NY Democratic Mayoral Debate: de Blasio attacked, Weiner ignored

NY Democratic Mayoral Debate: de Blasio attacked, Weiner ignored

During the latest New York Mayoral Democratic debate, two salient facts emerged: the candidates vied with each other to see who could outdo the others in their claims to soaking the rich in order to address income equality and denigrate menial jobs, and the major candidates trained their fire on public advocate Bill de Blasio, who has begun to show signs of pulling away from the pack.

Examples of the class warfare rhetoric included:

De Blasio: “My plan is to have a tax on the wealthiest New Yorkers so we can have full-day pre-K for every child in this city.”

John Liu, the city’s comptroller: “Income inequality is ruining our chances for a real economic recovery that can mean a shared prosperity for all New Yorkers.” He said he’d “ask the 1 percenters, such as Bill Thompson, to pay a little bit more.” He added, “It is shocking that in the city of New York, we have a flat tax.”

Anthony Weiner, from the elitist view that some jobs are too low for New Yorkers: “We’re creating a lot of restaurant jobs and poor people jobs.”

Christine Quinn: “I supported the governor and the state’s call when they put the millionaires’ tax in place.”

The attacks on de Blasio included:

William Thompson, former comptroller, referring to a de Blasio ad that claimed he was the only candidate who would end the “stop-and-frisk” era: “Stop lying to the people of New York.”

Quinn described de Blasio as someone “who is really good at telling other people what to do, but not always so good at getting things done.”

Anthony Weiner implied de Blasio might have been implicated in a 2008 council appropriations scandal. He asked Quinn if it were true, but Quinn denied the charge.

Weiner was often ignored, as Quinn, Thompson and de Blasio have surged past him in the polls.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.