Bloomberg lies about term limits

Republican drag queens support hate

Self-hating GOP drag queens
want to constitutionalise a ban
against marriage equality !

This morning, the e-mail message I received in my inbox said that voters in New York City are going to "make compromises," thereby creating a justification in their minds that it is O.K. "enough" to re-elect a failed mayor to an ill-fated and controversial third term, even after we know that in 2005 he appealed New York Supreme Court Judge Doris Ling-Cohan's ruling that would have paved the way for same-sex marriage.

My apologies to Ms. Francis.

Term limits issue bedevils Bloomberg

Anger Over Term Limits Dogs Mayor

By MICHAEL BARBARO
Published: October 3, 2009

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s re-election campaign can generate reams of statistics on how quickly the city repaired potholes in each neighborhood. It can produce memos on climate change and public health, and even translate its campaign fliers into Creole.

Just don’t ask about term limits.

Rosemary DeStefano found that out on her doorstep in the Bronx the other day when a Bloomberg volunteer showed up, asking for her vote.

When she complained about how the mayor had the law changed to stay in office, the volunteer recited details of his economic plan. When she persisted, he extolled Mr. Bloomberg’s promise to create 400,000 jobs.

“They missed the whole point,” she said.

With five weeks remaining until Election Day, little seems uncertain in the contest between the colossally advantaged incumbent, Mr. Bloomberg, and his lesser-known rival, William C. Thompson Jr. But interviews with both campaigns and dozens of voters reveal that anger over a single issue still simmers, seemingly immune to a flood of television commercials and glossy brochures.

That bedevils Bloomberg advisers and gives hope to his underfunded challenger.

Disenchantment over the change in the law helped topple four veteran City Council members this fall, the greatest repudiation of incumbents in a generation, and has catapulted two local lawmakers who opposed the measure into citywide office.

“The Bloomberg campaign can’t convince voters to not be upset about this. It won’t work,” said John H. Mollenkopf, a professor of political science at City University who has informally advised the Bloomberg campaign.

“If you ask New Yorkers what they did not like over the last eight years,” he added, “term limits is the major negative.”

Mr. Thompson is building his entire campaign around the topic, adopting the slogan “Eight Is Enough,” accusing the mayor of breaking his word and preparing commercials that portray him as a power-hungry mogul who plays by his own rules.

He will make it a major line of attack during two candidate debates and turn it into a rallying cry in the days leading up to Election Day, the anniversary of the term limits change, which Mr. Bloomberg signed into law on Nov. 3, 2008. “It will be a big theme,” said Eduardo Castell, Mr. Thompson’s campaign manager.

The mayor’s political advisers privately acknowledge the public anger, but since they cannot reverse Mr. Bloomberg’s actions, they are looking for ways to deflect attention from it.

They have created a new round of commercials that play up Mr. Bloomberg’s middle-class roots, to soften his image as an imperious billionaire who defied the will of the voters.

They are leveling frequent attacks at Mr. Thompson’s record, as president of the Board of Education and comptroller, to send the message that, even if voters are still resentful about term limits, they would be foolhardy to entrust a complex city to an untested leader.

If voters insist on talking about term limits, volunteers are instructed to tell them the mayor “is not guaranteed” a third term and has given them “more choice” by changing the rules.

“Bill Thompson wants to make this election about one issue,” said the mayor’s campaign manager, Bradley Tusk. “And given his track record that’s understandable. But the performance of the mayor has an enormous impact on people’s lives, and because of that, voters choose their mayor based on very real tangible issues.”

No one is predicting that resentment over term limits will, by itself, be enough to cost the mayor the election. But in interviews, political analysts and pollsters said that unease over the issue helps account for a stubborn anomaly in New Yorkers’ feelings about the mayor. Polls consistently show that a large majority (roughly 70 percent) approve of his performance, but that a significantly smaller number (50 percent) plan to vote for him in November.

The 50 percent figure has not budged in months, even though the Bloomberg campaign has spent about $65 million to promote the mayor’s record. “Term limits has a lot to do with that,” said Geoff Garin, Mr. Thompson’s pollster. “It has put a ceiling on good will toward the mayor.”

Marilyn Arthold, 64, who lives in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, said she “personally likes the mayor,” but is outraged by how he changed the term limits law, which she voted for in the 1990s, and she will consider voting against him because of it.

Those involved in the mayor’s campaign said the issue has unexpected staying power, a year after City Hall introduced the legislation allowing officials to serve three consecutive terms, not two.

“It comes up a lot with voters,” said one campaign staff member. Back in the fall of 2008, when Mr. Bloomberg and his aides fought to change the rule, they made two predictions: that voters would be distracted by a closely watched presidential election, and that any anger over the move would recede by Election Day 2009.

They may have been overoptimistic, pollsters and analysts said.

“The anger in the electorate remains an inconvenient truth for the Bloomberg campaign,” said Bruce N. Gyory, a political consultant.

