Transcripts For CSPAN2 Capitol Hill Hearings 20130822

Now the race for mayor in new york city. This formed the latest in a series of debates between the candidates with less than three weeks before voters in new york city go to the polls. The democratic primary is scheduled for tuesday, september 10th. If no candidate obtains 40 of the vote a runoff will take place between the top two finishers. In a leading democrat and republican will face each other in the november 5th general election. The race continues to make national headlines, and it will put the candidates and their campaign in the perspective. Joining us from new york, kate taylor for the New York Times. Thank you for being with us. A pleasure. Three weeks to go, set up this race. What youre looking at . As you said, if none of the candidates get 40 in the primary there will be a runoff but when the top two candidates. What you have right now is three candidates all in a very tight race for who will be the two people who get into the runoff. The most recent polls, roughly tied. Phil thompson and third place. It will see a lot of very intense back and forth among these candid its in the four others tonight. Some of the issues that you will see come up are term limits. A very controversial decision to lift the citys termlimits law to allow bloomberg to run for a third term as mayor. You will also see discussion of new York City Police stop and frisk practice which was the subject of a major federal judge decision the couple of weeks ago in which the judge determined that the practice was racially discriminatory, annihilating the Constitutional Rights of new york city minorities. The candidates have all said they would reform the practice. You will see a lot of debate over who would be the most effective in doing so. Another issue that will probably come up this peoples families. Using his family in the campaign trail. But his teenage sun and a couple of baths. His son, he talked about how his sun is likely to be stopped and first sunday. Both the first female mayor and the first openly gay mayor car recently brought her were found on the campaign trail. Today there was some testy backandforth over comments that were made to the New York Times suggesting that Kristine Quinn was not sensitive to issues about people raising children. The campaign accused her of suggesting that because it does not have her own children shed doesnt understand child rearing. We will address some of the very latest ads in this new york city mayoral race and take a look at some other elections taking place. Let me ask you about the new York City Campaign finance board which was instrumental in these televised debates. There have been a series of other forms taking place. What is the role of this commission . Why was it set up . Why have the candid its a here to the schedule . The Campaign Finance board administers the citys Campaign Finance system. Under the new York City Campaign finance laws candidates can participate in a system which offers quite generous matching donations. They have to agree to a very strict spending limits. All candidates have to agree to a very strict contribution limits. And then for every small donation they get from a new yorker they get a 61 matching public funds. The City Campaign finance board is important. It administers and decides who deserves. It also organizes the debates. So this is the first of two official Campaign Finance board debates and the democratic primary. In the polls have shown that the support for the candidates is very soft right now. None of the leading candidates have a majority of the supporters saying that they will definitely vote for that candid it. These debates are being watched by people and will be important in determining how the numbers phase out. We welcome your calls. Thats our line for republicans we do have a line set aside for those of you who live in new york city. 2025 kayfive 3882. The New York Times website. A look at last weeks debate which took place on channel seven. Impressive ratings. Of about 450,000 people who tune in. Your comments or reaction. Absolutely. Its very impressive that that many people tune in. As i say, we will see a lot of shifts in the numbers in the coming weeks. In the debates will the debates will be critical. The last debate was very intense. In particular you saw Bill Thompson attacking of the term limit issue which you will see it again tonight. So these will be very important in in forming a yorkers who until recently have not been paying a lot of attention. This exchange, two of the candid its in the new york city Mayoral Debate and a recent headlines came up last week. Anthony is right. We have all heard a lot about his personal issues. From the the bigger issue is his record. Some of what i have accomplished is listed. If elected anthonys record, it was passing one piece of legislation at the request of a Campaign Contributor who was a tobacco distributor. That was not a record of results. Could i . Very briefly. Here is the profound difference. I have apologized for my personal behavior. The speaker refuses to apologize for overturning the will of the people and for the professional record. I have phoned up to my personal feeling. Never record im proud of them will be honest with the citizens of the city. Let me just say, i think its clear to all new yorkers that neither myself or anyone else on the stage for any new yorker should be lectured about what we need to apologize for tonight or ever. Lets move on. We have been following this story. The News Conference that took place last month as he admitted he had been using is twitter activity. How is this playing out . Well, it is really putting an end to speculation that he is calling to de travail or even make it into the runoff. He was leading in the polls briefly before the revelations that he continued this activity after his resignation and is now down to about 10 . Fatigue has set in. There were clouds on crowds of reporters following him around. Now only a small handful. He continues. He is continuing to campaign. Hes happy not to have all the reporters following him. He was defiant and people call for him to drop out of the race. It is clear that he will continue and go right up until the primary election. Im sure he will be a lively debate year. We may hear more discussion. He is no longer considered a serious contender for the nomination. Your colleague is the debate moderator. The bureau chief. How is he preparing for this debate, a 7person debate that will run 90 minutes . The most important thing is he that his daughters. But he has begun to gather. One thing they try to do is come up with questions that have not already been asked in the previous debate and the