And A New Race Begins:Speaker Of The Council

A week after Michael Bloomberg was re-elected as Mayor of New York City, competition for arguably the second-most powerful position in city government, the Speaker of the City Council, continues to heat up.
Although the selection of the next speaker will not take place until January 4, seven candidates have already emerged as possibilities for the position, with three of the seven coming from Queens: Melinda Katz, David Weprin and Leroy Comrie. However, the frontrunners for the position at the early stages of the selection process appear to be Christine Quinn from Manhattan and Bill de Blasio from Brooklyn.
In order to be elected speaker, councilmembers must procure a simple majority, 26 votes, from the 51 councilmembers who will cast a vote on January 4. Although candidates are campaigning and lobbying their colleagues for votes, it does not appear that many have thrown their allegiance behind a specific candidate at this time.
“This is not the kind of election that you can can count votes early on; people aren’t really committing,” said Speaker candidate David Weprin. He believes that he is the right candidate for the position because of his experience serving as the chair of the finance committee last term as well as operating in difficult fiscal times, which he believes will be a major issue the next Speaker will need to deal with.
“The biggest challenge we face up ahead will be our multi-billion projected budget deficit,” Weprin said.
Comrie, who represents Southeast Queens, is pleased that his fellow councilmembers and constituents view him as a worthy candidate and believes it bodes well for Queens residents that three of the candidates are from the borough.
“I think it’s great that Queens has a wealth of talent and more than one person that is being considered,” Comrie said. “The three names being mentioned are all people that are capable and worthy.”
Queens represents a powerful portion of the Council with 14 delegates, who have historically voted together backing a particular candidate.
Both Weprin and Comrie believe that the candidate pool will shrink as January 4 approaches, but neither would commit to how many candidates would be in the running towards the end or when the pool would shrink down.
Whether or not a Queens candidate is elected speaker, the delegates are confident that a significant number of Queens members will be selected to chair many of the high-profile council committees.
“Queens members have ably demonstrated their abilities in the different chairmanships they have held the past four years,” Comrie said. “They would be worthy to continue in a chairmanship role.”
pdavis@queenscourier.com