Mickey Carroll Sees A Disconnect Between Term Limits And Bloomberg

The latest Quinnipiac poll shows Bloomberg's approval rating and twenty point lead over his top challenger Bill Thompson. What the poll doesn't show is how people feel about the term limits extension and how Bloomberg manipulated the process to get that extension through. Quinnipiac director Mickey Carroll talks about it with the Observer's Azi Paybarah, and asserts people just don't care enough about it to sway their decision about who they'll vote for in November.



Perhaps the problem is that while people know something about the term limits extension, they do not know the full truth about how far Bloomberg went to get that passed without letting the people have a say. His authoritarian notions would impress many a dictator around the world for how he pulled that off, and this is still a matter of informing voters of what exactly went down last fall...and of course, everything else he's done to this city.

NYC Wants Bloomberg Gone But Doesn't Know His Opponent

The bad news for Democrats in the latest NY1 poll is that the mayor still enjoys a 60% approval rating from New Yorkers. The good news though is that 55% of the same group of respondents want to see him gone. NY1 asked plenty of questions, and it leads to some important answers. If Bill Thompson (or any other candidate) wants to take advantage of the political landscape, he'd better take notice.

From NY1:

The poll shows that while 60 percent of New Yorkers approve of Bloomberg's job performance, 55 percent say the want "someone else" in City Hall next year.

The poll also shows that an overwhelming number of New Yorkers are unfamiliar with Bloomberg's top rival, Democrat Bill Thompson.

The poll surveyed 683 adults throughout New York City with a margin of sampling error of +/-4 percentage points.

The poll is much more detailed inside, showing that Bloomberg's highest negatives come in the area of taxes (remember this?), education and especially the term limit extension fiasco. Seven in ten New Yorkers still want term limits and six in ten disapproved of the mayor and council's egregious action that extended the limit to three terms.

While some people know of Bloomberg's downsides, there are areas that the people are lacking in information. For instance, the poll doesn't even register a blip of outrage over the fact that Bloomberg helped the Yankees receive more than $1.3 billion in taxpayer assistance to build their new stadium and a few hundred million that went to the construction of Citi Field.

Then there's the fact that hardly anybody knows that Thompson is actually running for mayor. With less than five months before the election, 86% of surveyed New Yorkers have no opinion of Bill Thompson. That means the front runner has some serious work to do so that the overwhelmingly Democratic town understands that there is a Democrat in the race that is opposing an plutocratic "independent" Bloomberg.

Part of the problem is a broken down and bent out of shape party structure that can't seem to get fully behind a Democratic candidate. Even the current Democratic Council Speaker can't bring herself to support the eventual nominee of the her party. What it all boils down to is that Thompson and whatever percentage of party leaders and activists must work tirelessly to combat Bloomberg's onslaught of deceptive campaign material and other dubious activities so that New Yorkers clearly know what choices they have when election day comes upon us.

More To Quinn Than Her Smile

This mini-documentary by Donny Moss (YouTube has a ten minute limit) comprehensively covers Speaker Christine Quinn in a way that few have done before. We all remember her tainted by the slush fund scandal, but nothing ever came of it. It wasn't too long ago that gay men were being falsely arrested by vice-cops and Quinn was nowhere to be seen. And don't get me started on term limits. There are many issues that Quinn will not bring up to support her candidacy for a third term, but Donny Moss does.



Update [6/9 12pm]: Unfortunately, it seems that Robert Pinter has something to say about his unwilling participation in the documentary. While it blows a hole in that part of the argument against Quinn, the rest of it still stands.

Bloomberg Mocks FOIA Request For Term Limit Extension Emails

In an open and transparent democracy, it is the representatives of the people who are beholden to those that elect them. For Mayor Bloomberg though, he does not believe that principle applies to himself. Going around the backs of New Yorkers who voted for term limits, he had the city council reverse the will of the people and extend term limits so that he and other two-termers could run for another four years.

What the Mayor engineered was an outrage to say the least. In response, at least one person at the NY Times (not to mention outside groups) file a Freedom of Information request to see how it all went down. Sadly though, in the same spirit that Bloomberg spit on the will of the voters who enacted term limits, he did the same to that request for information.

From The NY Times:

“Many thanks.”

In the middle of the pitched battle over Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s plan to re-engineer the city’s term-limits laws, those are the only two words that the first deputy mayor, Patricia E. Harris, wrote about the topic.

Or at least those are the only two words that City Hall will allow the public to see.

On Friday, six months after The New York Times requested copies of all e-mail messages about term limits sent or received by six top aides to the mayor under the Freedom of Information Act, the Bloomberg administration released 66 pages of correspondence. (Also available as PDF.)