dozens of forms that happened over the course of the last few months. There were sometimes multiple forms and a day. So theyve been asked a lot of questions. Im sure there will ask about the hot button issues like stop and frisk, term limits, but there will also try to come up with some new ones the surprise us and maybe the candidates. Who want to thank our partners for allowing us to show a National Audience tonights 90 minute debate that will be commercial free and get underway at 7 00 eastern. Thomas is joining us from brooklyn. Go ahead please. Im calling in because i dont think kristine plan should be mayor. Why is that . What kind of the campaign has shoe run . She has run as the person most closely allied with bloomberg. The City Council Speaker and has been an ally of the last several years. What she offers to new yorkers is the idea that would be the greatest continuity. And that would probably be an asset or possibly be an asset in a general election, but it has proven to be quite complicated and challenging in the primary person of the other candidates have tapped into some real areas of dissatisfaction about policing, stop and frisk, rising inequality. In a recent poll 85 percent of new yorkers said that it the new york city was too expensive. Thats a feeling that has been really tapped into by the campaign mono, a tale of two cities where some people in doing extremely well and some people is struggling to get by. A greater effort in recent months separate record. She is criticized him over his policies, passed some bills that he is vetoed and is not approve of, but particularly because of the term limit issue and the fact is she gave him the chance to run for a third term, still considered the closest to him. One of the things we will do is talk about each of the candidates individually, what they bring to this campaign. The former city comptroller. Heres some of the latest ads now on the air in new york. This is the view i grew up with. Something special. City of opportunity that from my grandparents here. I want to bring that promise back to every neighborhood in new york. Safe streets with community policing, not racial profiling. Could jobs, decent rant and respect for everybody. Im Bill Thompson, and knowledge remember where i come from a standing up for. My web my mother was a new york city schoolteacher. Pot neighborhood schools shut down. Its time to stop blaming and start changing. Lets fix neighborhood schools. Lets teach. Lets give every child a great education so that they can build a better life. One of the top tier candidates, at least in the amount of money he has raised and where he is in the polls at the moment. One of the interesting things is that he was the democratic nominee for mayor in 2009. He ran against bloomberg. He actually came very close to beating blumberg, even though blumberg had vastly more money to spend. And what Bill Thompson seems to have low name recognition with voters compared to what you would expect. So as eocene, at this point is having to reintroduce himself to voters. Is in third place now. One crucial question that people are asking is whether he is calling to eventually get greater support in the black community that he has now. The only black and it in the race, right now is tied in terms of black support. Some people think that he really has room to grow. Black voters tend to make up their mind at the last minute. Its also an important question, whether the rev. Al sharpton will make an endorsement. If he endorsed Bill Thompson that will be a big help. He also has the endorsement of the Teachers Union which is quite powerful. So he has a lot of things going for in the primary. Let me follow up. Can you give us a broad overview of the makeup of the democratic primary electorate and what you think the turnout will be . Absolutely. One of the really interesting things about this year is that a lot of people are saying it is going to be a majority minority or minority majority, meaning that the majority of voters will be minority. That is one reason that some people have thought that Bill Thompson has a very good chance of winning. Got some majority of the black vote and some substantial portion of the latino vote he is in a strong position. A lot of the candidates, that is one reason that it is been such a big issue. A lot of the candidates are really looking to get as much support as they can. Another interesting thing about this is that it will likely to be 60 or almost 60 percent women which is been a key part of the strategy, opening up a gender gap. The first female mayor, hoping that women would vote for with enthusiasm about the prospect. So far the gender gap has not appeared, but we will watch and see. As you indicated, among the top tier in the candidates, phone lines are open. The new york city public advocate. As you indicated, his ads include his children, including his teenage sun. Lets watch. Hundreds of thousands of new yorkers who never experienced stop and frisk. The fact that some day you will be stopped. The parents all over this city having that conversation with their kids. The only candidate to end the stop and frisk error that targets minorities. The only one that will pass tax the rich. The only one. I wish everyone could see through the eyes of every other parent. These are on our children. Tell you a little bit. The only democrat to break from the bloomberg years and will raise taxes on the rich the boldest plan and is the only one who will and a stop and frisk era that unfairly targets people of,. A mayor for every new yorker, no matter where they live on what they look like. I say that even a few or my dad. As you look at that ad, is that the sharpest attack . Absolutely. You could say that his campaign is an attack. The second and the you played, the first one in this election season to break out and get a lot of attention. It was very good, letting people know what his family looked like, the fact that he can relate to the issue on a personal level. The other ad in which she claims to be the only candidate who would break from the bloomberg years has been quite controversial because, as i said kamal of the candid its say they would perform stop and frisk and oversee. Some of the other candidates have objected to this and as inaccurate and ask for him to take it down which so far he is not given any indication that he was going to. Were likely to see some discussion tonight. Making some accurate statements about where he stands compared to the other candidates. One of the headlines, the new york city mayoral race is up for grabs. Joining us from the newsroom, following this. Thank you very much for being with us. Thank you. Talking about the race. Lets begin with that. We