4:15 pm Jan. 2, 2013
Christine Quinn has reportedly committed to keeping Ray Kelly on as NYPD commissioner if she becomes mayor, which would be consistent with her earlier statements that any mayor would be "lucky" to have him running the department.
Quinn is generally close to Michael Bloomberg—certainly closer than any of her prospective Democratic competitors.
Kelly has come under criticism for the department's stop-and-frisk policy, which critics say unfairly targets black and Latino young men. But while Quinn has joined other Democrats in saying the current stop-and-frisk program needs to be changed, she has stayed close to Kelly while saying it.
There's little downside for Quinn in publicizing her ties to Kelly, even in the context of a Democratic primary.
Kelly's popularity been remarkably resilient over the years, for substantive and political reasons, even when his department has come under fire.
Between 2005 and 2012, there have been ten Quinnipiac public opinion polls online that included questions about Kelly's job performance, and Democratic respondents gave Kelly high marks in all of them.
Among black voters, a majority of whom are Democrats, Kelly's approval rating has fluctuated. But in five polls taken since 2010, a majority of black voters approved of Kelly's job performance.
(Among white voters, Kelly's job approval rating never dipped below 68 percent.)
All of which may explain why, even though Quinn's opponents have been willing to take jabs at her for her closeness to Bloomberg, none of them so far has said anything about her reported deal with Kelly.
It may also explain why, in response to the Post story detailing the deal, an NYPD spokesman denied the existence of an agreement, and a Quinn spokesman didn't.
Here are some of the numbers, from Quinnipac:
Ray Kelly's job approval (approve-disapprove-DK/NA)
Democrats: 62-17-21
white: 68-10-21
black: 63-24-13
Democrats: 50-34-16
white: 71-15-14
black: 39-50-11
Democrats: 48-35-17
white: 70-13-17
black: 42-47-11
Democrats: 58-30-12
white: 75-16-9
black: 44-44-11
Democrats: 55-32-13
white: 76-13-11
black: 36-55-9
Democrats: 67-18-15
white: 80-9-10
black: 58-27-15
Democrats: 67-17-16
white: 80-9-11
black: 60-26-14
Democrats: 65-25-10
white: 78-15-8
black: 51-39-10
Democrats: 62-27-11
white: 75-15-10
black: 51-35-14
Democrats: 60-29-11
white: 75-15-10
black: 53-33-14
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Should Kelly be reappointed?
Democrats: 56-22-22
white: 61-15-24
black: 60-25-15
Vote for a candidate who'll reappoint Kelly?
Democrats: 7-11-76
white: 5-13-75
black: 8-12-77
Vote for a candidate who'll reappoint Kelly?
Democrats: 24-19-54
white: 38-12-48
black: 12-29-54
