Chris Quinn
This past Tuesday night, I had a fundraiser for Chris. It was a women only event. The response to the women only concept was huge. Many people ( particularly women ) come to political fundraisers and never feel comfortable asking questions. I figured, if the group was a bunch of women only, the conversations would not only be interesting but there would be a higher comfort level for many to ask questions.
After the event, I got a slew of emails from women who attended not only saying how much they loved Chris and how many great shoes were in the room, but many commented on what a commitment Chris has made. As I continue to write and think about women in the workplace and is it possible to do it all, I see someone like Chris and I believe the women at the event applaud her efforts for many reasons. Not only is she doing a fantastic job and has truly changed the landscape of what the City Council does for the city, she gives serious amount of time to the job. She probably works nightly and many weekends and long days. She obviously loves what she does but I would find it hard to believe that there are other parts of her life that may have suffered from it. I would guess that the same thing for a man in his job but reality is men take different roles in their family life.
Chris has been with her partner Kim for quite awhile. Kim also has a major job. They do not have any kids so their focus can actually be about them and their lives together and their passions, be it their jobs, during the day. Then I look at someone like our new state senator, Kirsten Gillibrand. She is married to a guy who has a major job and she has 2 kids, one who is barely a year and the other who is a toddler. I am not here to pass judgement on Gilibrand but I would find it hard to believe that it is hard to be successful in every facet of her life with the demands of being a US senator. It has to be really tough.
I applaud Chris Quinn for so many reasons but she has made decisions in her life and the commitment she has made to be the Speaker of the City Council and as NYer's, we can all be glad that this is the path that she chose.
Comments (Archived):
the slush fund she kept – and initially denied – was great, too.
That was something that she was not aware of. When she found out, sheattempted to fix it internally by herself which was a mistake. She did notwant to open a can of worms at the past politicians in her job that hadcreated that fund. Eventually, she came out with it in order to clean upthe office. All political offices have employees that have been there fordecades and just continue business as usual regardless of someone else atthe helm. This was the case.
Sorry, but I don’t buy that she 1) didn’t know about the slush fund and 2) attempted to “fix it” by herself. If either were true each reflects very negatively on transparency as a politician. Ask yourself, if she was a Republican would you so readily accept her explanations? I don’t know all the facts, but I don’t think she “came out with it”; rather what was happening under her nose and I believe with her knowledge.http://wcbstv.com/topstorie…http://www.nypost.com/seven…She also should have stood up to Bloomberg on over-ruling term limit expirations, which is a real travesty. Although I am not for term limits the popular vote supported them twice. Why should any politician over-rule the opinion of the populace? I’d rather see her out of NYC politics.
Two words: “Puff piece”
Awww…come on now.