queen Honey LaBronx joins the protest against Quinn

Quinn Misleads the Public

According to the NYC League of Humane Voters last report card, the “biggest obstacle to more humane laws in NYC is the inexplicable opposition by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who has attacked virtually every effort in the Council to make life better for animals, despite claiming in letters to concerned citizens that she cares about animal welfare.”

If Christine Quinn hadn’t killed the bill to take horse-drawn carriages out of midtown Manhattan, then perhaps NYers and tourists would have been spared the sight of seven carriage horses collapsing, tripping, spooking and dying in midtown over the past several months.

Until now, protecting the horse-drawn carriage trade has been more politically expedient for Quinn than taking these horses out of harm’s way or protecting the safety of pedestrians. But what will Quinn say when a child dies after being trampled by a spooked carriage horse, especially after having been informed about the the dangers of spooked horses and all of the accidents to date?

The NYC carriage horses have it bad enough, dodging taxis and ambulances in the congested streets of midtown and sleeping in multi-story buildings in Hell’s Kitchen. But Christine Quinn rubbed salt in their wounds in 2010 by fast-tracking a “reform” bill that deceived the public into thinking that conditions for the horses would be improved when the real purpose of the bill was to give carriage operators a rate hike.

Charlie, a carriage horse who collapsed and
died on W. 54th St. in October

Quinn pulled a similarly misleading stunt in September 2011 when, as a favor to the Mayor, she fast-tracked a bill through the City Council that overturned the law mandating a city-funded animal shelter in every borough. Shelters are desperately needed in The Bronx and Queens.

Instead of being transparent about the purpose of the bill, Quinn sent a letter to constituents suggesting that the bill, which is a major set back, is a positive step for NYC’s homeless animals.

One dissenter in the City Council, who had little to lose by speaking out because Quinn had already cut his discretionary funds by $600,000, stated that the bill was passed “rapidly and in a cynical spirit in order to prevent a damaging lawsuit” filed by a rescue organization who was suing the City to fulfill it’s legal obligation to open shelters.

Carriage horse who collapsed on 59th & 5th in December

In September, Christine Quinn forced a Council Member to cancel a press conference on the steps of City Hall in which she was planning to announce a bill that would prevent spent carriage horses from being sold for slaughter. So much for free speech.

Mayoral?

Several months ago, Christine Quinn shared a rare glimpse of her true colors when she chewed out a reporter who called her “ma’am” instead of “Madam Speaker.” Here’s another chewing incident worth watching, in case you missed it. Click the link and scroll down to the video:

Did Quinn and Bloomberg Get Engaged?

At the annual holiday party of the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, Allen Roskoff, the club’s president and the co-author of nation’s first gay rights bill, parodied Christine Quinn. His (her) performance was covered in the Daily News:

Christine Quinn: Behind the Smile

This exposé on Quinn reached 10,000 viewers in October, but we have a long way to go. Please share the link with your friends who vote in NYC.

Looking Ahead

Quinn has the support of Bloomberg, his paid consultant Ed Koch, the Democratic Establishment and the LGBT community. She also has a bully pulpit as Speaker, a team of City Council staffers campaigning for her, the real estate money and millions of dollars in taxpayer funds with which to make deals and repay donors.

On our side, we have the truth about Quinn’s record and her character; a public who is growing more and more suspicious of her; several other viable candidates determined to become Mayor; and the will to restore some ethics, fairness, democracy and humanity to NYC government.

See you in the streets.

Protesting at a fundraiser

A NYC resident questions a protester about Quinn

A Brief Recap

Last September, Christine Quinn was introduced as “the Next Mayor of New York” at a fundraiser in midtown hosted by the Victory Fund, an organization that helps elect LGBT candidates to public office. She has been campaigning ever since.

While we can’t compete with Quinn’s campaign or City resources (Do you remember how she padded her campaign staff with city employees during the last election?), we do believe we can make a difference. In 2009, Quinn was expected to win re-election by a landslide, given her incumbency, the large LGBT population in her district and the fact that she funneled so much of the City’s discretionary funds to groups in her own district. However, she barely won a majority. Could her narrow victory be attributed, in part, to our campaign against her in 2009?

After the 2009 election, Crain’s ran a story about the 2013 Mayoral race in which they reported, “Insiders have largely written off Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who was damaged by the council’s slush fund scandal and extension of term limits, and struggled to win re-election.”

Quinn was so crushed by her unexpected narrow victory and its implications that she barely came out of her office for days, according to a source in her office.

Here’s what’s happening now:

Quinn shows her true colors

On April 6, Quinn flew off the handle with Erin Einhorn, a reporter from the Daily News, who called her “Ma’am” instead of “Madam Speaker.” Quinn was angry at Einhorn, who recently reported that she “is about to move into a luxury condo building where she used taxpayer dollars ($785,000) to resolve a conflict with a neighboring building over garbage.” Einhorn also reported that Quinn has “been sued repeatedly for nonpayment of rent.”

Quinn is notoriously mean-spirited and vindictive behind the scenes, but, in public, she comes across as caring, concerned and self-deprecating. It’s a great act, if you don’t know the truth. Her public attack gives NYers a rare glimpse of the real Christine Quinn. In case you missed it, here’s a link to the video on NY1 news:

Quinn attacks reporter

The Real Estate Fundraisers

The real estate industry is aggressively fundraising for Quinn because they have so much to gain financially if Quinn is elected. Given her penchant for saying one thing publicly and doing the opposite behind the scenes, we shouldn’t be surprised that she once made the following statement in a debate:

Question: Has anyone taken any campaign contributions from developers, landlords or real estate organizations? Would you do so in the future?

Quinn: No I haven’t and no, I won’t.

