Bill de Blasio is aggressively pushing East Harlem Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito as the council’s next speaker, two Democratic insiders revealed.
“Through back channels, his staff meets with council members,” one operative said. “They just lay out the situation: He’d like her to be the speaker. He thinks she’d be best.”
Mark-Viverito, a liberal Democrat, has had a testy relationship with current Speaker Christine Quinn. She was the first council member to endorse de Blasio’s mayoral bid, announcing her support in early June.
Quinn, trounced by de Blasio in the Democratic primary, will step down as speaker at the end of the year when she is forced out by term limits.
The moderate Quinn and Mark-Viverito clashed on many issues, including the living-wage bill, stop-and-frisk reform and the elimination of horse-drawn carriages in Central Park. Quinn successfully pushed for Mark-Viverito’s council seat to be redistricted.
Mark-Viverito, 44, a native of Puerto Rico, shares a key political patron with de Blasio — the Working Families Party, which is backing her run for re-election and his for mayor.
De Blasio is lobbying council members through Working Families Party surrogates, another insider told The Post.
“Clearly, he’s asked them to do this,” the source said. “That way, there’s a degree of separation if it doesn’t work out. If you’re de Blasio, you don’t want your fingerprints on it till you win.”
The party denied supporting Mark-Viverito.
“WFP doesn’t have a speaker candidate,” spokesman Joe Dinkin said.
Other council members thought to be in the running for the speaker’s job include Dan Garodnick, Inez Dickens, James Vacca, Mark Weprin, Annabel Palma, Jumaane Williams and Jimmy Van Bramer.
Some Dems are already saying Mark-Viverito, on the council since 2006 and the head of its Parks and Recreation Committee, would be a bad choice.
“She’s nasty. She has a terrible temper,” one said. “She’s very good on talking about all these progressive things, but she doesn’t work hard, and she doesn’t know how to engage people.”
Mark-Viverito and de Blasio declined to comment.
The next speaker will have to garner 26 votes from 51 council members. Mark-Viverito could be favored among the 27-member Black, Latino and Asian Caucus but still faces obstacles.
Dickens, dogged by charges that she’s a slumlord, could pose a challenge if she remains in the running, said outgoing Councilman Michael Nelson.
“Melissa is intelligent, sharp and well spoken, but if Inez stays in it, that’s going to be the thing that keeps her from getting it,” he said. “There will be a split in the black and Latino caucus.”