Free Republic

As recently as 1998, New York State’s Republican party controlled the governorship, a United States Senate seat, and the mayor’s office in Manhattan. Today, it is greatly diminished, with its sole beachhead of influence in the state senate, where it shares a majority with four independent Democrats. In contrast, the Working Families party (WFP), a 15-year-old left-wing, union-fueled group with just 20,000 members, now holds the whip hand over much of the dominant Democratic party in New York — and is already spreading its wings to other states. The WFP not only was a major force behind Bill de Blasio’s...

First the city banned smoking in most public places. Now it’s moving to snuff out the use of smokeless electronic cigarettes as well. The City Council announced Wednesday that it will hold a hearing Wednesday on a bill prohibiting the use of the battery-operated, tobacco-free vaporizers in restaurants, offices, parks, beaches and other places where smoking regular cigarettes is not allowed.

Democratic mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio said Wednesday that he is committed to immigration reform, regardless of whether the laws change in Washington. As 1010 WINS’ Stan Brooks reported, de Blasio joined other city leaders as they told a cheering crowd of immigrants massed on the City Hall steps Wednesday that they would do whatever they can to change the laws. “All of us are here committed to work with Bill de Blasio as mayor to make sure this remains an immigrant city – not just in name, but in a place with every possible opportunity for immigrants in every...

As of right now, Bill de Blasio is the man to beat in the race to be the next mayor of New York City. The latest polls put him at 43%, which is enough to avoid a run-off in the Democratic primary, and it is widely believed that whoever wins the Democratic primary will sail into office. For the most part, sitting mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has stayed out of the race, but in an extensive interview with New York Magazine the term-limited Independent ripped de Blasio's campaign as "class-warfare and racist":

<p>New York City mayoral candidate Christine Quinn is a long-time abortion advocate. She has a history of promoting abortion, attacking pregnancy centers offering women alternatives, and she has received Planned Parenthood’s endorsement in the mayoral campaign.</p> <p>But Quinn is now pushing one idea that may take the cake when it comes to her extremism:  she wants girls as young as 11 to get the morning after pill.</p>

In her column, Dowd quoted de Blasio's wife Chirlane McCray as saying that mayoral challenger Christine Quinn was "not accessible ... She's not the kind of person I feel I can go up to and talk to about issues like taking care of children at a young age and paid sick leave." Quinn used this slight to accuse the de Blasio campaign of faulting her for being a childless lesbian. In fact, audio of the full quote, which was subsequently released by de Blasio's campaign, shows that McCray's marks may have been far more tame. The Times has since issued...

Christine Quinn, the Democratic Choice Ms. Quinn, the City Council speaker, offers the judgment and record of achievement anyone should want in a mayor. Two opponents—Bill de Blasio, the public advocate, and William Thompson Jr., former comptroller—offer powerful arguments on their own behalf. But Ms. Quinn inspires the most confidence that she would be the right mayor for the inevitable times when hope and idealism collide with the challenge of getting something done. … For Republicans, Joseph LhotaYou might find it odd to see this page endorsing the mayoral candidacy of Joseph Lhota, a Republican who made his mark in...

New York City mayoral hopeful Christine Quinn said Wednesday night that one of her priorities will be “improving the NYC condom,” referring to the free, government-issued condoms. “I was at an event recently with a large number of African-American gay men, and they told me there’s a very pressing issue as it relates to New York City’s HIV work,” she said at the Black Pride Heritage Awards in Harlem, the Huffington Post reported. The Department of Health said it hasn’t received any complaints regarding the condoms so far this year, and since 2007, the agency has received only 80 official...

mayoral candidate Christine Quinn, who is speaker of the City Council, said one of her political platforms is perhaps opening the door for middle school girls to receive morning-after contraception, known in some circles as the abortion pill. Yes, doing so “can make some people uncomfortable,” she said, as the New York Post reported. But, she added, “this is a really important option we need to make accessible.” That means some girls as young as age 11 could have access to the pill. Ms. Quinn, who faces off against former Rep. Anthony Weiner in the Democratic mayoral primary — made...

Kim M. Catullo does not like giving interviews or getting behind a microphone. At political events, she tends to hover in the background, so much so that she is sometimes mistaken for a member of her wife’s security detail. But with the primary just weeks away, Ms. Catullo, the wife of Christine C. Quinn, is edging out of her comfort zone to take on a more visible role in Ms. Quinn’s campaign for mayor of New York City.

