Tuesday, December 5, 2017

In the Race for New York City Council Speaker, Who’s a Player and Who’s Being Played?

 
By Jeff Coltin

The coffee was hot and the fruit was soggy on the porcelain plates of the New York City political elite. Hundreds of lobbyists, activists and government types filled the New York Athletic Club’s gilded ballroom from edge to edge. And at 8:30 a.m. on Nov. 1 with Crain’s New York City Council speaker’s debate, the race had officially begun. Or rather, the race had been given a microphone, after months – or years – of furtive phone calls, backroom whispers and scribbled notes.

One of the first questions was about terrorism. The day before, a man had driven a truck down the Hudson River Park bike path, killing eight people in the deadliest terror attack in New York City since 9/11. The incident had made New Yorkers close their eyes, breathe in slow and think: It happened again.

The moderator asked the eight candidates how they would prevent this type of attack. We need to fight the Trump administration, City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer said, to keep it from reducing federal funding for the NYPD and other organizations fighting terrorism. Then, the money line:  “We’ve also got to elect a Democratic Congress, make sure that Joe Crowley is the speaker and make sure that we get the resources that we need in the city of New York.”

Click here for the full article. 

Source: City & State (via The Empire Report) 

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