Christine Quinn's campaign events are "EMBARGOED UNTIL DATE AND TIME OF EVENT"

Why Is Christine Quinn Hiding Public Appearances from the Public? Every morning I receive an email from Azi Paybarah with the best coverage of NYC politics at Capital New York.

And he always lists the campaign appearances of all the candidates.
Except Christine Quinn where this appears.

Christine Quinn's campaign events are "EMBARGOED UNTIL DATE AND TIME OF EVENT"

Which means the press knows but are not allowed to tell anyone till the event actually takes place.

Below that we actually get to see where all the other candidates will be today - and every day. Except for Quinn.

9 a.m. Democratic mayoral candidate Sal Albanese helps distribute Rosh Hashanah food at Bensonhurst COJO, 8632 21st Avenue, Brooklyn. @SalAlbanese2013
10:15 a.m. Democratic mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio discusses the City Council's votes to override Mayor Michael Bloomberg's vetoes of the Community Safety Act, on the steps of City Hall. @BilldeBlasio #CSA #StopAndFrisk #ChangeTheNYPD
10:30 a.m. Elsie McCabe, wife of Democratic mayoral candidate Bill Thompson, joins Rep. Charlie Rangel and Alicia Keys to attend a town hall meeting on AIDS, at Harlem Hospital, 506 Lenox Avenue, Manhattan. @cbRangel @AliciaKeys #AIDSTownHall
11 a.m. Governor Andrew Cuomo and others attends President Obama's remarks in Buffalo at Alumni Arena, BU North Campus at the University at Buffalo. @nygovCuomo @BarackObama #UpstateAmerica
11 a.m. Albanese hosts representatives from the Campaign for Children to discuss early childhood education, at Albanese campaign headquarters, 85 Livingston Street, Brooklyn. @SalAlbanese2013 #EarlyStart
11 a.m. Democratic mayoral candidate John Liu takes a small business tour in Kingsbridge, along West 231st Street, from Broadway to Corlear Ave., in the Bronx. @JohnLiu2013
11 a.m. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, State Senator. Liz Krueger and Councilwoman Jessica Lappin call on the Army Corps of Engineers to revoke permits for the East 91st Street Marine Transfer Station, Asphalt Green, 555 E. 90th St., Manhattan. [h/t CIty & State] @RepMaloney @LizKrueger @JessLappin #DumpTheDump
11:30 a.m. Liu takes a small business tour in Riverdale along Riverdale Avenue, from West 236th Street to West 238th Street, in the Bronx. @JohnLiu2013
11:45 a.m. Democratic mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner greets seniors at the United Jewish Council Adult Lunch Club, in the Orenstein Building, 15-17 Willett Street (between Grand St. and Delancey St.) in Manhattan. @AnthonyWeiner
Noon. Democratic mayoral candidate Bill Thompson gets endorsed by Assemblyman Dov Hikind, and discusses a plan to improve education across the city, at Amnon's Kosher Pizza, 4814 13th Avenue, Brooklyn. @BillThompsonNYC @HikindDov #NYC2013
Noon. De Blasio and former councilwoman Una Clarke visits St. Gabriel Senior Citizen Center, at 331 Hawthorne Street, Brooklyn. @DeBlasioNYC
12:30 p.m. Weiner discusses tax reform at the Red Apple Child Development, 25 Market Street (between Henry St. and Madison St.) in Manhattan. @AnthonyWeiner #KeysToTheCity #TaxReform
1 p.m. Thompson gets endorsed by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and discusses plans to fix schools, at 20 Fort Greene, Brooklyn. @BillThompsonNYC @TeamJeffries #NYC2013
1:30 p.m. New York City Council meets to vote on whether or not to override Mayor Michael Bloomberg's vetoes of the Community Safety Act, in the City Council Chambers, in City Hall. [Watch Live: Legistar] #CSA #StopandFrisk #ChangeTheNYD
2:15 p.m. De Blasio visits Friends of Crown Heights Pre-Kindergarten at 671 Prospect Place, Brooklyn. @DeBlasioNYC
3 p.m. De Blasio greets voters at Nostrand Avenue subway stop (2, 5) on the corner of Nostrand Avenue and Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn. @DeBlasioNYC
5 p.m. Mayoral candidates participate in the Russian Community Mayoral Forum, at The National Restaurant, 273 Brighton Beach Avenue (between 2nd St. and Brighton 3rd St.) in Brooklyn. [DavidzonRadio.com] @SalAlbanese2013 @JohnLiu2013 @AnthonyWeiner #RussianForum
6 p.m. De Blasio participate in the Russian Community Mayoral Forum, at The National Restaurant, 273 Brighton Beach Avenue (between 2nd St. and Brighton 3rd St.) in Brooklyn. [DavidzonRadio.com] @DeBlasioNYC #RussianForum
6:30 p.m. Elise McCabe and Rep. Greg Brooks attends Councilman Donovan Richards Family Day event, at O'Donohue Park, "approximate address" Beach 17 St., Seagirt Boulevard, Far Rockaway. @GregoryMeeks
6 p.m. Queens Democrats host a summertime BBQ, at the Royalton at Lawrence Yacht and Country Club ,101 Causeway Road, Queens.
7 p.m. Albanese addresses supporters in Rockaway at a fund-raiser hosted by former FDNY Chief of Department Peter Hayden, Bungalow Bar, 377 Beach 92nd Street, Queens. @SalAlbanese2013
7 p.m. Liu greets voters at Tracey Towers, 40 West Mosholu Parkway South, in the Bronx. @JohnLiu2013
8 p.m. Liu and others attend the Manhattan Young Democrats annual "Young Gets It Done" party at 199 Bowery, in Lower Manhattan. @GoMYD @JohnLiu2013 #YGID2013
8:45 p.m. De Blasio speaks at the Manhattan Young Democrats annual "Young Gets It Done" party at 199 Bowery, in Lower Manhattan. @GoMYD @DeBlasioNYC #YGID2013