will talk about other races that youre following from your Vantage Point. The new york city race that is getting a lot of National Attention. Well, its getting a lot of National Attention for a lot of the wrong reasons. Certainly we and our colleagues in the National Media cannot get enough. As you and your guest are just talking about, this is a fairly serious election. The end of what has been a quartercentury what even some sympathetic folks would call autocratic larger than life republican mayors. So i think what youre hearing from these folks, especially with your hearing across the city is a change message. York is not alone. Give us a quick snapshot. Which other ones are you focusing on . Well, i would point to three cities that have big fields of candidates at this point. Boston, i just mentioned that new york is experiencing something of a change. Boston, even more so. The same mayor since the early 90s. Sort of the last big city bonds. To win back to laguardia. At different kind of boston the democratic primary will. But youre seeing a kind of racial and ethnic diversity, a diversity of identities that i dont think people necessarily think of when they think of boston politics traditionally. What other races are you keeping an eye on . Detroit where you have this you have had this big field of candidates. Just two contenders for a job that is you think it is very important right now. Ultimately the election itself may be less important than what happens after. Germany how much power the mayor will have when there is an emergency manager with Sweeping Authority for turning around. And houston, where a democratic mayor is running for a third term. A nonpartisan alexian but essentially a republican opponent. When she was elected it became the largest american city. So shes likely to win another term. National politics. Its worth keeping an eye on. The cover politics and policy in this era of budget deficits and tightening budgets here in washington. What can mayors expect from washington if anything when it comes to infrastructure, the nuts and bolts the mayors need to provide to their respective cities . You talk to mayors out in the country and at party conventions. The u. S. Conference of mayors meeting in d. C. Really set up with just how little support they get from washington. Basic, basic stuff, transportation funding. There is really just no certainty that any of that comes out of d. C. In a lot of ways the stimulus that a lot of folks credits with helping give the economy a jolt of momentum back in 2009 just deferred the fiscal problem for mayors a couple years because they were able to get bridge funding from the federal government. And it is now at the really hard choices are coming home. Whether its the green taxis won the super sized drinks in new york city that the mayor wanted to ban, what is the legacy that he has had in new york city and the influence that he may have had on other mayors around the country . Obviously one of the major influences he has had has been his policies. The ban on big so this did not go into effect and was not very popular. His policies on biking, and a bike lanes, the black share programs, the policy of talents and fastfood restaurants. The trans fat, the smoking ban. These things are all very popular among new yorkers, even though there were controversial to begin with and have been influential around the country and even around the world. Many countries in many cities around the world have passed smoking bans. Some places you really would not have expected. And so he can definitely claim to have a huge influence. The fare of seven candidates as we talked about an earlier. The new york City Council Speaker. Running for the democratic nomination and focused on what happened with super storms and the. Heres a portion. It was like we were watching television. There were some people that came home to no house whatsoever. There were for its who came back is on the ground. Those people who had four to 5 feet of water in their house actually considered themselves lucky. Kristine sat in this very room. Set up a support system for us to be able to respond to the various means that we had because we basically had nothing. We were able to reach up and any given time. Somebody from our staff almost 2047. It all to reach out and ask the question and get the information get some response. On the street meeting with people. What can i do the healthy. Showed compassion. Show their devotion. I saw firsthand her concern. When she met in individual on the streets, there was a true there was that anything made up. You know, thats a quality that a lot of people dont have. As you look at that video, what impact did that storm half or is it having if at all on the electorate and the vote . It has had a substantial impact of a conversation. Pretty much all of the candid its have talked about what their plans are to make the city more prepared for the next door. The video really tapped into what the major arguments of the campaign have been. And she has been seeing, challenged by other candid its dementias, said she is the only candidate who has come things done, done things that have helped people in the city. Kind of her greatest strengths and also her greatest liability is that she is been the most powerful and visible position. She is head to determine the fate of a lot of bills over the last few years. She claims she has been the most effective, made the most difference in peoples lives. At the same time it has opened up a lot of areas of vulnerability because she had to make a decision on term limits. She was on the spot in terms of a bill for paid sick days to workers but she resisted for a long time and then finally passed. That earned her some minor. So her position as City Council Speaker compares to the last powerful positions of other candidates. Its really a strength and weakness for her. Under way at the top of the hour. A 90 minute debate that we will have live here. If youre listening on cspan radio, coasttocoast, we are joined by ms. Taylor covering the story for the New York Times. Joining us from the political news from. We have a line for new york city voters. Go ahead. Im are registered democrats and have been for a while. That i guess every candid it seems to be anti this year. It is not really seem to be anybody to vote for. Mainly i believe is going to be who you choose to settle for. That may go for your observation. Your Vantage Point here. Has anyone broken through . I think were certainly seen of the last couple of weeks some movement from the polls to indicate that there is something going for him. I think that reflects to a great degree what tony was just talking about. A set of candidates who are not