The Quest to Stop the Pantsuit: NYC mayoral election 2013

I'm trying to resist playing armchair psychotherapist (a silly phrase, fwiw, since psychotherapists actually do work from armchairs), but there is definitely SOMETHING pathological about this beyond just blowing off steam, cheating, being horny etc.

Of course, someone was probably sitting on this, waiting for the right moment to use it. But that doesn't really make it look any better.

it's all probably a valve for self-loathing that comes from saying "Gaza is not occupied" in public.

you mean the west bank

hasn't he said both?

The West Bank is the one that's especially weird to claim it's not occupied. Israel removed its soldiers stationed in Gaza and forced out the few thousand Israeli settlers that lived there in 2005, so there's at least a plausible argument that it's no longer officially "occupied" (even though Israel controls its borders and imposes harsh conditions on its economy).

why is "the pantsuit" allowed to be used a shorthand for quinn? (nb: I dislike quinn intensely) that's not a good look for this thread right?

anyway, weiner has no chance now right? and is there even a remote possibility that de blasio could become viable as the non-quinn candidate? or is it too late for that?

and a la 2nd ave sagas, why the endless talk about ferries??
http://secondavenuesagas.com/2013/07/23/as-triboro-rx-looms-a-mayoral-race-on-ferries-emerges/

Weiner's campaign has hours left, if has a brain in his... well.

The Pantsuit was the nicest moniker I could come up with, that's the kind of pig I am. Deal.

One would presume CQ is not going to get the 40% needed to avoid a runoff, so whoever finishes second becomes the non-Quinn candidate. All deBlasio has to do is edge out the Crook and the Empty Suit.

Liu was campaigning outside of my subway stop yesterday morning. I helped throw away some flyers I guess. Don't understand what would make someone choose him of all people as a candidate-of-choice. Does he have some compelling platform I'm unaware of?

I like Liu on a good number of issues -- he has some of the "shareholder activism" interests of Spitzer, and he's at least partly on my side of things on education. The fundraising scandal may hurt him a bit. But honestly I'm not too happy with my choices right now and I'm not ruling him out.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/25/nyregion/among-new-york-women-bafflement-at-the-loyalty-shown-by-weiners-wife.html

maybe she's into it. maybe it's a part of their sex life.

Marist poll, post-Carlos

Quinn 25, Weiner 16, de Blasio 14, Thompson 14, Liu 7

http://www.salon.com/2013/07/25/quinn_pulls_ahead_of_weiner/

de Blasio on the rise...

http://www.wnyc.org/articles/wnyc-news/2013/jul/29/poll-weiner-slumps-de-blasio-rises/

accept no imitations

argh, this is the WORST idea. Quinn is the WORST.

http://www.businessinsider.com/new-york-offers-loans-for-pre-k-2013-8

Mr. Weiner’s collapse, in the wake of his admission that he had continued to send sexually explicit images to women online for more than a year after he resigned from Congress over such behavior, appears to be significant: when asked to pick a candidate they would “definitely not vote for under any circumstances,” 51 percent named Mr. Weiner — up from 28 percent just three weeks ago. Ms. Quinn was named by 24 percent, and John C. Liu, the comptroller, was by 18 percent.

But Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, suggested that the numbers would most likely continue to change, especially because most of the candidates have just begun to air television commercials.

“Follow the bouncing ball, folks,” he said. “This lineup keeps changing.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/14/nyregion/new-poll-suggests-that-de-blasio-is-now-first-among-voters.html

Bill Thompson wants us all to drive, maybe

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/politics/2013/08/8532950/bill-thompson-unveils-car-focused-transportation-plan?top-featured-4

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/21/nyregion/de-blasio-gingerly-acknowledges-red-sox-allegiance.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimes&_r=0

uh oh

not as bad as Quinn jumping ship from the mets to the yanks

yep! no end to her perfidy

Can anyone give me a good reason not to vote for John Liu over these other clowns?

he's a crook and de Blasio is the only one w/ a prayer vs Speaker Kramden

from last week's new yorker story on bloomberg's legacy:

"Through no fault of Bloomberg's, the city is in a dangerous fiscal situation, Giuliani told me. "The next mayor has to be a fiscal expert, the way I was an expert on crime."

So, Curt Schilling?

Don't know quite what to make of the NYT's piece yesterday on de Blasio's stint in 2000 as Hillary Rodham's senatorial campaign manager. At first it smelled like a hatchet job ("indecisive") from a pro-Quinn paper, but it wound up primarily showing him as a guy who can't be an abusive dick? Which is what 3 of our last 4 mayors have been.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/26/nyregion/in-2000-a-clinton-war-room-didnt-fit-de-blasios-style.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

the New York media has been slow dragging coverage lately, because any time people see De Blasio they like his message and people REALLY hate Quinn. So there's basically no day-to-day coverage of the race, it's just surreal. Higher-ups around the city are panicking obviously and don't know what to do, so they're just not covering it, unless it's a negative article about De Blasio. Bloomberg's pit bull Howard Wolfson was all over the media yesterday basically warning people it will be the 70s again...should be interesting

morbs it is amazing to see you pulling for the lesser of two evils in a politics thread, esp one that's a clinton crony. he was against the single most progressive policy proposed in nyc in a generation (congestion pricing). a safe prediction: after four years of mr. 'a tale of two cities', income inequality will be worse.

but he is also the least likely to be re-elected, which seems like a good reason to vote for him and quinn is just so terrible. I was hoping lhota, who was actually fairly competent at the MTA, would attempt to fill the void here but just been a bumbling his way through this. liu is a good protest vote because nobody could interpret a vote for liu as anything but a protest vote. it is just astounding that one of these people will actually be mayor.

