Council ‘Blas-krieg’
Speaker vote toooo fast forfor mayormay to stop
Mayor de Blasio was blindsided by how quickly Democratic Party leaders moved to install Manhattan Councilman Corey Johnson as the next speaker of the City Council, sources said Thursday.
One insider involved in the deliberations said de Blasio didn’t want Johnson and tried to block him by persuading a coalition of labor unions to issue a list of preferred candidates, including Councilmen Donovan Richards of Queens, Mark Levine of Manhattan and Ritchie Torres of The Bronx.
“For de Blasio, it was anybody but Corey,” the insider said.
The source said the mayor thought he could “box in” Rep. Joe Crowley, who is the Queens Democratic Party chairman, and the Bronx chairman, Assemblyman Marcos Crespo, by having the major unions turn against Johnson. It didn’t work. The county leaders traditionally have lined up enough votes in the 51-member City Council to push through their preferred candidate.
But in 2014, the mayor outmaneuvered the leaders to install Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viv- erito as speaker with the help of the powerful health-workers union, Local 1199.
“This is a reaction to Melissa’s election. Melissa was 1199’s candidate and the mayor’s candidate. Melissa was a wholly owned subsidiary,” the insider said.
“They beat the Queens and Bronx Democratic Party delegation in the election last time. This is a response to that. This is Queens and The Bronx getting to- gether and getting their own speaker.”
De Blasio had conversations with party leaders and was informed Johnson had the votes he needed to win just days before the news leaked.
The mayor and First Lady Chirlane McCray also dined with Johnson at Gracie Mansion last week as his campaign for speaker gathered strength.
In the end, de Blasio gave his blessing to Johnson.
“The mayor stood down. He never coalesced around one candidate — and I think precisely because Corey was strong,” said one council member.
Sources said Levine infuriated Democratic leaders by siding with Mark-Viverito and against Manhattan Democratic leader Keith Wright in a dispute over who should be appointed as Manhattan’s new Democratic commissioner to the Board of Elections.
“It was inevitable — because Mark Levine was dead . . . The Board of Election vote — that killed him . . . That was the final straw. And then I think the mayor recognized that, and after that, it was just over,” the source said.
De Blasio insisted on Thursday that he was never out of the loop and had welcomed Johnson’s ascension.
“I came to the conclusion in the last few days that Corey Johnson was the right candidate to achieve [unity]. I’m happy to support him. We saw growing comfort with Corey very organically,” the mayor said.
There’s no question that President Trump had an excellent first year, with several key accomplishments. (“POTUS Enemy #1: himself,” Michael Goodwin, Dec. 20).
Still, he continues to lag in the polls as the most unpopular president of modern times.
As Goodwin points out, Trump’s caustic personality is his major flaw. I am convinced that no one close to the president is properly advising him on the finer points of how to win over political friends and influence people.
I hope someone close to Trump makes him read Goodwin’s piece. Maybe if he chooses his words and actions more cautiously, he’ll rise in the polls. John Scarpati Howard Beach
Trump, our only nonpolitician president, is also a take-no-prisoners defender of himself. These attributes defy his privileged upbringing; Trump is a street fighter.
No president since Harry Truman has been more brash nor easier to inflame, but for all the right reasons.
The media are 110 percent biased toward the Democrats. Trump will never earn their approval. They are determined to bring about his impeachment.
Were I president, I’d tell them to drop dead. But that’s what Trump is doing without saying it. Rich Klitzberg Boca Raton
We should remember that polls predicted Hillary Clinton had a 90 percent chance of winning last year.
The problem with polls is that they call 100, 500 or 1,000 people, and then readers believe that 300 million Americans think the same way. This is lu- dicrous, as the last election showed.
Who did the pollsters call? What questions did they ask? A biased question gets a biased answer.
If you call people in New York City, you’ll get one answer, and if you call people in Fargo, ND, you’ll get another.
Polls are guesses, fraught with bias, and commentators quote them like they are facts. Lou Canto Norwalk, Conn.
The latest poll has Trump’s approval in the 30s. The president is boosting the economy and making America safer with better border security. He’s cut regulations, allowing small businesses to thrive and expand.
The stock market is at an all-time high, Hispanic unemployment is at all-time low and the GDP is at 3.3 percent. Tired of winning yet?
Don’t be concerned about what Trump says or tweets — look at what he does. Results matter. JR Cummings Manhattan