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Democratic mayoral hopeful Christine Quinn declared war yesterday on the left-wing backers of a TV ad attacking her, demanding that Time Warner Cable stop airing the spot because, she claims, it is factually wrong.
“She wants you to think that she’s a progressive,” the ad’s narrator says, smoke swirling over an empty table, “but on the issues New Yorkers care most about, she is always on the wrong side — on living wage, her flip-flop on paid sick leave and term limits. All that’s clear as the smoke lifts is her political ambition.”
Quinn’s campaign attorney, Jerry Goldfeder, disputes the ad’s characterization of Quinn as on the “wrong side” of a bill forcing companies taking city subsidies to pay a so-called living wage of $11.50 an hour.
“Although opponents of a candidate often resort to fanciful broadsides (as with the cigar smoke permeating this ad), facts must not be fabricated or distorted,” Goldfeder wrote to Time Warner. “In truth and in fact, Speaker Quinn led the City Council in passing a living-wage bill.” Quinn ended up passing the living-wage bill last year after substantially weakening it.
Chelsea Connor, director of communications at The Advance Group, which created the ad, called Quinn’s move “desperate.”
“The filing of a cease and desist against Time Warner Cable today is a desperate attempt from the Quinn campaign to stop a campaign that is based on the facts … and was approved by the legal department at Time Warner,” Connor said.
She said The Advance Group provided further evidence — upon Time Warner’s request — to verify its claims. The spot continues to air.
Some of the backers of the $250,000 ad buy — a group called New York City Is Not For Sale — held a raucous press conference on the steps of City Hall yesterday to denounce Quinn and insist they are not working with any other mayoral campaign.
“Some of these issues — living wage, sick-leave pay — these are not luxuries, these are necessities in my opinion,” said Wendy Neu, a politically active businesswoman who actually raised money for Quinn in previous elections.
“I am very troubled that, unless enormous pressure is put on Christine Quinn, nothing happens.”
Neu claims that she turned on Quinn when the speaker refused to ban horse-drawn carriages, the pet issue of another group funding the ad: NYCLASS.
Rival mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio, the city’s public advocate, has promised to ban horse-drawn carriages immediately upon taking office.
Quinn’s campaign accused Dem rival Bill de Blasio of being behind the ad, but he insisted he knew nothing about it.
Additional funding for the spot came from Communications Workers of America Local 1180 — a union that opposed Mayor Bloomberg’s re-election in 2009.