THE long knives are out for City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.
Emboldened by the results of this month’s Democratic primaries, in which five council incumbents were defeated and a sixth held on by a whisker-thin margin, critics of Quinn (right) are assessing whether there’s an opening for a coup.
At least four of the five losers were reliable Quinn allies. Tom White (D-Queens), another ally, squeaked through by five votes.
Sources said Brooklyn Democratic leader Vito Lopez, whose relationship with Quinn is strained, is planning to meet with his Bronx counterpart, Carl Heastie, to determine whether they can round up the 26 votes needed to install their own candidate in the speaker’s job.
Some council members are also trying to press Quinn into a corner and spark an uprising within the council by demanding that she endorse city Comptroller Bill Thompson for mayor over her longtime ally Mayor Bloomberg.
“If she endorses Bloomberg, she’s dead,” one council member said.
So far, Quinn hasn’t taken a position in the mayor’s race.
Sources describe Quinn as “extraordinarily confident” that the coalition that first elected her, organized by Queens Democratic leader Joe Crowley, will hold firm.
But she’s not taking any chances.
She’s meeting with each council member individually and is preparing to offer leadership roles to minority members who will soon likely hold 28 of the 51 seats.
“It’s something that would probably happen anyway, and it’s smart politics,” one source said.
One way out of the mayoral-endorsement dilemma would be for Quinn to simply sit out the race. One rebel council member eager to topple her conceded that if she stayed neutral, she could survive.
For the moment, Quinn’s ace in the hole is the fact that no obvious natural successor has emerged.
At least two council members who might have filled that role, Bill de Blasio and John Liu, didn’t seek re-election this year so they could run for higher office.
“You can’t beat somebody with nobody,” the source said.
“The key thing is having Queens County. That relationship is not going to be dislodged.”