In a jolt to the Democratic campaign for mayor, a new poll suggests that Bill de Blasio, the most liberal of the leading candidates, has vaulted into first place among likely voters. With one month to go until the Sept. 10 primary, Mr. de Blasio has now passed Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, who had led in most polls for months, although her lead had already narrowed. Until a month or so ago, Mr. de Blasio had been mired in fourth place, about 10 points behind Ms. Quinn. He was then overtaken by former Representative Anthony D. Weiner,...

The Talk Shows July 28th, 2013 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Treasury Secretary Jack Lew; Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Lew; Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich.; Christine Quinn, candidate for New York mayor.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Rogers; Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo.THIS WEEK (ABC): Lew; Sens. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill.STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Lew; Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y.; Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

The influential women-in-politics group EMILY's List will tell supporters on Friday that as far as New York mayoral hopeful Anthony Weiner is concerned, "It's time to end this." "New Yorkers deserve better than the circus their mayoral race has turned into. I actually caught myself glad I'm not home — where I'd have to see the cover of the NY Post on every street corner," communications director Jess McIntosh will write Friday morning in an email obtained by NBC News. Their proposed solution: Donating to Christine Quinn, who would be the first woman mayor of New York. "She's tough, she's...

Officials and various candidates for office joined in the flood of outrage tonight following the not guilty verdict in the racially-charged trial of George Zimmerman for the killing of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin. Former Comptroller Bill Thompson, the mayoral race’s only black candidate, released and tweeted a terse, one-line statement slamming the decision, which was read tonight just before 10 p.m. “Trayvon Martin was killed because he was black,” declared Mr. Thompson. “There was no justice done today in Florida.” City Council Speaker Christine Quinn further slammed the acquittal as “a shocking insult to his family and everyone seeking justice...

New York Dems want to pass a bill that would limit a description of a suspect to identify suspects essentially by the clothes they wear only. Truly mind-numbing stupidity. NYPost reports the following: Cops might as well wear blindfolds if the City Council passes a bill that would let them use little more than the color of a suspect’s clothing in descriptions — or risk being sued for profiling, according to this provocative new ad (pictured) from the NYPD captains union. The ad asks, “How effective is a police officer with a blindfold on?” And the answer is not very,...

Northern Ireland’s Lord Mayor of Belfast offered an enthusiastic endorsement of a certain Irish-American mayoral candidate Thursday morning during a visit to Gracie Mansion. “We think that every city needs an Irish mayor. And New York has had a series of wonderful mayors and we think it would be wonderful in the days ahead, in the short time ahead, if New York had an Irish-American mayor again,” Lord Mayor Máirtin Ó Muilleoir told Politicker this morning, as he posed for photographs with Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn by his side. While Mr. Ó Muilleoir didn’t mention...

The NYC city council has just passed a resolution allowing religious groups to worship in public schools, taking a stand on a decades-old controversy. Since 1994, state legislators and activists with a radical interpretation of the First Amendment have been trying to evict New York City churches from public schools. The official New York City Board of Education policy forbids religious institutions from renting public schools, a restriction that applies to no other type of organization. Churches and their supporters have been fighting back, and the battle over the enforcement of this policy has taken a serpentine path though both...

For the record, I tend to think that a cigarette ban for minors may be appropriate. While I oppose prohibition for adults, I think it makes sense to say that adults shouldn’t be permitted to entice children into certain unhealthy choices. Of course, if such a prohibition is put in place, it needs to be justified by banning a substance that is clearly dangerous, not just “unhealthy” by some statistic that we know doesn’t apply to all people. If the evidence qualifies tobacco as such a substance, then I can see restricting it from children.But recent news about a new...

A session of the New York City Council had descended into chaos, and lawmakers were openly questioning her leadership. Ms. Quinn, the Council speaker, decided there was one person to blame: Betsy Gotbaum, then the city’s public advocate, who had been presiding. The response was sudden and fierce. Ms. Quinn summoned Ms. Gotbaum to an office nearby and, with little warning, began shouting at her in increasingly angry tones about appearing weak in front of other lawmakers. “You were like Bambi in there!” Ms. Quinn exclaimed, slamming her hand on a table for emphasis, according to Ms. Gotbaum, who was...

A powerful New York politician claims she was just speaking as a private citizen when she tried to run Chick-fil-A out of town, but she used her official letterhead and even invoked her position as City Council speaker to apply pressure on the embattled chicken chain. New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who has mayoral aspirations, sent a letter to New York University president John Sexton on Saturday asking the school to immediately end their contract with the fast food restaurant. The Atlanta-based company's sole New York City outlet is in the school's food court. "I write as the...