particularly interesting by graphically. With the exception recently they have not been delivering a particularly crisp message. Hard to see any of them in the mold the kind of show up on day one as a figure who is crisply defined for better and worse in their eyes of new yorkers. In some ways it is worth remembering that if some of them look like empty suits, thats not totally different than what some people thought about bloomberg back in 20002001. A generic rich guy who did not really believe in much. Peter is joining us. Good evening. Good evening. Being a native new yorker and a democrat, i just think that it is imperative for this country the matter what the races and no matter what the occasion may be that we stick to our democratic candid its. Nobody can be perfect. There will always be flaws in the Democratic Party. Even suffice to say the candidates themselves. I think its very important that we keep the democratic line nationally and statewide. The republicans have proven and the media history has revealed that the tactics are selfserving. They have been stalling the progress of this country. Sabotaging the changes that a necessary. We have antiquated institutions that need to be changed and modified. Changes necessary. And the republicans have stood firm in conformity and rigidity, stagnation, and its important and we move forward. I think that my main point here, as flawed as the democrats may be, they are the best right now as far as im concerned for the movement and the possessive movement of this country which will leave it there. There is a republican primary as well and there will be a republican candidate for mayor of new york city. There are three republican candidates right now. And they are getting much less attention than the Democratic Candidates. The city is Something Like six to one democratic. So the republican candidate to trying to reach a relatively small pool of voters. And they are not going to have a runoff most likely because there are so few of them. You know, then we will see who the democrats are going to face. Even though new york city is mostly a democratic town, it has a tendency to elect republican mayors. A lot of people have expected that this will be the year that will change. We wont know until november. We should point out as of the debates unfold we will bring those to you as well. Lets talk about former congressman Anthony Wiener who began his career here in washington. He then went on to run for the seat. What influence did he have here in washington and congress among his democratic colleagues in the house . There would give you a range of not so diplomatic answers. The times did a great job earlier. Everyone remembers him as this brash selfabsorbed self indulgent media every politician. As far as legislation that the past, and what he accomplished in terms of shaping legislation, i think the people will look back to the volley play in the health care debate. When the president pushed for the Affordable Care act and its low point and the winner came out and said im not sure that we should settle for something that does not have a public auction. To a lot of democrats and a lot of republicans with the mutant from the other side, that kind of set off. Lets look at one of the latest dance released just a few days ago. Have waged a campaign focused like a laser beam on fighting for the middle class and those struggling to make it. And put up two books of new ideas. Everything from restoring discipline in our schools to creating a Single Payer Health plan. The powerful voices have made it clear from the beginning it did not want me to win. This is in about what they want. If you give me a chance of fight for you and your family every single day. As you look at that at it is somewhat reminiscent of bill clinton when he was trying to inch his way back in 1992 following the jennifer flowers story in the New Hampshire primary. Two very different races and candid its. The focus on the middleclass seems to resonate with bill clinton and were seeing that now. Absolutely. When he first got into the race he attacked it attracted a lot of support. Some people interpret the fact that he had been down and was coming back as evidence that he was a fighter and would also fight for them. He worked really hard to convey that message and is still saying that. Even after this new information came out about the fact that a continued their relationships after he resigned, people called on him to withdraw. He basically said no way. Thats not how we will. And he is saying, look, im standing up to all this pressure thats what all do as mayor. Some people right now about 10 percent of likely voters, thats resonating. You wrote a piece on july 29th in the New York Times with this headline. Why did he do it . Did you find an answer . I think it would be impossible to find an answer without being inside his head. I did hear some interesting theories from psychiatrists. One theory is that the most surprising things, he was sending these images, this sentiment anatomy to the women who were basically strangers. One of the psychiatrists i spoke to suggested that this implies some insecurity about his body image and particularly about his masculinity. He needed his masculinity to be admired. People obviously observed that this demonstrated a real lack of control at moments. It could be indicative that he had moments where he has very strong desires and impulses. Hes not able to control, a exercise judgment. I think thats something that one could reasonably conclude from watching a politician whose reputation depends on his not doing things like this. One moment from that News Conference. You want to share with our audience. It took a lot of work and a whole lot of therapy to get to the place where i could forgive anthony. It was not an easy choice in any way, but i made the decision that it was worth staying in this marriage. That was a decision i made for me, for our son, and for our family. I did not know how long workout, but i did know that i wanted to give it china. Anthony is made some horrible mistakes, both before congress and after. But i do very strongly believe that is between us and our marriage. We discussed all of this before anthony decided to run for mayor so what i want to say is i love him, i have forgiven him. I believe in him, and as we have said from the beginning, were moving forward. Your observation on that moment and what if any influence that will have. I think you will be it will be pretty surprising of the testimonial will get him in the top two or three spots on primary day. I think when you see the scandals, and its all very unsightly to look at directly, there is always a dividing line between folks who view this as a valid