Quinn as next speaker – Time to move?
ByIt’s no big surprise that über-liberal Christine Quinn was going to become the next speaker of the New York City Council. She had a great relationship with former speaker Gifford Miller, and has steadily risen through the Demo ranks in NYC since working for State Senator Tom Duane when he served in the City Council. But did it have to happen while I still live here?
I became aware of Quinn while managing Stephen Evans’s 2003 campaign to free the 3rd Councilmanic district from her grip. I learned then about her combative style and how she rarely lets public opinion or voter mandate stand in the way of what she wants.
I can’t picture her reign of terror as speaker being good for the city. She is rather proud of her inability to work well with others, and doesn’t seem to have much respect for voters or taxpayers in general. One of her pet issues as speaker will be to repeal term limits on City Council members which were legitimately voted in by New York City residents. Mayor Bloomberg is less than enthused with the prospect of working with her, having butted heads with her in the past.
Quinn is a lifelong servant of government. Like much of her Democrat brethren in the council, she has little experience outside the municipal bureaucracy, and therefore knows only that perpetuation of the bureaucracy will ensure her survival, public good be damned.
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7 Comments
January 4th, 2006 at 6:10 pm
Rick,
I continue to fault the Republican Party when it comes to the city council. To begin there is never any long-term branding or strategy that is done with our candidates. They show up several months before Election Day and think they’re going to win in Liberal New York City where people vote Democrat by default. To win the council you have to have a long-term strategy where you get a candidate who doesn’t expect to win for maybe three election cycles spending everyday branding themselves in the community and papers. Since our defeat in November in the council I haven’t heard or seen one Republican candidate that ran for city council. Where are they? They all climbed back into their holes and like groundhog will pop out again comes the next election cycle to say vote for me and loose.
You want to win in New York City as a Republican you need to spend time and effort branding yourself like a company would a new product. Mayor Bloomberg didn’t call his company Bloomberg for nothing!
As far as council members like Quinn looking to overturn term limits, again where is our council candidates. They should be in the press taking it to the people telling them this why you should have voted for me. Oh well, just another lost opportunity.
January 4th, 2006 at 8:38 pm
Have to part ways with you on that one, old friend.
If term limits are rolled back because of a drive by Christine Quinn, I’m going to blame Christine Quinn, not a bunch of Republicans who never got elected.
There is a well-greased Democrat machine that runs politics in this town. And while a case can be made that the Republicans could do more to get themselves elected, the Democrats have done a pretty good job of insulating themselves against all comers.
January 4th, 2006 at 8:58 pm
Oh, I agree that Quinn would be to blame for the actual rollback.
My problem is the cricket sound from the Republican Party and its candidates on the issue.
January 5th, 2006 at 5:03 am
Nick, as I am the only Republican candidate mentioned in the initial post, I can not help but take your comments personally, and I will reply personally.
Where are the Republican candidates?
I was at City Hall today for the meeting where Quinn was elected. I did not see you there.
I saw Patrick Murphy when I was at City Hall Sunday. Again, I did not see you.
Running against Christine Quinn in 2003 cost me about $21,000. I would have loved to run against her again in 2004 for the branding purposes you list, but I exhausted my savings on the first campaign. The woman who ran against Quinn in 2001 went about $90,000 in debt. I would guess that Murphy lost around $60,000 on his race, and Zinberg probably lost about the same amount of money I did.
During my campaign, I called you and asked for a contribution, but you were not forthcoming with one.
Have you tried getting press whithout money?
Yes. You gave $250 to Bush and $75 to Murphy.
I have not bothered to check with the Board of Elections to see how many Republican petition signatures you have collected.
How many petitions have you even signed?
How many envelopes have you stuffed?
How many phone calls have you made?
How many subway stops have you stood at with candidates?
When you wonder why Republicans have a hard time recuiting qualified candidates, look in the mirror at the support you give us.
Sorry I could not make the Young Republican Party this evening. My community board met tonight.
January 5th, 2006 at 3:36 pm
Now this is what makes America great. Where else can you get such an open debate among friends for all to see?
Stephen, I would like to apologize for not segregating you from my broad statement of “where are the candidates” during the rest of the year because I will say you are the one person I see everywhere and just by your response it’s easy to recognize your passion for the council and the loss the city currently has without you on it.
As far as taking the liberty to air my personal contributions, I was a little disappointed in your decision to do it to begin with, I know you’re a good person but somebody who doesn’t might think it was a low blow. But worse you make me sound so cheap! First you never asked me for money because anyone who knows me well will tell you I would never turn down a direct request for money. You mention our President and Patrick but you forgot other candidates that personally asked me like Phil Sica. This doesn’t include the number of charitable organizations I give money too, like the PBA, The New York Sheriff Association (or whatever they’re called), the Firemen’s Association, The Eastern Paralyzed Veteran Association, Harlem RBI, etc…
As far as how many petitions I have signed, I’ve signed everyone somebody has put in front of me from the party. I apologize for living in Queens in a district where the Republicans didn’t have anybody run so there was no petition to sign.
As far as getting petitions signed, envelopes stuffed, phone calls made, loafs of bread baked and whatever other complaints you can think of, when I was younger without any responsibilities I fortunately had the time to do those things with the last time being Lazio vs. Hillary.
Since then I have had the great pleasure of marrying a beautiful women and experiencing one of God’s miracles in the birth of my son. Though I would love to stand at a subway stop with you my free time is now best served in life giving it to my wife (who also has little free time because of a commanding job), my son (who will soon be grown and if I missed any moment of his childhood I would be more disappointing then not seeing you get elected to the council), my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and in-laws who are increasing in age and every time spent with them will be great memories when they leave to spend their eternity with our maker. This all doesn’t include the financial practice I’m a partner in that commands my attention a good portion of every day.