Much of what the city released amounted to fan mail for the mayor, from businesspeople, friends of his aides or ordinary citizens.

There was absolutely nothing in there that had any of what the principle architects of this political maneuver had written to each other. Nothing about the logistics and nothing about anything of importance was included. Of course, the information is there, somewhere. Bloomberg and his aides however, do not respect the public enough to let them see what or how things went down. Instead, their fear of the public keeps them from disseminating the information that would expose them for the power-hungry politicos that they are.

Quinn And Avella Get "Perfect Attendance" But Quinn Deserves An Asterisk

This morning, before the dire M.T.A. news crowded everything out, it was reported that out of fifty-one Council Members, only two, Tony Avella and Chris Quinn, had perfect attendance. Now attendance is an ambiguous term. In this context, it refers to actual votes.

From The NY Daily News:

Only two members had 100% records - Tony Avella (D-Queens) and Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan).

Avella, the Council's maverick and underdog candidate for mayor, made it to all 135 of his assigned meetings and sessions.

Quinn attends full sessions only - and those committee meetings where she wants to spotlight an issue. She attended 38 meetings and sessions.

Council posts are technically part-time, although only a few members hold other jobs.

For part-time jobs, all CM's make very nice money and then some when they awarded the sweetest "lulus." Quinn of course gets the biggest stipend as she is Council Speaker, but that is beside the point.

Quinn has attended all full sessions, but when the serious issues are up for debate, she is nowhere to be found, especially during the short public comment periods that she allows for. Case in point, during the term limits extension Quinn was the guiding force for ramming the bill through the Council, but she was absent when voters came to voice their opposition to the bill. So while this set of criteria gives Quinn an A+, when it truly matters her grade drops to something like a D-.

Thompson Calls Justice Dept Decision "Stunning And Disappointing"

All the principal players have had something to say about the Justice Department's decision to uphold the Mayor and Council's term limit extension law. One of those happen to be Mayor Bloomberg's primary opponent, NYC Comptroller candidate Bill Thompson.



It's great to see him talk about the issue, but this press conference will not persuade the Justice Department to change their ruling. If Thompson wants to be the one that ousts Bloomberg, he needs to start talking about his vision for New York and what he intends to do for the people that Bloomberg can't or won't accomplish.

Obama's Justice Dept. Gives Bloomberg A Pass

Not that I was counting on the Justice Department to stop the legally dubious extension of term limits, but it was still disheartening to see their decision in favor of Mayor Bloomberg. The Mayor and Council deliberately went around the will of the people this past October/November and extended term limits despite two separate ballot decisions that put those limits in place. Plenty of challenges were made to the change in the law, but nearly all have failed, as far as the courts and now the Attorney General are concerned.

From The Daily Politics:

It now appears that there are only two possible bumps remaining between the mayor and completely smooth sailing to the fall elections - and both of them are longshots: The term limits lawsuit (now on appeal) and legislation that is moving, albeit slowly, in both houses of the state Legislature that would require another public referendum on the term limits change.

Here's the text:

This refers to Local Law No. 51 (2008), which amends Sections 1137 and 1138 of the city charter as they relate to term limits for the offices of city councilmembers, mayor and other elected officials in the City of New York in Bronx, Kings, and New York Counties, New York, submitted to the Attorney General pursuant to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, 42 U.S.C 1973c. We received your submission January 16, 2009; supplemental information was received on February 26, 2009."

The Attorney General does not interpose any objection to the specified changes. However, we note that Section 5 expressly provides that the failure of the Attorney General to object does not bar subsequent litigation to enjoin the forcement of the changes. Procedures for the Administration of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (28 C.F.R. 51.41).

Sincerely,

Christopher Coates
Chief, Voting Section

I had discussed the matter with a friend who is knowledgeable in civil rights law to get a take on how this would play out. Basically, this was to be expected because rarely will the Justice Department overturn a bill passed by a City Council. Unless the action of the local government is so egregious in its' violation of the Voting Rights Act, the likelihood of interference is nil. Despite the (obvious and) implicit effect on the rights of minorities here, there is nothing in the bill's language that directly impacts their ability to vote fairly.

This attitude will likely be held by the whole of the State Legislature as well. For a state law that trumps city law would also step on the toes of the locality. Even though the bills in Albany to overturn Local Law 51 have made some progress, the possibility of them making it to the floor and passing is slim to none.

So what does this all mean? Basically, if we want to punish Bloomberg, Quinn and the other 28 Council Members for extending term limits, we need to vote them out in the upcoming primary and general elections. Bloomberg, being as out of touch as he is, thinks that people will forget the undemocratic political maneuver. However, as long as we get out there and fight for change in this city, we'll kick Bloomberg to the curb, where he belongs.