Asked about Quinn's small rebellion, Bloomberg says she 'would be a very good mayor'
Christine Quinn and Michael Bloomberg. Dana Rubinstein
1:12 pm May. 16, 2012
Asked this morning whether City Council speaker Christine Quinn's recent embrace of left-leaning legislation has caused him to reconsider whether she would be a good fit for City Hall, Mayor Michael Bloomberg indicated that he wasn't concerned about it.
"I've always thought that Chris Quinn has done a very good job as the speaker and it's not for me to take sides, certainly not now, in a race I don't even know who's gonna be running," he said. "But Chris Quinn is very competent and would be a very good mayor."
The comments seemed to reaffirm Bloomberg's confidence in the speaker, who is running for mayor in 2013. While it wasn't any sort of formal endorsement, Bloomberg hasn't offered comparable expressions of support for any of his other would-be successors.
Quinn has tried recently to establish her independence from the mayor and to emphasize her union-friendly bona fides, passing prevailing- and living-wage bills, and promising to override the mayor's vetoes of both pieces of legislation. But she has tried to do so without undoing the ties she has built with the administration and the mayor's backers in the city's permanent establishment.
It's been awkward at times.
A couple of weeks ago, when, during a living wage press conference, a participant yelled, "Pharaoh Bloomberg," Quinn responded by scolding him, then asking for an apology, and then leaving.
Yesterday, Quinn skipped an event at which the other mayoral contenders criticized the administration and the NYPD's stop-and-frisk tactic. She cited a scheduling conflict, and sent a written statement of support.