letter and a credible defender of the meandering partner and viewing his pals as an enabler, someone who is trying to help other politician has been poll a scam on the voters of whatever price it is there running in. I think that is Anthony Wiener and hamas have traced back and forth across tear to come out and say when he got into the race, we have really moved past this. This is all behind us and then find out not that long prior he was still engaging in this kind of relationships. At the end of the day voters in new york clearly do not have patients for that. And finally, you look at these other mayoral races around the country, what is it . I think it is in most of these places a generational shift of some kind or you have either a longtime incumbents or all way of practicing politics, away maybe you had in chicago a couple of years ago or in detroit the clearly is not going to suffice Going Forward and a conversation about how the citys five to operate differently. Following all of this for politico. Think you for being with us. Lewis is on the phone. Republican line. It evening. Go ahead. I would just like to make a statement. I republicans have made a great contribution to society. But i have learned from being in chicago, the answer to our problems. He is the answer to of the democratic problems. We need to just simply turn to Louis Farrakhan for answers. Okay. The current mayor of chicago. Alexander burns indicated earlier, part of the generational change as well. There has been a lot of parallels. What is the difference . Well, but bloomberg and is Police Commissioner would say that tre ability to use stop and frisk as they have done has been a major element in reducing crime. The democratic and its and many of the critics would say that is not the case. There are more complicated factors that have led to the continued decline in crime. One of the really interesting things about the polls that the the york times did is that actually only a minority of voters believe that crime is gone down. Even though in fact it has. It may be contributing to the debate over stop and frisk in the fact that the republican candidates or bloomberg arguing that stopping are pulling back is going to increase crime. The running of begins this reality that people dont think the crime has gone down. It think it is either stayed the same and gone up. The complicated interactions between what has happened and how it is interpreted by the public and how the mayor communicates that is really creating a complicated situation the current new York City Comptroller is john luke, and in his latest that he focuses on his inner green groups and how that will play out or he hopes it will play out in the upcoming democratic primary. He kept the promise. Clawing back hundreds of millions. During10 year im proud that we produced one and 3 billion in cost savings. Hospitals, senior centers. That is not enough. This crazy notion. A fair shot starts with a fair wage. He intends to do something about it. Hundreds of thousands of new yorkers who work in poverty. Serious about narrowing the wealth gap, we need to have the courage to pay all your knockers a livable minimumwage. You go after the rich and powerful. Thats okay. He grew up as an emigrant son searching for a better life. Spend years working for a better city, and he will keep fighting for a Better Future. Is he breaking through among Democratic Party voters . At think its fair to say that he is not. Early on in the campaign he was seen as having a significant chance of making it into the runoff or perhaps even getting the nomination. He talked a lot about his immigrant background further to the left among the candidates on several issues. The only candidate who said he would completely ban the practice of stop and frisk. He was seen as a hero. He was the first Asian American elected to citywide office. For the last couple of years he has been dogged by questions and investigations into his campaign fundraising. One of his fundraisers and his former Campaign Treasurer or arrested and altman the convicted of being involved using strong donors to increase the matching fund. The Campaign Finance board ultimately denied him matching funds. Now he has much less money than the other candidates to get his message out through advertising. He has really been discredited in the eyes of a lot of voters. Para three statewide races taking shape this fall in new jersey. Two of them, a special election previously held by Frank Lombard will take place in october. Two gubernatorial races in new jersey and in virginia. A new poll out today showing that the democratic candidate is ahead by six percentage points. Joining us live on the phone, Washington Post political reporter joining us from the newsroom. Thank you for being with us. Thank you. Began in the commonwealth of virginia. Give us an overview. At least for the moment ahead, although the poll also indicates that voters are not too happy about qaeda can it. Thats correct. This is really the big race in 2013. This is the one that National Republicans and democrats are going to look at and look for clues about the future electoral environment in 2014 elections. This is a race that is expected to be close the route. One of the few poles that has shown one candidate with the lead outside the margin of error. Another poll that shows the republican a lead. But at think the main thing about this race and what people are recognizing is that these are to candid its running up against each other and both have their flaws. A political newcomer. He did not run a very Strong Campaign four years ago. Some questions about some ethical questions with them. As more and more a swing state. For an ally in this poll he does show a small need. Very early in this race and i expect it to be a lot of attention on this campaign Going Forward. Lawyer talking about michael blumbergs role, and virginia there is, of course, the oneterm governor, the only state in the country where your constitutionally only allowed to serve one term. Republican talked about earlier as a potential national tended it in 2016. Based in his appearance yesterday, he will not step down. We have been following the ethics investigation into governor macdonald and his wife. What kind of global war influenced as that have among the electorate in the fall . It certainly does not help the Republican Party to have their incumbent governor, under these kinds of allegations and scrutiny. I dont know that necessarily damages in in in a certain way. I dont think theyre too political for him tied together in any significant way. Obviously elected separately. There is some kind of connection between the donor who is at the center of the situation and the democrats