New York voters approved a referendum limiting council members and officials elected citywide to two four-year terms in 1993, and then ratified that vote in a second referendum in 1996. Mr. Bloomberg, in overturning the law, rewrote it through legislation that was approved by the City Council; critics and good-government groups said any change should have gone before the voters.

Mr. Bloomberg had been outspoken in his opposition to changing term limits, saying any effort to do so would be a “disgrace.”

Just how much it will hurt him on Election Day remains an open question, however. Many voters who intensely opposed the change said they planned to vote for him, citing his skills as a manager and a weak opponent.

“If it were anyone else, I would probably be against him,” said Carlo Dioguardi, who lives in Battery Park City and voted in favor of term limits. “I don’t think anyone else can do the job he’s done.”

As for those who are less forgiving?

The campaign’s strategy of changing the topic occasionally backfires. A few days after Ms. DeStefano’s confrontation with a Bloomberg campaign volunteer in the Bronx, a handwritten letter arrived in her mailbox, ticking off the mayor’s plans to improve the economy in the borough. Ms. DeStefano, a 75-year-old Republican, tore it up.

“I didn’t ask about jobs,” she said. “I asked about term limits.”

Christine Quinn shamed by protesters

Photo credit: Suzannah B. Troy

Blogger News Update : WHY DOES THE QUINNSTER LOOK SO ASHAMED OF HERSELF?

The blog, Dump Christine Quinn, has posted a damning report about the increasing pressure being put on New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn by the anti-third term movement :

"Recently, a group of New Yorkers who do not believe that Christine Quinn should be re-elected to her City Council seat representing Council District 3 gathered to express their First Amendment rights to free speech. As the Quinntessa herself has said, 'That's democracy!'

"But what struck me is the way she strode into the residential building in which one of her appointees to a Community Board was hosting a fundraising on her behalf: head hung. She looked embarrassed, actually; ashamed even.

"So, Miss Quinn, I am writing to suggest that the next time you are protested, you would be wise to turn to the gathered rabble, smile and wave. Because you should look as though you actually believe in all the bad things that you are doing to your constituents.

"This hang dog thing makes me worry that even you know you've sold your soul to the devil."

Voters oppose third term for Quinn

NY1 poll asks :
Should Christine Quinn be re-elected ?
76% say NO !

On Tuesday, September 15th, vote for Yetta Kurland
for City Council !

Quinn's Donor Analysis Revealed

The people who are paying for Christine Quinn's ill-fated third term re-election campaign aren’t the same people she’s elected to serve.

A new website called, The Quinn Report, is raising some serious issues about City Council Speaker Quinn's campaign :

* "Nearly 62% of Quinn’s individual donors live OUTSIDE Council District 3. The question is...what’s their interest in this race ?"

* "Nearly three-quarters of all donations of $1,000 or more come from donors who do not live in Council District 3."

Read more in: Donor Analysis.

Quinn booed entering fundraiser

What can you do to help ?

The primary is Sept. 15, tell all your friends that live in the West Village, Chelsea, Midtown West, Clinton/Hell's Kitchen to vote Christine Quinn out of office.

To do this, cast your votes for Yetta Kurland.

Video Credit: Suzannah B. Troy

Protesters follow Quinn to fundraiser

What's wrong with Quinn ?

Protesters gathered outside the private setting for a fundraiser to benefit the ill-fated third-term candidacy of City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. The protest event, held tonight at 6:30 p.m. at 61 Jane Street, was intended to shed light on Speaker Quinn's numerous failures to the constituents of her city council district.

Video Credit: Suzannah B. Troy

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 ?

Quinn resistance now on radio

Crotch Shot Radio Show interviews Suzannah B. Troy.

Listen as Ms. Troy discusses the slush fund scandal, pension fund scandal, over-development, the third term power over-reach, and the collapse of our infrastructure.

No third term for Christine Quinn

In 2008, Christine Quinn backed Mayor Michael Bloomberg on a controversial bill that overturned voter-approved term limits and allowed for the Mayor, City Councilmembers (including Quinn herself), and Borough Presidents to run for third terms, reversing the results of two successive public referenda.

Please vote for Yetta Kurland, candidate for NYC Council in the 3rd District. She is campaigning to restore trust and integrity to the City Council. A believer in civil liberties and civil rights, she is an attorney who is representing an individual wrongfully arrested during the 2004 Republican National Convention.

Quinn, NYC Council extend Term Limits

Flashback to October 2008: Amid High Emotions, Council Clears Bloomberg's Third Term Bid by WNYC reporter Kathleen Horan.

"Speaker Christine Quinn, who brought the mayor's bill to the floor, defended the extension of term limits by saying it was increasing voter choice."

