Judging by his enemies, NYC Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio is standing even taller today

Supporters of Manhattan Councilmember Melissa Mark-Viverito, Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio's preference, say she has the votes to be the next speaker of the NYC City Council.

by Ken

If you can know a man, at least in part, by his enemies, then NYC Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio is standing even taller today -- not that he needs added tallness. Though I don't have the exact figure at hand, he must be about seven feet tall already.

As of last night, DNAinfo New York's Colby Hamilton reported, NY City Councilmember Melissa Mark-Viverito apparently had pledges of more than enough votes from her colleagues to land herself the council speakership (the job being vacated by term-limited unsuccessful mayoral candidate Christine Quinn). Which was doubly interesting because as of yesterday, supporters of her chief rival, Manhattan Councilmember Dan Garodnick, were claiming that he had the votes locked up, as Hamilton reported yesterday morning in "Borough Leaders Ignore de Blasio, Rally Behind Garodnick for Speaker."

Credit Hamilton with noting in his early report yesterday that, according to a "source close to the negotiations" who "threw cold water on what he believed was simply posturing." The source told him: "What I know to be true is that the county leaders do not have close to 30 votes. It is very unlikely that they have this locked up."

In the near-midnight report Hamilton noted: "Mark-Viverito's ascent was made possible after the Brooklyn delegation abandoned its earlier commitment to stick with the Queens and Bronx Democratic Party leadership -- and ditched Garodnick in favor of a deal with the Progressive bloc, which also backs Mark-Viverito, sources said."

There are two points of interest here, I think. First, it means that Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio looks to be getting his choice as speaker. As Hamilton reported Tuesday evening, the mayor-elect "has waded into the race to pick the next City Council speaker, urging members to pick Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito.

According to multiple sources, de Blasio reached out to roughly 20 council members -- including all of the speaker candidates - late Monday afternoon to indicate he backed Mark-Viverito.

De Blasio told those he called that the upper Manhattan councilwoman was his "very strong preference," according to one councilmember who spoke with him, but he stopped short of telling them how to vote. "Not, 'I want her,' not, 'You have to have her.'"
Another member who spoke to de Blasio also said the incoming administration's message was clear: “They're for Melissa Mark-Viverito.”

The other thing that's interesting is the identity of de Blasio's opposition in the speakership battle. As Hamilton went on to report:

[T]he new push isn’t sitting well with the county leaders -- particularly Assemblyman Carl Heastie in The Bronx and Rep. Joe Crowley in Queens, sources said.

“The county leaders were very upset,” said one Council source.

Another council source close to the Queens county organization concurred: "The counties don't want Melissa."

And the name there that reverberates hugely is Queens Democratic boss Joe Crowley, a longtime DWT black hat. (See, for example, Howie's May post, "Joe Crowley -- Making The Republican Party Look Less Singularly Horrible.") Colby Hamilton noted in his report yesterday morning:

[I]t appeared to be Rep. Joe Crowley, who leads the Queens County organization, who took the lead on Tuesday. According to a source, Crowley was making calls to council members urging them to back Garodnick after news of de Blasio's calls to members broke.

It's a fact that, for better or worse, the country is going to watch the de Blasio administration as a test of the possibilities for progressive governance in the here and now. The day before Election Day last month, pondering "What will NYC's post-Mayor Mike era look like?," I quoted The New Yorker's John Cassidy's apt formulation: "[A] de Blasio mayoralty will be widely viewed as a test case for liberal reformers everywhere."

I hope no one is underestimating the obstacles to success, not least overwhelming opposition from all the separate and assembled power centers in the city powerfully opposed to progressive solutions. I think the mayor-elect already had a pretty idea who he's going to be crossing swords with, and Joe Crowley was almost certainly high on the list.

#