New York, NY – New York Times Endorses Christine Quinn And Joseph Lhota As NYC Mayoral Candidates

New York, NY – The New York Times has announced it is endorsing Democratic candidate, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, and Republican Joseph Lhota, former MTA head, in the upcoming primaries for mayor of New York City.

In its endorsement THE NEW YORK TIMES (http://nyti.ms/17cnVAg) says Quinn “Offers the judgement and record of achievement anyone should want in a mayor,” while reiterating its 1999 endorsement of Quinn as a City Council candidate, portraying her as a leader “who can both work within the system and criticize it when necessary”—“a judgement,” The Times says, “she has validated many times since.”

In noting Quinn’s accomplishments a City Council Speaker, The Times says, “Ms. Quinn has been a forceful counterpart to Mr. Bloomberg, and has turned the Council from a collection of rambunctious, ill-directed egos into a forceful and effective legislative body. In wrestling with budgets she has shown restraint that runs counter to lesser political instincts.”

The Times adds that the biggest challenge facing the city’s next mayor will be confronting “a budget crisis with no money to spare and all those expired municipal contracts to settle. The mayor we will need then will not be the police reformer or education visionary, but a skilled and realistic negotiator.”

And while The Times says some of Quinn’s positions have been “unwise” or “objectionable,” namely her strong support of some of Police Commissioner Ray Kelly’s controversial policies and occasional city zoning issues, it says Quinn “has shown a capacity to listen, and to be persuaded to change her mind — attributes we will count on seeing more of if she is elected.”

In endorsing Joe Lhota, The Times says the former MTA head “is more than the sum of his years as Mr. Giuliani’s top deputy, and he is the best qualified of the three men seeking the Republican nomination for mayor.”

Lhota, says The Times, “is not a glad-handing pol, but a practical and efficient one. When The Times’s editorial board interviewed candidates for the mayoral endorsement, it asked them to supply one practical idea to improve the quality of life in New York. Some were flustered. Not Mr. Lhota, who gave an instant, excellent answer: park-and-ride lots at the far ends of subway lines, to coax drivers at the city’s edges onto mass transit.”

“Few people know better than Mr. Lhota how city government works,” The Times says. “He was an expert budget director for Mr. Giuliani, and then became deputy mayor for operations. In 2011 and 2012, he ran the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which, under his leadership, recovered amazingly quickly from the damage done by Hurricane Sandy.”

Lhota, The Times concludes, “Has had to live down his reputation as Mr. Giuliani’s enforcer, as when he shamefully threatened to cut off funds to the Brooklyn Museum over artwork that offended the administration. He surely knows and possibly regrets that his loyalty to his old boss has complicated his current ambitions. Asked recently by The Times to name his favorite mayor, Mr. Lhota said Fiorello La Guardia. If he embodies the traits he admires in the Little Flower — ‘He took off his jacket, he rolled up his sleeves, and he took care of all New Yorkers,’ Mr. Lhota said — he could do well in City Hall.”