Few Fans Left In Speaker Quinn's Original Base

Christine Quinn is at the peak of power in the New York City Council, but those at the bottom of the mountain are fuming at the woman they helped put on top. Quinn was supposed to be a progressive's progressive, not on with GLBT issues but as a fighter across the board that would take on the corporate powers in the City and advance the people's agenda. Now she's seen as the chief minion of Mayor Bloomberg and all the elitist interests he represents. The term limits debacle was the final straw for many. As we approach 2009, her original base is all but gone and hopes of a Mayoral bid, even if in 2013 (presuming she supports Bloomberg's third term) have diminshed considerably.

From Chelsea Now:

Chelsea’s enthusiasm for its Council representative, Speaker Quinn, has diminished considerably, if not morphed into anger. Her abrupt reversal on term limits to support Bloomberg’s bid for a third term, in defiance of the two-term limit established in 1993 and reconfirmed in 1996 by popular vote, has even upset her own political club, the Chelsea Reform Democratic Club. Like most city voters—89 percent of those polled by Quinnipiac University in October—Chelsea residents believe the term-limits issue should be decided in another referendum, not by a City Council vote. Speaking to the CRDC on Dec. 18, Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause/New York, deplored “the about-face of our Speaker, who I have a great deal of personal regard for, and found, quite frankly, that it was shocking that she did not have the courage of her convictions to come out, in any one of the hearings, and confront the public.”

Personal regards aside, what Quinn has done as Speaker is deplorable. Whether it be the use of slush funds or pressuring Council Members in other monentary ways, she has been one of many unethical presences at City Hall and her time to go is now (or technically election day in 2009). The Mayor is much too powerful and a new face and fresh vision is needed to take on the ridiculous amount of corporatization that has gone on in our once proud Gotham. It is going to be clubs like the CRDC and others local organizations that will have to rise up and defeat people like Christine Quinn.