You don’t have to be a mom to be mayor!
Christine Quinn yesterday got a little help from some powerful pals — Rep. Carolyn Maloney and feminist icon Gloria Steinem — in her appeal to women voters.
Appearing with Quinn on the steps of City Hall, Maloney and Steinem defended the mayoral candidate, who was attacked last week by the wife of rival Bill de Blasio over her alleged indifference to working moms.
“I am here because this is a woman who has the form and content to run this city,” Steinem said. “She stands for the majority interests of women and men in this city.”
De Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, questioned Quinn’s commitment to issues such as child care, education and paid sick days.
McCray’s comments, as initially reported by New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, were widely interpreted as a personal attack on Quinn, a married lesbian without children.
De Blasio’s campaign released a transcript of Dowd’s interview that he said showed the Times writer made McCray’s comments sound mean-spirited. Dowd has admitted she “screwed up” the quote.
Steinem said she didn’t believe McCray was taking an anti-gay swipe at Quinn.
“I think it’s a teapot-tempest thing,” she said.
Speaking on the eve of Women’s Equality Day — which marks the date when the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote in 1920 — Quinn rolled out a series of proposals yesterday on women’s issues.
She said she wants to develop an emergency diaper program for poor families, strengthen nondiscrimination laws protecting pregnant women and prioritize public housing for abused women.
Meanwhile, the candidate provided some hands-on assistance, coming to the aid of a stricken campaign-event attendee for the second time in just over a month.
As Quinn was speaking yesterday, a 14-year-old family friend of her wife, Kim Catullo, was overcome from standing in the sun.
The council speaker helped the girl to her feet and led her up the City Hall steps. Inside, Quinn used cooled her down with damp paper towels and an ice pack.
“Today Christine has shown that she not only has the vision and a plan for the women of New York, but she can take care of anything. She had the ice packs, she took her pulse, she called 911,” said Maloney (D-Manhattan).
Paramedics checked the girl before she went home.
At a Quinn event on July 16, an intern working for Councilwoman Diana Reyna passed out. Quinn personally called NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly because an ambulance didn’t arrive immediately.
Additional reporting by David K. Li