Democratic mayoral contender Bill de Blasio yesterday tore into rival Christine Quinn’s decision to keep Ray Kelly on as police commissioner if she is elected mayor later this year.
The public advocate, one of Quinn’s likely challengers, painted the closed-door move as a “backroom deal” orchestrated by Mayor Bloomberg.
De Blasio admitted he doesn’t know whether the mayor was personally involved in conversations between Kelly and Quinn, the City Council speaker.
“But I do know this: The people of this city are sick of backroom deals. They’re sick of the mayor, in particular, trying to exert influence on the next administration, trying to continue to have a role that is not one that should continue after his term is up,” de Blasio said in response to a report about the deal in yesterday’s Post.
De Blasio, a cautious critic of the NYPD’s use of stop-and-frisk, said he has “a lot of respect for Ray Kelly” but that it is premature to discuss who would be the next commissioner.
Linking the deal to Bloomberg is part of de Blasio’s larger campaign strategy to use Quinn’s close relationship with the mayor against her in the Democratic primary — particularly because she steered a law allowing the mayor to run for a third term in 2009.
Quinn’s spokesman, Jamie McShane, said it would be “presumptuous for Speaker Quinn to offer Ray Kelly or anyone else a job, because she’s not the mayor.”
He added that Quinn thinks “the next mayor would be lucky to have Kelly stay on as police commissioner.”
City Comptroller John Liu and former Comptroller Bill Thompson — who are running for mayor as well — declined to comment on any such deal.
Retaining likely would pay political dividends for Quinn.
In a November’s Quinnipiac poll, Kelly was the most popular citywide official, with a 68 percent approval rating overall and 66 percent among Democrats.
Still, he is not without his critics, particularly those who do not support stop-and-frisk. It is sure to be a hot-button issue in the crowded Democratic primary this year.
Baruch Professor Doug Muzzio said keeping Kelly would help inoculate Quinn against a likely argument by GOP hopeful Joe Lhota — who was former Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s deputy — that any Democratic candidate would be soft on crime.
“I think it’s both real smart strategy as well as probably widely applauded policy,” Muzzio said. “[But] clearly, this is not an unmitigated good. Clearly, there have been legitimate questions about the efficacy of stop-and-frisk, or, if not, its efficacy, its byproducts.”
Running with the promise of returning Kelly to police headquarters, where he has served since Bloomberg took office 11 years ago, would help boost Quinn’s candidacy with conservative Democrats who crossed party lines in the past to vote for Bloomberg and Giuliani.
Bloomberg said he had “absolutely no idea what Ray Kelly’s interests are of career objectives down the road. But I can assure you, he’s been the best police chief this city has ever had.”