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NY Times Attack on Quinn Part of Plan to Make Lhota Mayor by Making Thompson Dem Choice?

So I am a suspicious sort. I agree that Quinn is awful and believe everything in the NY Times article and would never vote for her. But something is fishy. Note this quote from a 2010 Wayne Barrett piece:

Friends of Thompson expect him to try, like loser Rudy Giuliani did in 1989, to stay in play on the sidelines and run for mayor again in four years, when a departing Bloomberg might throw him an endorsement or some checks.... Thompson often looked like a befuddled shadow-boxer, tied to Bloomberg at the hip while serving up obligatory campaign lip.

See Perdido St. comments:

NY Times: Christine Quinn Is A Petulant, Tantrum-Prone Child

and Backlash Against Quinn Grows.  RBE at Perdido has often branded Thompson as the worst candidate in history. 

  

I do think there is a plan operating here. And that is to make Joe Lhota mayor and the only way to do that is to have the weakest possible Democrat as a campaigner run against him.

And that is one Bill Thompson the worst candidate to run for mayor and the supposed behind the scenes choice of Bloomberg both in 2009 and most probably this time too as a stalking horse for Lhota.  The Times has run some puff pieces on Lhota and a look at Thompson's backers leads one to some suspicion -- sorry I can't find the link. Ignore the talk about rifts between Bloomberg and Lhota. They are both part of the undemocratic oligarchy that has a choke hold on the city, especially when it comes to the education and real estate gravy trains.

I wrote about the Wayne Barrett piece in the Voice Jan 10, 2010

The next time you read a New Action leaflet bragging about how they were the only caucus to endorse Bill Thompson, suggest people read this revealing Wayne Barrett piece in the Voice about Thompson's girlfriend/wife and how Bloomberg has helped her.

Bloomberg and Thompson: The (Really) Odd Couple

Now it can be told: The surprising ties between the billionaire mayor and the poor slob who ran against him

By Wayne Barrett Tuesday, Jan 5 2010

This is an odd story about an even odder couple, and the surprising ties that bind them. It's a tale of intrigue about a mayoral contest that left New Yorkers feeling so cheated fewer of them voted than in any election since 1917. It also reveals how one of these odd partners compromised the other, subverting the independent checks and balances required of a mayor and comptroller by law.

As the curtain opens on 2010, the stars of the year in city politics, Mike Bloomberg and William Thompson, who were awkwardly allied since being inaugurated together eight years ago, are each moving on to new and uncertain phases of their public lives.

Bloomberg, who has suffered recent stunning setbacks in the City Council, has already discovered that third terms and narrow wins can diminish even mogul mayors. Thompson—entertained at Gracie Mansion at a post-election private breakfast and praised by Bloomberg as "a quality guy" who the mayor hopes "stays in public service"—is still considering a 2010 race against our unelected senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, or unelected state comptroller, Tom DiNapoli ("Go for it," cheers Bloomberg). Friends of Thompson expect him to try, like loser Rudy Giuliani did in 1989, to stay in play on the sidelines and run for mayor again in four years, when a departing Bloomberg might throw him an endorsement or some checks.

