Mark-Viverito Is Elected City Council Speaker

[DLnyc]

Source: New York Times

Melissa Mark-Viverito, a fiery liberal who helped form the Council’s progressive caucus, was elected speaker of the City Council on Wednesday, giving Mayor Bill de Blasio a partner at the controls of the legislative branch who shares his ideology and much of his agenda.

Ms. Mark-Viverito, 44, a Puerto Rican-born lawmaker from East Harlem, becomes the first Hispanic to hold what is New York City’s second-most-powerful office. The vote was unanimous, 51-0.

After a bitter fight, in which Mr. de Blasio played an outsized role, Ms. Mark-Viverito’s lone challenger, Daniel Garodnick of Manhattan, formally conceded on the floor of the Council chamber shortly after 1 p.m., acknowledging the tense battle but saying, “I will do my part to resolve any rifts this process may have caused among us.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/09/nyregion/mark-viverito-is-elected-city-council-speaker.html

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She is a solid progressive. I see this as a victory for a progressive movement over a conservative, status-quo establishment group (Democrats though they may be).

[DLnyc]

1. This is a good thing, IMO

I am very happy with this development. Even though New York City votes something like 70% Democratic in national elections, not all Democratic politicians in New York City (and State) have similar views. In particular, some are much more progressive and interested in healthy change, and some are more interested in protecting the power (and money) structures that have developed and encrusted themselves into our local and state politics over the 200-odd years that we've been part of this country. Melissa Mark-Viverito's victory today can be seen as a crack in the monolith of old-school machine politics here, IMHO. Even though New York City voters gave 70% of their votes to de Blasio, who ran as an open and enthusiastic progressive, the party bosses in Queens and the Bronx wanted to give the speakership to one of their own, a relative unknown (at least to me) with no particular progressive credentials. They lost and Viverito, a proud progressive and de Blasio's preferred choice, won. I say hurray!