Voters in New York mayoral primaries speak their minds

In contrast with Democratic mayoral frontrunner Bill de Blasio’s claim that New York has become “a tale of two cities” -- a comment he made to highlight widening socioeconomic gaps and his charge that the Bloomberg adminstration has catered to New York's elite -- voters across the city are in unison about more than one may think.

As a hotly contested primary race comes to a close, voters at PS 69 on New York's Upper East Side and at East Harlem's PS 102, which is flanked by low-income housing projects, do not agree about who should lead their city, but they have remarkably similar perceptions of what each candidate represents.

Democratic City Councilwoman Christine Quinn attracted some of the strongest words -- both from supporters of outgoing Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who feel Quinn will keep the mayor’s policies rolling, and from those who consider her a political “bully.”

Although she is a Democrat, Quinn is considered Bloomberg’s chosen successor due to their close political relationship. Voters looking for a change of power in city hall are not big on Quinn, an early frontrunner who has fallen in the polls, because they perceive her to be the establishment candidate.

“She’s a bully,” said Michael Diaz Irrizarry, who voted for de Blasio at the East Harlem booths. “She bullies other city council members if they don’t go her way.”

Forty blocks downtown, Democrat Louann Moore, a longtime voter who preferred not to disclose who she voted for, echoed the “bully” label for Quinn and expressed criticism of Bloomberg, who she says “has done a terrible job on schools, spent a fortune on bike lanes we didn’t need, and tables and chairs for tourists.”

“If Quinn wins, it will just be more of the same,” said nonprofit worker Candido Lopez in East Harlem after casting a vote for de Blasio.

More of the same might not be such a bad thing, say voters on the Upper East Side, who predominately voiced some degree of support for the outgoing mayor.

John Laver, a retired travel planner and recent naturalized U.S. citizen, voted for councilwoman Quinn, saying that she represented “continuity” for New York.

A native of New Zealand, Laver generally approves of the job Bloomberg has done, but is critical of the mayor’s recent interjections into the election.

In an interview published in New York magazine over the weekend, Bloomberg criticized de Blasio’s emphasis on economic inequality as tantamount to “class warfare,” and suggested that the de Blasio campaign was employing potentially “racist” tactics in promoting the candidate’s interracial family.

In a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans 6 to 1, Republican primary voters were few and far between at both locations.

One voter, Bambi, a housewife and grandmother of six, supports Republican former mass transit head Joe Lhota, who is vying for the Republican nomination with billionaire John Catsimatidis, because she says he is “intelligent and carried himself well throughout his campaign.”

When asked how she felt about Mayor Bloomberg, Bambi simply replied: “he’s the best.”

In both East Harlem and the Upper East Side, New Yorkers casting midday votes dismissed the drama and scandal of the 2013 mayoral primaries as distractions from the real problems facing their city.

Disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner’s chances were effectively sunk when new sexting allegations surfaced in July. He now trails in the single digits.

Voters say that while Weiner’s sexting scandal was “trivial” in and of itself, his handling of the situation reflected poorly on his ability to serve as mayor.

“I didn’t like his response to the scandal and I don’t think he’d respond well for the city,” said one voter on the Upper East Side who preferred to remain anonymous.

“I’m not judging him,” said a poll worker outside the East Harlem voting booths, “but we can’t rely on him not to be dealing with personal matters if the city is in a crisis.”