Cynthia Nixon Endorses De Blasio over Quinn, Citing Paid Sick Leave; De Blasio Defends "Two Cities" Characterization | Capital New York

Cynthia Nixon endorses de Blasio, criticizes Quinn over Paid Sick Leave | Capital New York
Speaking NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly's son, Greg Kelly, on Fox 5, de Blasio defends "Two Cities" term, when speaking of income inequality in city
From Azi Paybarah, in Capital New York, Jan. 27, 2013

BY AZI PAYBARAH

3:03 pm Jan. 27, 2013

"To me, identity politics is not really where it's at," said Cynthia Nixon after Bill de Blasio officially announced his campaign for mayor in Park Slope this afternoon.
Nixon, best known for playing Miranda on Sex and the City, was responding to my question about why she's supporting Bill de Blasio for mayor instead of City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who, like Nixon, is an openly gay woman.
Standing outside de Blasio's Park Slope home, Nixon said, "I really want a candidate who believes what I believe. And so, for example, you know, that person that you're mentioning doesn't support paid sick leave and to me that is an issue that certainly, as a progressive, one has to be behind that issue."
Nixon went on to say "the group of people that don't have that paid sick leave is disproportionately women. And I feel like Bill supports that and Bill is fighting really hard for that."
Quinn, for her part, said she supports the overall concept of Paid Sick Leave, but not the current version of the bill, because of the city's weak economy. She has not indicated what specifically needed to change in the bill, or the city's economic climate, that would make her support it. The bill is supported by 37 City Council members—enough to pass and override a veto from Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Quinn ally who opposes the bill.
Although Nixon said de Blasio's push to increase parent's voices in public school was important (Bloomberg "has completely shut out the parental voice," she said), it was the Paid Sick Leave bill that was pivotal in her decision to back de Blasio over Quinn.
"To me that's kind of a split in the road and I don't want to go with somebody who calls themselves a progressive but doesn't believe in that," Nixon said.
The New York Times' city hall bureau chief, David Chen, asked Nixon how active she planned on being in the campaign.
"I think I will be more involved than any other campaign than I've ever been involved in because I think it will be such a tremendous thing for New York if he was our next mayor," she said.
The other mayoral candidates, like former comptroller Bill Thompson and current comptroller John Liuhave their fair share of celebrity supporters. Quinn's, for example, include Vogue editor Anna Wintour, film producer Harvey Weinstein and celebrity chef Mario Batali (who landed on the front page of the Posttoday for taking drastic steps to fight what he called overzealous health inspectors from the city).

* * * Speaking NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly's son, Greg Kelly, on Fox 5, de Blasio defends "Two Cities" term, when speaking of income inequality in city
De Blasio defends 'Two cities;' and takes a five -borough tour
From Azi Paybarah, in Capital New York, Jan. 28, 2013

When he announced he was running for mayor yesterday, Bill de Blasio called New York a "tale of two cities," and declared that "all boroughs were created equal."
Today, de Blasio blitzed all five boroughs and at least one of the New York Cities.
First, he sat for an inteview on Fox 5, where host Greg Kelly, son of NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, noted that de Blasio's line about New York being a "tale of two cities" was used by Fernando Ferrer in 2001, who lost his mayoral bid that year. "Many people think [the city] has improved since 2001," Kelly said.
De Blasio said income inequality has grown, and went into a pitch about taxing rich New Yorkers to pay for early childhood and afterschool programs.
Kelly prefaced another question by saying he thought de Blasio was one of the "smartest" guys in city government, but asked how many people currently work in his office, and when de Blasio told him he has about 30 employees, asked if that demontrates enough executive experience to lead the city.
De Blasio said he did a lot of other things before becoming public advocate in 2009, including working for Mayor David Dinkins, in the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, and serving two terms on the City Council.
In an interview with WNYC, host Brian Lehrer asked de Blasio about some of the criticisms he outlined in his announcement yesterday, which didn't name any other candidates but accused some of being too close to Mayor Bloomberg's policies. Lehrer wondered if his "argument against Quinn will be that she is too much like this mayor?"
"Yes," said de Blasio, who went on to say it's too early to get all that right now.
De Blasio also, for the first time, drew some distinctions between himself and New York City Comptroller John Liu, a likely rival in the primary, whose former campaign treasurer and a contributor are facing federal charges for allegedly skirting campaign finance laws. (Liu has not been accused of any wrongdoing and has vowed to go "all the way," with his campaign.)
Lehrer asked if de Blasio agreed with Liu's call to "abolish" the controversial stop-and-frisk strategy, which the administration says removes guns off the street but critics say unfairly targets minorities.
De Blasio said Liu's position was "irresponsible."
Later, de Blasio said he would not seek to expand the number of charter schools allowed to open in the city, a marked change from the current administration's policy of actively promoting the creation and opening of charter school.