Thompson, who only promises he will run again sometime for something, has suddenly become a darling of the media, which are now overcompensating for relying too obsessively on inaccurate polls that failed to anticipate a four-point margin of victory. Thompson, it turns out, got virtually the same total vote Fernando Ferrer did in 2005, while Bloomberg pulled in 180,000 fewer votes than he received last time. Thompson's close margin was less a result of his underappreciated strengths—the Times' Mike Barbaro correctly reported two weeks before the election that his "biggest obstacle" was "his own undisciplined campaign"—than they were of a result of Bloomberg fatigue. Thompson, in fact, had an "oddly relaxed" campaign schedule, with a single event some days, observed Barbaro, and was "chronically late" and often failed to appear at all. He spent more than half his money before the mid-September nominal primary, forcing him to rely on blink-of-an-eye, 15-second TV commercials in November.

But that wasn't enough. Thompson's real role, for Bloomberg at least, was to help force the feared congressman, Anthony Weiner, out of the race, a goal that Bloomberg guru Howard Wolfson has openly acknowledged. Thompson obliged, giving up a sure third term as comptroller. Weiner himself explained in a Times op-ed when he withdrew in May that "running a primary against Thompson would only drain the ability of the winner to compete in the general election." Having lost to Ferrer in 2005 by 11 points, Weiner understood that minority candidates have won all but one of the Democratic mayoral primaries since 1985. So when the leading black politician in the city decided to make his improbable run, Weiner had nowhere to go but out. Thompson and Bloomberg might as well have had a first-round victory party together that night.

Like other powerful New York pols, Mike Bloomberg wanted to pick his own opponent. Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer spent a year setting the table for 2010, and, as one-time putative opponents Steve Israel and Carolyn Maloney can attest, the incumbent pair used every knife and fork available. Ed Koch picked his opponent when he derailed ex-congressman Herman Badillo and won a third term in 1985, and Giuliani did it when he submarined a possible challenge from Alan Hevesi in 1997. Faced with internal polls that we now know rarely put Bloomberg above 50 percent, he preferred an opponent whose vulnerabilities were well known to him, having already exploited them for years.

Thompson couldn't, for example, attack Bloomberg's development policies since, as a member of the city's Industrial Development Agency, he had voted 876 times in favor of the $9.6 billion in bonds that underwrite the projects, opposing them only five times. Charged under the city charter with assessing Bloomberg's budgets and auditing his agencies, Thompson had instead gushed about the mayor for most of his two terms, leaving him with virtually no viable way of distinguishing himself from his golf buddy when the two ended up on opposite sides of the ballot.

What Bloomberg got with Thompson was a made-to-order challenge, so tame at times that a reporter, frustrated by Thompson's unwillingness to say a single critical word about Bloomberg at one September press conference, asked why he'd called it, and so over-the-top at other times (as when he promised to fire Police Commissioner Ray Kelly), that he looked grotesquely out of touch. The Daily News' Adam Lisberg captured it in a classic headline: "Nice-guy Thompson can't find the jugular." Thompson curiously decided to make schools the core of his attack on Bloomberg even as his key campaign consultant, Roberto Ramirez, was lobbying in Albany on behalf of a Bloomberg-tied group championing mayoral control. Thompson often looked like a befuddled shadow-boxer, tied to Bloomberg at the hip while serving up obligatory campaign lip. As for Bloomberg, he'd contended in 2008 that all the term-limits extension did was give voters the additional choice of voting for him, a supposed "expansion" of the franchise even as he overrode the result of two referendums. Then he maneuvered successfully in 2009 to narrow that choice to the opponent he wanted to face.

Read it all here. 

Here are some ed notes pieces on Thompson:

Ed Notes Online: Support Bill Thompson for Mayor? NOT

Dec 26, 2011

Thompson only lost by 50,000 votes. Denis Walcott will continue his jihad against city schools. Christine Quinn will be Mayor Bloombergs proxy in retirement. Nothing will change. The UFT must support Bill Thompson for ...

http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/

The Morning After Winners (Thompson) and Losers (Bloomberg

Nov 04, 2009

The big winner, and maybe the only winner in the mayoral election, was Bill Thompson. 51% to 46%. Add the other anti-Bloomberg candidates and it's a statistical tie: 51-49%. All along I felt he was running for the 2013 race.

http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/

Ed Notes Online: Weingarten and Thompson Embarrassed

Dec 14, 2007

The man who stood beside her in October to announce the project, city Controller William Thompson, could have warned her about the problem. His office was aware during negotiations that the developer refused to promise ...

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