are really pressing. I think with this race right now there are ethical questions about each candid. Im not sure that people really know the difference between the scandals and the ethics questions between the governor in the two candidates for governor. All of them are a mix jumble at this point. As people start paying closer attention, i think these are obviously going to be significant issues that people will be watching. The Washington Post and the New York Times focusing on governor Chris Christie in new jersey with a potential mine for a 2016 race. He does first have to get reelected. Is there any question that you will . I dont think so. Every poll has shown him with the lead of more than 20 with 30 points. One of the most popular governors in the country. It is really hard to find a hole in his political resonance. Really just three months away. How does the democratic nominee go ahead in a state that is a pretty solid Democratic State when you look in National Elections . I think that the strategy is to tie Chris Christie the national party. The teacher union. Democrats will try to use it against him. Given his reputation and think its very hard to argue that he is kind of the standard issue republican. At think that the polls show that he is very personally popular. The other race is shaping up joining us from the newsroom of the lost the post. Thank you for being with us. Thank you. Lets turn back to the final two candidates who want to focus on. Also participating in tonights debate, remains low in the polls. One of the latest ads on the air for the campaign. Used gang activity. It was still a good place to go of. There was a sense of community. Lots of great food. I spent my summer vacations in South Brooklyn playing softball. The sneakers were expensive. I then went on to college. I became a schoolteacher. Im a true new york city historian. We should point that he has been out of Elective Office for well over a decade. He ran in a booktv menu is a city councilman. He had a good run that time. He is much less wellknown. He has proposed variable polls. All so much freer and some points. Criticized for using members of the government staff raise some issues that a more mainstream candid it might not have been comfortable with. On line for democrats. Getty. A disgrace. A disgrace for the democrats. The only thing that is a bigger disgrace, trying to follow and hillarys footsteps. Its a disgrace. Okay. Your thoughts. Is clear that there are a lot of negative feelings. A 75 unfavorable rating. That was the highest negative opinion that they had ever found at think that has alex was saying earlier, the yorkers are angry that they came back and said the changed. Thats in the past. Were normal family. Turns out that it wasnt nearly as much in the past. People feel like they were lied to. Found out earlier that there will be a seventh candidate participating. Can you explain who Erick Salgado is and what he brings to the race . The only latino candidate among the democrats. And evangelical manager and radio host. He has a rather substantial panda church followers. He has brought of some interesting issues in the discussions he has been part of. Early on in the race he proposed that new york city should issue id cards. It turned out the since then the three leading candidates all said that they supported this idea which it can be said was really suggested first. Can you recall how much money blumbergs been when he ran for reelection four years ago . Something like a hundred million dollars. A lot more than any of these candidates will spend. That was my point. We will voters a scene on the air. They will see a lot fewer. These candid its unlimited spending roughly 6 million in the primary. Some they have limited opportunities. What really matters in some sense is the free media, the coverage in the newspapers. So they really have a talent and getting their names out there and establishing themselves. One of the things about this field is theyre all democrats. The positions are not that different on a lot of issues. Thats why you see some of these attacks happening. Thats why you see them hunting each other over term limits. Families thats really the way they can distinguish themselves. About five minutes away from live coverage of this debate from new york city. Good evening. Good evening. Thank you. I believe our problem today is polarized news coverage. If permission for both types of news media. Conservative or liberal. No wonder good idea that. Iphone listen to the opposition and definitely breaking down a story. It when it comes to my own politics, thats our workers are i believe theyre hurting themselves. The same thing will happen to fox news. Things with a call. Obviously its a pretty different situation in new york. Since the citys overwhelmingly democratic, much of the focus is on the democratic primary. As i said, the policy differences between these candidates are relatively small. A lot of it was about mayor bloomberg and how much theyre saying there would distinguish themselves from mayor bloomberg on that issue. Of course having originally been elected as a republican, now an independent. You dont have the same conservative liberal democratic Republican Debate has loudly in new york city, and least not in the primary cycle. We will see that in the general election. The big question is, will this be the year when the trend of 20 years changes in new york city alexa democrat . Or is something going to happen that gives the republican despite the odds and the disparity and a better chance . New york one at Time Warner Cable are the cosponsors. We have about a minute or two left. Give our viewers a sense of what to look for. What do you think you will be writing about. As i said earlier, definitely watch for discussions of policing, stop and frisk. Whisk chris quinn has said that any future mayor would be lucky to have the current Police Commissioner stay on. That will no doubt be brought out by bill de blasio who is very critical. We might see the issue of hospital closings,. Bill de blasio has made that theme in his campaign and has criticized Christine Quinn. The rtc is not done enough to stop the closing a hospital in her district. She argues that she did very much and tries to help put a 24 hour emergency facility in its place. It will definitely see term limits, and we will see some discussion of the candidates personal lives and families. This family has played a very Important Role in his campaign. Bill thompson brought his wife of the campaign trail, and Christine Quinn would be the first openly gay mayor. Host joining us from new york. Her byline can be seen tomorrow morning on the New York Times. She covers city hall and politics. Thank