NYC Mayoral race is not just a race of local interest

In NYC it's now a three way race for the dem nomination- and there's a real progressive to support.

I know some folks here think this is nothing but a local election. I disagree. NYC is this nation's largest city- to many in the world it represents the U.S. The population is larger than all but 10 states. For years the Mayor's seat has been held by republicans or republican endorsed candidates.

If no candidate gets 40% on September 10, then it goes to a runoff between the two top candidates in October. Currently, according to the latest poll, Christine Quinn is in first with 27% followed by Bill de Blasio and Bill Thompson who are tied for second with 21% and 20% respectively.

Quinn most definitely is not the Progressive in the race. Yeah, it would be great to have an openly gay Mayor of the largest city in the country, just not Quinn. She's been called 'Bloomberg's real estate pawn'. It might not be fair to call her a Bloomberg clone, but she has supported him on almost everything.

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She's been an ally to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who's defeated three Democratic candidates in a row. Nobody would call Bloomberg a conservative on social issues, though he's certainly an economic one. Quinn, meanwhile, has almost always supported his causes. That bill that let Bloomberg run for a third term, even though voters had voted for term limits? Quinn helped usher it in. Of the 333 bills brought before the city council in 2011, Quinn and Bloomberg disagreed on only 5% of them.

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The Human Rights Project at the Urban Justice Center (HRP) publishes an annual report of all New York City councilmembers, in which they grade politicians' records on rights: civil, cultural, economic, political and social. A high score indicates a progressive record, while a low one says the opposite. All the Republicans on the 2011 scorecard received a C or worse. The average Democratic score was a B-.

Christine Quinn received a D+ in 2011 from the HRJ, which was tied for the worst score of any Democrat on the council. The 2012 scorecard (in which she did not receive a score) described her thus:

"[Quinn] delayed hearings, stalled votes and restricted the passage of legislation … inhibiting the advancement of human rights in New York City."

Perhaps most famously, Quinn has stalled the paid sick day bill, which would give employees five paid sick days if they work for a company with five or more employees. It's sponsored by 36 of the 51 council members, more than enough to overcome a Bloomberg veto. Quinn, however, won't let the bill come up for a vote. She claims "given the current economic reality, now is not the right time for this policy."

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http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/mar/13/new-york-liberals-support-christine-quinn-for-mayor

Thompson is sort of a go with prevailing winds kind of guy. He's the only AA in the race. First he defended stop and frisk. Last weekend he blasted it, but he still doesn't support bills that would oversee the police and ban racial profiling.

The aggressive era of stop-and-frisk policing in New York City is, in every sense of the word, on trial: the subject of a high-stakes federal court case, scorching denunciations from civil rights leaders and emotional calls for its dismantlement by liberal lawmakers.

But in a stand that is surprising black leaders and worrying some allies, William C. Thompson Jr., the sole African-American candidate for mayor, is steadfastly unwilling to join the tear-it-down chorus.

Instead, Mr. Thompson is embracing elements of the polarizing crime-fighting strategy and winning praise from an unlikely duo deeply associated with it: Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/30/nyregion/william-c-thompson-jr-takes-moderate-stand-on-police-stops.html?pagewanted=all

Bill de Blasio is white, but he certainly has a vested interest in racial justice issues. His wife is AA and he has two children. The elder is a girl in college, the younger, his son is entering 11th grade in the NYC school system.

de Blasio has a proven track record as a Progressive. No ifs ands or buts about it.

The day the latest Anthony Weiner scandal surfaced, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg vetoed anti-racial profiling legislation, a young woman was murdered in the East Harlem housing project where mayoral candidates had stayed two nights earlier, and Bill de Blasio held a press conference to talk about his work to block the closing of two New York hospitals – which wound up dominated by questions about Weiner.

That’s mostly been the story of de Blasio’s campaign since Weiner jumped into the mayor’s race in May and immediately became City Council President Christine Quinn’s top rival. While the exhibitionist former congressman still has progressive fans from his days shouting about health care reform on Fox and MSNBC, de Blasio is the genuine progressive in the race, with bold stands on police controversies and economic inequality that set him apart. Still, he’s been stuck in the middle of the pack in the polls, behind Weiner, Quinn and former comptroller Bill Thompson, who lost to Bloomberg in 2009.

New York magazine, in a largely admiring profile of de Blasio, called his campaign “easily the most intellectually coherent and focused when it comes to inequality… but his wonky ideas are also in danger of getting lost in Weinermania” – and that was before the latest revelations of Weiner’s sexting habits after he left Congress.

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If you’re tired of the media’s obsession with Weiner’s sexting, and longing for a campaign about big issues, meet Bill de Blasio.

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http://www.salon.com/2013/07/26/forget_weiner_theres_a_real_progressive_for_nyc_mayor/