Nervous, Quinn spending thousands on polling

Christine Quinn, the incumbent City Council speaker, is reacting to a highly competitive race for the District 3 seat.

City Hall News is reporting that candidate Yetta Kurland may be making inroads against incumbent Christine Quinn. Although it is not yet established whether Ms. Kurland has truly over-taken Speaker Quinn among likely voters, an amazing fact was revealed in the campaign disclosure statements of both campaigns.

"According to Campaign Finance Board filings, both Kurland and Quinn’s campaign have spent sizeable sums on internal polling. Quinn’s campaign made two separate payments of $5,250 each to Global Strategy Group for “polling costs,” while Kurland’s campaign made three payments to consulting firm Prime New York for polling and phone data, for a total of $971."

Seems that Speaker Quinn's expenditure of over $10,000 on polling suggests that she is worried about something: possibly on the success of her ill-fated, third-term re-election campaign ?

On third night, debate video appears

Extracts of debate statements by Yetta Kurland, candidate in the District 3 race against incumbent Speaker Christine Quinn

I was beginning to believe that no debate took place, since I hadn't seen any video of the debate on the internet, yet.

But here, on the evening three days after it was reported that a debate took place, a YouTube video has surfaced with extracts of statements made by Ms. Kurland. I am glad that Ms. Kurland held Speaker Quinn's feet to the fire regarding the scandals over term limits extensions and the City Haul slush funds.

NYU and The Villager Close the Door on Democracy

First City Council Debate among Candidates for Democratic Primary in the 3rd District Race. Debate facility owned and operated by: New York University (19 West 4th Street).

An over-flow crowd formed outside one of NYU's buildings. Because the venue was so small, and only 5 press passes were issued to cover the re-election of the Speaker of the City Council (this, in a city of over 8 million people), there were more interested people who wanted to get in -- but who were turned away by NYU. At least 2 journalists with media credentials, at least one other freelance reporter, and a long line of undecided voters of Hells Kitchen, Chelsea, and the West Village looked on in complete helplessness as NYU officials turned them away.

This is NOT what democracy looks like !

After several conversations, candidate for NYC Public Advocate Norman Siegel was able to persuade and influence NYU officials to allow a handicapped man in a wheelchair access to attend the debate. But the 3 other reporters, and the rest of the voters, were turned away.

It took the persuasive skills of Mr. Siegel and the video recording by several citizen reporters before NYU chose to make room for the handicapped man. In essence, you need on your side a mob with at least one brilliant legal mind to change the minds of closed minded public institutions.