I'm not happy with the Hillaryism, but all the others suck worse. I voted for Thompson 4 years ago, fer Chrissake, my "purity" is greatly exaggerated.

income inequality will be worse.

yeah, but it will get worse more slowly, maybe. I just want the apocalyptic shit to hit after I die. (Good luck to the rest of you btw.)

Is it even that clear that Liu is really a "crook"? The campaign finance allegations are serious, but is Liu's direct knowlege/involvement clear?

even if the scandals didn't exist he was never going to get enough support to be a serious candidate

Seriously thinking about throwing him my vote. I don't think I even really care much btw DeBlasio and Quinn.

De Blasio up by 15 in latest Quinnipiac poll (which is a left-leaning poll yadayada)...he's 4 points away from avoiding a runoff! Quinn and Thompson have 21 and 20, respectively...this poll was done after the 2nd debate and in the midst of all CQ's useless endorsements.

that's kind of unbelievable

If there is a runoff, it's gonna be nassssty.

I don't think it's that unbelievable--for most everyone (me included), BDB is a cipher--but he's the only one who taps into the massive sense of "No Mas!" over the Bloomberg years. People are voting out of a general pissed-offness about the reversal of term limits, income inequality, the city becoming a tourist-yuppie-transplant haven, stop-and-frisk, et al...and it doesn't hurt that Weiner flamed out and BDB has a multi-racial family

there was a Times article a couple days ago about de Blasio pulling an unexpectedly high amount of the black vote. I saw one of Thompson's new attack ads yesterday. too little too late imo.

Plus Quinn is just so blah, even if you don't know much about her. I met her the other day, and I felt like I was shaking hands with my third grade teacher.

there was a Times article a couple days ago about deblasio pulling an unexpectedly high amount of the black vote.

this doesn't come across in the quinnipiac poll, where the black and white support for deblasio is 34% and 38%

there's a pretty enormous gender gap though, w/ 43% men supporting him vs. 18% quinn

I mean I guess it's unexpectedly high if we were assuming thompson would suck up all the support

bdb's share of the black vote is way up from the last poll, due in part to his son's Afro perhaps.

Weiner was getting a sizeable share of the black vote til Twitgasm #2, cuz... I dunno, u tell me.

I met her the other day, and I felt like I was shaking hands with my third grade teacher.

did the class wear earplugs?

yeah, but it will get worse more slowly, maybe.

― Miss Arlington twirls for the Coal Heavers (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, August 28, 2013 3:17 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

whoa

that's called the modern Democratic Party

as this thing goes on it's really shining a light on the division of opinion on Bloomberg between city elites (including all of the newspaper editorial boards that endorsed Quinn) and the rest of the population. like in the Times endorsement of Quinn their pitch is "she'll continue most of Bloomberg's policies, just with a few tweaks!" and that's supposed to be a positive. their write-up pushed me further toward de Blasio. and in the Times poll story today they acknowledge that people being fed up with Bloomberg is the reason de Blasio's ahead but it's kinda like they didn't see that coming?

upscale nyc liberals, and the times is their bible, live in as much of a bubble as tea partiers in the deep south...(i'm a lifelong new yorker and far far to the left)

lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5XXLD7yQX84

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5XXLD7yQX84

Last try

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XXLD7yQX84

Isn't there usually at least one traffic fatality a year at that parade? Of all the luck...

The Quinn papers are continuing to gun for de Blasio, but I read the Times piece about the outer-borough taxi plan and I will most certainly hold my nose when I vote for him. The lesson that always applies: THEY ALL SUCK.

http://gothamist.com/2013/09/01/times_daily_news_take_shots_at_fron.php

Quinnipiac puts de Blasio at 43%, Thompson 20, Quinn 18

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/04/nyregion/de-blasio-could-avoid-democratic-runoff-new-poll-suggests.html

as a motorist he believes the 'jury's out' about pedestrian plazas

np, last thing i wanna do is sit down on West 39th Street.

won't have to sit down in park slope either, bdb and chuck need those extra lanes

My office overlooks this "transition center" George Soros is building, will try to check out what can be done on Wednesday:

http://www.wnyc.org/story/billionaire-financier-soros-backs-mayoral-transition-project/

I gen find the Working Families Party to be a meaningless dodge for liberals who think they're 'sending a message' to mediocre-and-worse Dem candidates, but can someone explain who those 3 judge candidates were running against the unified Dem-Rep field?

morbs did you really not vote for BDB

lol at this pic btw

http://gothamist.com/attachments/nyc_rebeccaf/110513_bloombergbill.jpg

I was completely on the fence til the last minute, but yes I voted Green for mayor, w/ about 4000 others. (iatee?) BdB got my vote in the real election in Sept. (and I voted for Tish James and Ken Thompson both times, that's enough Dems)

not a bad John Liu post-election interview, basically a rundown of city challenges:

http://gothamist.com/2013/10/23/john_liu_feature.php

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2013/12/bill_bratton_de_blasio_nypd_commisioner.php

actually seems promising...

Dude has a soca song? Did anybody ever write a soca about Bloomy? Hmmm?

http://m.animalnewyork.com/2013/bill-de-blasios-soca-anthem-incredible/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-defies-national-trends-23-cut-traffic-deaths-3-years-article-1.2980888

pretty big accomplishment

too bad about the pedestrians

and the cyclists

14 -> 18 is not a big deal. 299 -> 230 is

p4reene w/ some tips, links, laments

http://splinternews.com/a-guide-to-new-york-citys-municipal-primary-elections-f-1803740414

went with Swern over Fliedner for Brooklyn DA