Christine Quinn's Jersey Guy
Last week, Christine Quinn gave her first State of the City speech, which was generally well received and sparked even more talk about her mayoral prospects. But who exactly wrote it?
According to Council spokesperson Maria Alvarado, it came from outside City Hall.
"The speech was written by Eric Shuffler, who's done speech writing for Corzine, Codey and Coscia. The Council paid for it."
Shuffler, who lives in New York, was counselor to former New Jersey Governors Jim McGreevey and Richard Codey, and worked for former Senator Bob Torricelli before that. He's now a lobbyist.
In the past the Council has had speechwriters on staff. This time, the Council put out a bid for the speech. Shuffler got the job.
-- Azi Paybarah
So you mean with all of her staff , no one was talented enought to write a speech? What in hell is she paying those people for....
it sucked AND they paid good tax dollar monies for it? wow, and i thought that just her patronage moves were bad enough...
As a neutral obserever (trust me), I though the speech was very boring. There was nothing inspiring about it. There was nothing against type in it -- the same exact speech could have come from any of the current candidates for mayor. And, to boot, the actual language of the speech was dull -- not one uplifting/soaring line in the whole thing.
That is what happens when you are forced to hire deadweight from the various machines
I'd rather they spend my tax dollars on one real speech, then hire another unqualified "friend" of a councilman (or party leader) fulltime
With 200 staff members on the bloated payroll, Christine "Hack" Quinn reaches into the taxpayers pocket and pays a lobbyist tens of thousands of dollars to write a speech.
The same guy who was a bag guy for Toricelli.
Disgusting. No wonder the reformers in the Council want to throw Christine "Hack" Quinn out.
She used MY tax money to pay for a campaign speech?? What are we paying her for? Let's just hire the speech writer instead. And why is a council member giving a state of the city speech anyway? Isn't that the mayor's job? Such a waste of money. An unnecessary expense for an unnecessary speech. This is why people hold politicians in such low regard. And I thought Quinn had some promise.
Here's a question: Does the Speaker of the House of Reps make a State of the Union rebuttal speech to the President? Does Silver make a State of the State rebuttal speech to the Governor? Why the does the Council Speaker make a State of the City speech if the mayor does as well? Forget the fact that it was uninspiring and useless; why do they give this speech at all?
how much did it cost?
OH MY GAWD, Speaker Quinn paid money for that Speech.
I thought Rob Newman and Jeremy Hoffman wrote that Speech. I guess if Rob and Jeremy wrote that Speech it would have started as follows: "Four Score and seven years ago I unleashed some of the most annoying faces upon City Hall including Rob "Blockhead" Newman and Jeremy "The Fart" Hoffman. We can all work together as long as you do what I say when I say"
Thank you good night and good fart.
did she have an open competitive bidding process for the most qualified speechwriter or was it a sole source contract?
The Speaker's top aides - Meara, Martinez & Keaney each make more money than the WHITE HOUSE Chief of Staff. They can't write a f@$%ing speech?
Very disappointing, Chris. You have lost grounding, and fast.
none of her staff could have written that speech. Chris wanted to "thank" other council members to get points later. because her staff is small minded and at odds with everyone, they can't take it upon themselves to write anything that would do so. and while Chris may be capable of uttering the words, but she can't come up with them on her own - she's too worried about campaigning for mayor.
A shitty speech that was paid for by the taxpayers - even if the thing was competitively bid, how did this guy get it ? Did he have a prior relationship with anyone ?
Lets get real. This guy used to be Mcreeveys and Toricellis guy. Both were thrown out of office. There is some connection to Mcreevey here and the contract was given to this guy as a sweetheart deal. Did he committ to raising any money for Christine "Hack" Quinn ?
And he is a freakin lobbyist ? That is so disgusting of her. To throw taxpayer dollars to a New Jersey lobbysist. New Jersey has had more scandals and corrupton cases than anywhere in the country. And Quinn puts this guy on the payroll.
Maybe thats why Christine "Hack" Quinn wont do anything to find out why schoolchilden got shafterd on the school bus contract.
She is running her own scams !
Someone should FOIL the cost of that speech.
I for one, thought there was some interesting policy ideas she laid out, however, i would have much rather read about them then watched her bounce her head from teleprompter to teleprompter. The delivery lacked charisma, charm and personality. Al Gore in Red.
i watched her interview in NY1 last night and noticed that she gained pounds and a lot of weird nervous tics: at some points, while speaking, she stretches her mouth downwards showing her teeth and her neck muscles/tendons accentuate her short, thick neck which looks even worst with short double/triple necklaces that she has started to wear. btw chris, green is not your color.
This Council and its Speaker are so moribund. She has totally surrendered to Bloomberg. Her position on lobbying dollars is such bull. When she was on Brian Lehrer recently she could have taken on the sole source issue, as it ties to lobbying, bundling, etc. But, she ducked on it. She is Bloomberg's girl; and, just like Bush dominated the House and Senate, getting what he wanted for 6 years, Bloomberg intends to dominate the Council for his second term. How can it be that Crowley continues to let the Queens delegation acquiesce to Quinn's toadying to Bloomberg? Is it possible that Bloomie is spreading his largesse into County Dem coffers? Or, as is his want, through charitable connections?
In this regard, it is time then to ask what has become of the Voice's investigative reporting staff? Is this not all grist for the mill of Wayne and Tom?
11:11 am - very interesting. good questions.