you very much for being with us. Guest thank you for having me. Glrvelts were live democratic primary debate in the race fordn mayor. The live tonight were at town hall wherc im joined by more than 1,000 new yorkers, as well as our debo panelists, the for new york bryan lei of the show of the mye host of bryan lairer show. David the City Hall Bureau chief hir the New York Times and political reporter for new york one. Next ninety minute will be an uninterrupted conversation of issues. Nterru youll get a chance to learnwhee more about the seven Democratic Candidates to become the next si mayor. We are using a twitter nyc2013. Our debate is part of new yorks official Debate Program for the. 2013 election administrated by york dtys Campaign Finance board. Eb the board manages the citysdesd pram. Small dollar contributions. Gather partners to bring these debates. Of the city of new york, the hispanic federation, citizens for new york city, transportation , and timees, wnyc warner cable. Lets introduce the seven candidates. Deldable all seo bill sio, Christine Quinn [cheers and applause] john liu. Sal. And anthony weiner. The candidates we each have one minute to respond to questions asked by the panel and they will be given the ability to respond if asked directly by an opponent. We will have cross examination where they will be able to ask one opponent a question. They whirl they will have a lightning round with brief questions and answers. They will also make closing statements of one minute each. With that in mind, lets begin. We start with one man well been manuel benitez. Is a hospital nobody wants to own. They could take down the system. F hostels how are you planning on keeping it open . How will you pay for it . Do you think it is a fiscally responsible position to have . They need Long Island College hospital. That is the closest emergency room by far for 75,000 people. We fought successfully to keep it open. In the last year, we won in court yet again and the hospital is open for business. Its important for brooklyn and the city. We have to end of the of hospital closures. And they want to have the city and state played the most prominent role in how to protect local healthcare facilities. It must be provided locally. You will not give the primary and Preventative Care you need. We need the city and state to take responsibility and my plan is the one that would actually make that happen. Only one to be the appear who has presented that kind of plan. As a quick followup, would you find money in the budget to keep it open . I think one of the most important things we do is protect the Public Health. Whether it takes city funds, state funds, or the medicaid waiver that the state as called for to bring in federal dollars explicitly for hospital restructuring, it is time for the local governments to take responsibility. What we have been doing now is hospitals just close. Look at what happened with st. Vincent sand one dozen hospitals in in the bloomberg years. Its unacceptable so its time for the city and state to step up. Ms. Quinn, do you think there is money in the budget to pay for these hospitals that are not the responsibility of the city . Robust round of applause was not for me but for my father who turned 87 today. I want to start off by saying happy birthday. [applause] health care, we in oneerface, st. Johns of the most isolated parts of threatening to be closed. We want to make sure the mayor is not sitting on the side. We need to get the medicaid waiver so we get the money we are owed in the city. It will bring us resources to help us stabilize hospitals but also create more primary and Preventative Care. I will implement when i am mayor Public Health infrastructure atmission which will look where we need to stabilize hospitals, where many to reopen hospitals, where we need primary care, preventative or urgent care. We will start figuring out how to use the federal money. Then we will advocate for state money from them. When it isare times appropriate for city money to be brought in to help stabilize hospitals. We need more transparency about private hospital budgets. I want to get legislation passed toalbany that requires them report about their finances so it does not sneak up. Do you think the city should get involved and basically pay to keep it open . This is the wealthiest city in the entire nation. Im tired of hearing we dont have money for this or that. Dozen hospitals that have shut down under this administration are part of the Public Infrastructure and they should be treated as such. Treated as not be private entities. Look at what has happened, what we could have gone. Vincent, 160f st. Year history and it shut down. When have and immediately after . The area was rezoned for luxury condos. Why didnt it take place before so maybe they should have sold the air rights to shore up the financials and keep the hospital needed thats what have to be done on st. Vincent is. You were nowhere on the ground at st. Vincents. Bill, youve been great on the hospital closures, but where were you for the first three years of your public [applause] it goes without saying. Mr. Thompson . Going through a healthcare crisis. Suis interface, downstate ny, brookdale. We have to get involved first. Its important that a federal waiver come through. We all have to make sure that it happens. Thats leadership. That keeps the hospitals open until we can create them as i proposed, a commission for brooklyn to allow for primary care. That keeps hospitals open. We cannot turn our backs on central brooklyn, rutland healthcare needs, and the mayor cannot sit on the sidelines. I would be out there working with the governor and others to keep those hospitals open. They are the lifeblood of central brooklyn and abrupt one. We see what happens across the city, not just st. Vincents but in queens when hospitals closed and created a healthcare crisis. Before he give you time for a bottle, mr. Wiener, do you think we should save to keep these you arepen . Asking the wrong question. We are giving 20 to insurance companies. Why . Wide dont we have a single payer system where we manage around health care budgets, invest in hospitals and jobs, cover the undocumented . Thats the ambitious plan i lined out. When they proposed all of these closings, i started traveling around with these proposals and when it was time to fight for said, why are we doubling down on the employer model . Lets have medicare for all americans. In new york city, we have an opportunity to be a healthcare laboratory. Andave hospitals, doctors we are paying a ton of money. The costs for health care is going to go up 40 of the next four years and eating up our ability to do anything else including giving raises