By Carol Tannenhauser
Gale Brewer, the Upper West Side’s City Councilmember-elect, has thrown her support in the race for City Council Speaker behind Councilmember Adrienne Adams (no relation to Eric), withdrawing herself from the race.
“Adrienne Adams has earned my support,” Brewer said, in a joint statement in which three other contenders for the Speaker position — Councilmembers Diana Ayala, Keith Powers, and Justin Brannan — also withdrew. That left Councilmembers Francisco Moya, the reported favorite of Mayor-elect Eric Adams, and Carlina Rivera in the race.
On Tuesday, both Adrienne Adams and Francisco Moya declared victory.
“I am honored to have received the necessary votes to become the next Speaker of the New York City Council,” Adams said in the press release.
“I am humbled to announce that our diverse coalition of Council Members and leaders from across New York City has collected a majority of votes to elect the next speaker of the Council,” Moya tweeted on Tuesday.
“What on earth is going on here?” Politico demanded. “Both Queens Democrats proclaimed they have secured a majority of votes to win the speakership, but neither one showed their work. They can’t both be right, so one (or both) of them is either lying, being lied to, or bad at math.”
The actual vote for Speaker will come in January, when the new City Council starts its term. The Speaker leads the council, and can act as both an ally and foil for the mayor.
Correction: We originally left out Carlina Rivera as a remaining candidate for Speaker. On Friday, she, too, withdrew from the race and threw her support to Adrienne Adams.
Good! Ms.Brewer will be free to devote her full attention to the the needs of the district in concert with a capable and responsive staff at the district office.
Based on her track record, you will be severely disappointed as she continues to ignore constituents and pursue a far-left agenda.
Needs of the district = rats, trash, crime (not necessarily in that order
It was never going to happen. Current political winds in NYC are about POC and Latino/Hispanic.
Only thing Gale Brewer had in that potential race was her sex. But since NYC has already had one female speaker of city council (Christine Quinn, and look what happened there), a win would hardly have been earth shattering.
>Only thing Gale Brewer had in that potential race was her sex.
Let’s modify it to ‘gender’ 🙂
To your point, identity politics at its best.
From A. Adams’ victory speech, “As a member of the Council, I will always prioritize my colleagues, labor, and the people of New York and have an open door for every voice.”” See where the people are? LAST
“Saving the best for last” The people… Aren’t colleagues and labor people, too?
So much eye-winking, head nodding cynicism alive and well on this discussion board. Doesn’t anyone give credit to anyone for prior accomplishments? Have you seen the dollars that Brewer gave to Upper West Side programs and programs in other areas during her time as Borough President? Even just recently in this publication it was reported that she had released funding for serious repair work on the three staircases of a local midtown park near the Hudson river, restoring recreational access to that area of the city – and that’s just last week’s report. Examine her record before you hurl stones.