According to the Gotham Gazzette, which lists her real estate donors, through July, 2010, Quinn had already “received more than $3 million for her likely citywide campaign, much of it from the real estate industry and business interests.”

In the past two weeks alone, we have received three invitations to Quinn fundraisers hosted by real estate executives. One of these fundraisers (see invitation below) is honoring Quinn’s “commitment to the protection of animals.” Commitment to animals? According to a report card published by the former NYC League of Humane Voters, “the biggest obstacle to more humane laws in NYC is the inexplicable opposition to animal welfare legislation by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Speaker Quinn has attacked virtually every effort in the Council to make life better for animals, despite claiming in letters to concerned citizens that she cares about animal welfare and even ‘supports animal rights.””

Real estate fundraiser

Protest Against Quinn

On April 11th, ten NYers held a protest against Christine Quinn at a private home on the Upper East Side. Quinn’s security detail, chauffer and handlers did not appear happy to see us when they arrived. Nor did Quinn, who faced the ground as she scurried past us.

Many people who attended the event asked us questions and took our handout on their way into the house. And dozens of curious onlookers who are unaccustomed to seeing protests in their neighborhood stopped to look at our posters and tell their children what was happening. One guest at the event came outside and encouraged us to “pool our money to buy a ticket and speak to her directly.” We explained that talking to Quinn is a fruitless exercise because she doesn’t tell the truth.

Protest Against Christine Quinn

St. Vincent’s Hospital Closure

On April 7th, Federal Bankruptcy Court approved the sale of St. Vincent’s Hospital (in Quinn’s district) to the Rudin Management Company for $260 million. The Rudins plan to build 300 luxury condos and a health clinic. Over a million NYers on the West Side will be left without a hospital.

Instead of tapping into a $600 million reserve fund that has saved other NYC hospitals in bankruptcy or advocating for a new hospital, Quinn was virtually silent, in spite of pleas from constituents. Quinn even refused to support a resolution to zone the St. Vincent’s site for a hospital. Community leaders agree: Quinn was more interested in repaying the Rudins, who are major campaign donors, than advocating for a hospital for her constituents:

Quinn repays Rudins

The 2013 Race

According to this NY1-Marist Poll released on April 1st, “18% of Democratic voters citywide say, if the primary were held today, they would support Congressman Anthony Weiner. Former New York City Comptroller Bill Thompson takes 15%. Comptroller John Liu receives 13% of the Democratic vote, as does City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Nine percent of Democrats say they would support Public Advocate Bill de Blasio while 4% would back Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. A notable 27% are undecided.”

If the race continues to be this close, can Quinn afford to have an organized and growing movement against her?

In late January, the New York Observer ran a story about the 2013 race. On Quinn, they wrote:

“Some see her as likely to drop out of the race altogether and aim for a lesser office, and others see her as a veritable lock for a run-off. Ms. Quinn has hitched her wagon to Mayor Bloomberg’s centrist, business-friendly star, at the risk of angering the progressive base… But Ms. Quinn would be the only woman in the race, and the fact that she would become the first lesbian mayor of the city could turn her candidacy into a cause. Ms. Quinn also has another thing: the so-called elites. These are the people and groups who make up the Partnership for New York City, the Association for a Better New York, who work on Wall Street or in real estate and who make up for votes with money and editorial board influence.”

Quinn is counting on gay people to vote for her because she’s gay and for women to vote for her because she’s a woman. She is counting on her identity, not her record, to get her elected. What she’s not counting on is a growing group of gay people and women who are dedicated to voting her out of public office for good.

Puppet on a String

On a lighter note:

Quinn’s Puppet Show & Political Farce

We need your support in this grass roots campaign to vote Quinn out of office. Please forward this email to your friends and colleagues who vote in NYC.

See you in the streets.

The grass roots campaign against Christine Quinn is strengthening each day, with new people joining the cause and spreading the word. Following are a few updates on Quinn’s campaign for Mayor and our campaign against her:

February 15th – Quinn’s State of the City Address

During her State of the City address, Quinn said, “government only succeeds when we serve as a microphone for the voice of the people.” Was Quinn serving as a microphone for the people when she overturned term limits after NYers voted twice to keep them? Is she serving as a microphone for the people every time she single-handedly kills a bill that has a veto-proof majority in the City Council? Who is Quinn really serving?

February 16th – Taking our Campaign Indoors

On February 16th, three of us attended a networking breakfast and Q&A with Quinn hosted by City Hall News. According to the Daily News, Quinn “spent a large portion of her on-the-record chat… pointedly not taking positions.” Of course, she refused to answer my question about the slush funds she allocated to fake charities and then doled out in exchange for political favors. Perhaps the U.S. Attorney’s Office will complete its investigation before the 2013 Mayoral election and provide NY voters will long-awaited answers about Quinn’s slush funds. The others in our group asked what kind of message she sent to the public by fast-tracking a bill to overturn term limits against the will of the people.

Later that day, several of us attended a community meeting in Chelsea hosted by the Coalition for a New Village Hospital. According to the panelists, $683 million in emergency funds were available that could have saved St. Vincent’s. So, why didn’t Christine Quinn, the Council Member for the district, attempt to tap into these resources or make any credible effort to save the hospital? See this response in this one minute video: Just follow the money.

February 17th – Protest Against Quinn

On February 17, NYC Comptroller John Liu held a Town Hall meeting at the Brooklyn Public Library in Grand Army Plaza. Knowing that politically active NYC voters would attend, we held a protest against Quinn on the front steps. Dozens of friendly Brooklynites stopped to look at our posters, ask about our campaign, take our information and thank us for speaking out.

Our favorite comment came from a thirty-something woman from Park Slope: “I have turned a blind eye to her record because she’s gay. Thanks for forcing me to take a closer look.”

Protest against Christine Quinn at the Brooklyn Public Library
February 17, 2011