""Make no mistake," said Speaker Quinn. "I believe that our great city will get through these challenges and emerge stronger than ever before. I also believe that in challenging times like these, the voters should have the choice — the choice to continue their current leadership. They should have the right to vote for the current mayor, or a new one, for their current City Council member, or a new one. That is exactly what is at stake today."

To listen to the entire WNYC radio report, please click on the mp3 player above.

Quinn won't commit to Demoractic Mayoral Candidate

Christine Quinn ends her loyalty to the Democratic Party

Both Yetta Kurland and Maria Passannante-Derr said they would support the Democratic nominee for Mayor, but Christine Quinn said, "I'm not going to make that commitment tonight."

The audience responded with jeers and shouts of, "You're no Democrat."

Shame on the Working Family Party's endorsement of Speaker Quinn. In 2008, Speaker Quinn spearheaded Mayor Michael Bloomberg's bill to extend term limits without a public referendum.

All information in this post was quoted or paraphrased from the YouTube video excerpt of the debate.

Remember Term Limits NYC 2009

We need a new Mayor in NYC, a new Councilman in Queens, and a whole new State Senate in Albany

Houston Mayor Wants to End Term Limits, Too

Look at what Bloomberg-Quinn have started

"Mayor Bill White on Wednesday raised the specter of changing the term limits on Houston elected officials, urging City Council members to consider appointing a special commission to examine whether the restriction to three, two-year terms imposed by voters in 1991 has been too stringent." The Houston Chronicle has reported.

"...Term limits passed in cities and state legislatures all over the country in the early 1990s in a wave of reform that also brought the idea to Capitol Hill as part of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's Contract With America, where it failed. In recent years, however, challenges to term limits have been growing.

"Last year, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg fought and won a battle to allow him a one-time extension so he could serve a third four-year term. Former San Antonio Mayor Phil Hardberger also led a successful 2008 ballot initiative to extend that city's two two-year term limit to two four-year terms," the article reported.

Revolution in New York City Government

City Council Gives Its Staff Raises

August 6, 2009, 6:56 pm

By Ray Rivera

From the City Room blog of the NYTimes :

At a time when many American workers are taking pay cuts, the New York City Council is giving its employees raises. Following the lead of the mayor’s office, which bumped its staff’s salaries last month, the Council on Thursday gave its employees back to back raises: 4 percent retroactive to March 2008 and another 4 percent retroactive to last March. The raises, which did not require a vote by the Council, mirror those announced last month by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg for nearly 6,700 managers and nonunion workers.

The mayor’s raises will cost the city $45 million this year and come in the middle of the worst recession in decades. The council’s raises, affecting 550 council aides and central staffers, is expected to cost about $3.9 million for this year’s salaries and last year’s retroactive increases.

“We have taken every step towards achieving a responsible budget at the Council, and have in fact lowered our spending by more than $4 million over the past two fiscal years,” Maria Alvarado, a spokeswoman for the Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, said in a statement. “We made a decision to provide the cost of living increases after they were enacted by mayoral personnel orders in July.”

The raises, first reported on The Daily News’s Web site on Thursday, will bump the Council’s highest paid employee, Charles Meara, the chief of staff, to $209,973 from $194,132, a gain of $15,841. The Council’s next highest paid employee, Ramon Martinez III, whose title is first deputy chief of staff, will rise to $207,303 from $191,664.

City officials say the raises, which do not apply to council members, are based on salary increases negotiated last year with District Council 37, the city’s largest municipal union. The offices of the district attorneys and borough presidents have or are expected to enact similar raises. New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr., a Democratic candidate for mayor who last month blasted the mayor’s decision to give his staff raises, has frozen the salaries of all his employees who make over $90,000 a year.

A little bit crummy and a little bit chummy

Christine Quinn has shown that Gay Politicians can be just like Straight Politicians

The writer-editor of the Dump Christine Quinn blog wrote a terrific piece about Why the Gay Community Must Outgrow Identity Politics.

We can't just settle for electing a "compromised" LGBT politician, who is going to go along with the questionable tactics of crooked politicians while she is in office. For example, by using slush funds to funnel money to the LGBT community, Ms. Quinn is only doing some of the same shady political wheeling and dealing that gets politicians indicted.

I wonder if we shouldn't be choosing LGBT leaders for public office, so that they could show the other office-holders that gay people are different -- for example, better -- when it comes to working with integrity when handling the public's business.

For now, Ms. Quinn prefers to maintain her close working relationship with Mayor Bloomberg, who, with the help of Ms. Quinn herself, has side-stepped the will of the voters and is running for a third term as New York City mayor.

Lipstick on Your Collar (No Third Term for Bloomberg mix)

No Third Term for Republicans

No votes for politicians who close firehouses.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R-NY) has a record of closing firehouses and shrinking the Fire Department, even though we all know that in the name of the safety of the city, we need firehouses to remain open.

Only a Republican would close down firehouses and layoff fire fighters in a city like New York.

Keep our firehouses open by voting for anybody but Bloomberg !