In closing, Stephen, I respect your passion, applaud your work for the party and as a Christian forgive your devilish attempt to push me under a bus for all to see. I just ask in the future you take into consideration that maybe my absence from subway corners is not a reflection of not caring but instead possibly because I’m involved in something heavier on the scale of life.
Happy New Year, Stephen.
January 5th, 2006 at 8:21 pm
I fear I broke the eleventh commandment with more specificity than Nick did, and for that I am sorry.
Yesterday watching that vote was difficult for me, and my emotions were rather high.
While some Republican candidates run for power or self-aggrandisement, the majority run out of passion for a cause. I did not want to be a City Councilman, but Christine Quinn is all the awful things Rick posted and worse. I felt a moral obligation to challenge her, and yesterday more than ever I wish I had the means to have challenged her again in 2005(not 2004 as I mis-typed).
Running for office is financially devestating for most candidates. I can think of two local candidates whose marriages have failed as a result of their campaigns. I know two others whose marriages were severely strained by their campaigns and three who did not have the opportunity to spend time with their children the way Nick does because of their campaigns.
The suggestion that candidates who make these sacrifices for a cause are somehow to blame for not trying harder or more often is offensive to me.
Republican candidates are also subject to much abuse from Democrats in this city. I have been spat on twice. Almost every candidate, myself included, has received threatening letters. I think most candidates expect such treatment by Democrats. We are less prepared to be blamed by Republicans for the failures of our party locally. Most Republican candidates receive little financial support and only a handfull of Republicans volunteer on campaigns. We get called RINOs and otherwise are criticized by fellow Republicans who do little work on campaigns.
Democrats blindly support Democrats, but Republicans often eat their own.
I felt Nick’s comments were an extension of this problem, but my earlier comment may have been more of the same too.
Nick’s decision to devote himself to his family is a noble one, but having made that decision, he perhaps should not be the one suggesting that because he has not seen or heard from candidates that candidates are not still fighting the fight. Were Nick attending community events, he might find many Republican candidates engaged in their causes.
I attend about three City Council meetings and/or hearings a year. I am at my Community Board and Police Precinct Community Council more often than Christine Quinn is. I have attended public hearings on zoning, the West Side Statium, voting machines for the physically imparied, the High Line Park, and the rebuilding of the World Trade Center Site among other things.
2001 City Council Candidate Nick Viest is President of the 19th Precinct Community Council and sits on Community Board 8 where he has a small advisory role in the city’s budgeting process.
2001 City Council Candidate Michelle Bouchard wrote a conservative column for THE NEW YORK RESIDENT for about a year before her current job prohibited her from doing so.
I believe 2004 Congressional Candidate Peter Hort is shopping around a book.
While her schooling has limited her time, 2004 State Senate Candidate Emily Csendes nonetheless spent last June teaching school by day and petitioning on evenings and weekends.
2003 City Council Candidates Jennifer Arangio, Keisha Morrissey, and Doug Winston all wanted to run for office again last year, but they did not receive the Republican Pary nomination.
Jay Golub and Anton Srdanovic ran for office multiple times in hopes of branding themesleves, but their election returns got worse, not better, with each run.
Josh Yablon’s election returns did improve. He remains active in his police precinct, but he received little support – particularly from this club – and I am not certain he will run again.
January 5th, 2006 at 10:12 pm
Stephen,
I want to apologize again. I know my comments may have burned like alcohol on an open wound. I sympathize with your frustration and what it feels like to put so much into something to only feel like your still standing in the same place.
My comment about our failures to gain ground locally were not an attempt to eat our young, though that is how it might have seen, but out of my own frustration to see candidates like you not given the chance to make the difference we all know you could. I get frustrated every election cycle when our candidates result to the same old tactics to get elected, handing out flyers on street corners, making phone calls to people who feel obligated to say they will vote for you because your on the other line, etc… The businessperson in me looks at that and says, “when are we going to realize this isn’t working”, “how many more election cycles is it going to take before we try a new strategy”. As Mayor Giuliani said about the school system, “another $1 billion is not going to fix the problem” at some point you have to do a complete overhaul.
Brilliant economist and author Steven Levitt, would argue that just because people have won elections handing out flyers doesn’t mean that was why they won. Just because it’s the thing that stands out the most doesn’t make it the cause of the effect. Maybe the causes of our losses locally are the result of the consumer or voter in this case. First rule is give the consumer what he/she wants; don’t try to sell them a toaster when they want a microwave. Maybe being a Republican is like being the toaster in a city where microwave buyers outnumber us 5 to 1 or whatever the ridiculous number is.
My point is we all know people in this city from the press to the hotdog guy on the corner; don’t like Republicans for whatever odd reason. But that also means you can put as much fancy packaging on that toaster as you want by handing all the flyers out in the world and shaking hands with as many strangers as possible but at the end of the day they still wanted the microwave, which is evident by our returns on election day.
So what do we do? Every monopoly falls eventually it’s just coming up with the right business plan to do it. I know that business plan is out there and I would be more then happy to sit down with anyone in the party to help be part of the solution. One thing the party has to be aware of is to be successful is to recognize when you must transform and change course and that is something we as a party have not done in this city. The one thing fortunately for the party is that Democrats in this city currently are a victim of one of the biggest mistakes made in business, which is to go along managing as Harvard Business Review puts it with “Strategic Frames or Blinders” where they have a set of assumptions that will keep them from seeing the threat ahead. It’s like Polaroid failing to see the coming of the digital camera because they were so consumed with their successes of the past. That threat should and could be us. You just have to put the right plan in place to get there, something we currently lack.