Pros & cons in Council slap at Blaz

Allowing a no-confidence vote against a sitting mayor could pose problems for a City Council speaker, even in normal times.

But these aren’t normal times.

In the coming days, City Councilman Eric Ulrich plans to introduce a resolution calling for a vote of no confidence in Mayor de Blasio.

If passed, such a resolution would serve as a formal request to Gov. Cuomo to remove the mayor.

Such a move would be unprecedented, but political observers say there’s less downside for Council Speaker Corey Johnson in permitting the matter to come to a vote than in obstructing it. Still, there could be a negative, either way.

“I don’t think hitching his star to the mayor does him any good,” Ken Sherrill, a professor emeritus of political science at Hunter College, said of Johnson. “It’s not as if Corey doesn’t know Chris Quinn, and look at what happened to Chris by virtue of protecting the mayor.”

Quinn, a mayoral candidate in 2013 who represented the district Johnson now presides over, lost that race, in part, over her support for Mike Bloomberg in his quest for a third term as mayor.

Doug Muzzio, a political scientist at Baruch College, said Johnson would gain little political advantage from obstructing such a vote, but added that it could serve as a bad precedent for future mayors and create one more distraction in what’s already shaping up to be a complicated and potentially contentious budget negotiation.

Johnson has so far kept quiet on Ulrich’s proposal.

To bring it to a full Council vote in the near future, Ulrich would have to get the signatures of seven Council members to move it from committee, and would then need to get approval from 26 of 51 Council members to bring the matter to a full vote.

Ulrich claims to have the seven signatures necessary to move the proposal to the Council floor, which would then mean every member would have to publicly weigh in on it.

Some Council members who’ve criticized the mayor don’t seem too enthusiastic about the prospect.