to our workers. We are going to be a Single Payer Healthcare model here and if we do it in new york, it will spread across the country and we will get rid of the employer based model that does not take care of citizens. Thank you. [applause] case of a longhe island hospital, do you think we should find the money from the budget to keep it open yo . I delved right into this closing that was reaching epidemic proportions. Peninsula, rockaway, other hospitals, st. Vincents. I said to myself, i had been in the private sector the last 15 years, why are we closing hospitals . Some kind of ave strategy before we do this . Im shocked to say we dont have the common sense as a government in these people have been here for a long time to even put together some plans and now people are getting arrested, jumping around in rallies. The should have been handled years ago when we needed a common sense approach. Look. This is common sense. You plan as a city. I want to establish a common sense commission. As soon as i take office, i will put 30 citizens together from fornd the city to look common sense solutions, every directive, airy policy, and streamline bureaucracy to make wings happen instead of getting caught up in red tape. Im always last and im used to it. When we talk about Public Health, we have to understand that the government has to be very vigilant. 25 years ago, i started to work as a community leader. They depend on Long Island College hospital so its a good inc. To fight, but when he said he does not know what they should i enhance it, you cannot obligate the private sector to actually do a job. The government, if we want them to provide the service, we have to make sure that we finance that service if i go there and get arrested, im going to come out of jail right after the election. It is the government responsibility to invest money when the Public Health is at risk. Let me give you 32nd diseas0s each. Leadersnity letters and i got together and we were able to save it until it was in danger. We went to court and im very proud to say that the neighborhoods that i represent now as public advocate, we have cap Long Island College hospital open and we are ready to get a longterm plan. I was involved in the same vincent issue and to top me all i needed to know about the role of the mayor because i appeal to mayor bloomberg twice and he said he would not get involved to save a hospital. Standr and the city must up to save healthcare for everyone in every neighborhood. Its part of the job description. [applause] last 30 seconds. We have to keep the fight going to keep her hospitals open particularly in neighborhoods like the rockaways, and west side manhattan that dont have them anymore and dont have other options. The thing about st. Vincents, when it went out of business, we were right in the middle of rezoning in the middle of the first that might have saved it. A few things happened. Lets be honest. The heirs at st. Vincents lied to all of us. Two weeks before the final rezoning they said everything was good with their budget and clearly at wasnt. Maybe if we move more quickly and they had not lied, things would have been different but im proud of our efforts that cap say in sense of open for months, but at the end of the day, st. Vincents canceled ats contract for staff and killed it. If the first rezoning went through without opposition, that may had been the glimmer of hope now at protests, the public advocate stands with people who went and testified against the rezoning, people like Susan Sarandon who said they would never send their children there. You have to the what you are for all the time. Time to respond let me say a word to the audience. To the extent you have those outbursts, it takes time away from the candidates and we want to make sure that everybody gets heard. Very quicke a response and then we will move on. Her response is a smokescreen. She did not save a hospital in her own district. As the chief ally of mayor bloomberg, she did not find a way to save a hospital. She should not blame the protesters, the act of this. It was her job to step up and get the mayor to come along my district, we saved Long Island Hospital college again this year. Lets move on to ryan lehrer as you all know, inequality is a central issue for many democratic primary voters this year and i believe that three of and mr. Liu, mr. Weiner, mr. De blasio have proposals to raise taxes on some of the wealthiest new yorkers. Yet gold you raise taxes on home precisely . How would you use the money to reduce inequality . Thank you so much. This is something i have been focusing on. Income inequality is ruining your chances for real economic sharedy i could mean prosperity for all new yorkers. Specifically, i put together a tax reform plan but will ask 500,000 pere over year, the 1 , such as Bill Thompson, to pay a little bit more. Those below the threshold will pay a little bit less. Right now, it is shocking, appalling, that in the city of new york, we have a flat tax. Youatter how much you make, pay the same rate. It should be progressive like everywhere else in the country. Those who make less, pay less. Who make more pay more. And thisair system fight is continuing to hurt our chances for a full economic recovery. What would you do with the money . It would cost a little bit of money to give the tax reduction to those below the threshold and raise the taxes for those above. Overall, my office is estimated it will bring in 250 million up to one billion dollars in additional revenue and that is part of the peoples budget where we greatly expand the educational system to start kids early on and take them all the way through college so we the approach. Mr. Wiener, is your plan different, better . Im sure its better. For the longest time, we have her descriptions of the city that is not right. We are one city with a common aspirational goal and this notion that we are all middle sees people, sometimes you people who are actually quite wealthy but when they look in their mirror, they say this is the capital of middleclass and the talk about their experience. Anyone who makes less than 150,000 per year gets a 10 tax cut in if you make more than 1 million or more you pay 1 more. The fundamental numbers of people youre struggling to make it in this city, we are losing middleclass jobs and creating jobs at the very low end of the spectrum, restaurant worker jobs, poor people jobs. We have to make this the middle class capital again which is why i have education policies, tax policies. Click send your plan for the extra revenue . It generates revenue. Thats the remarkable thing and all we ask them to do is pay 1 more. Mr. De blasio. Tax on theis for a wealthiest so we can have prek for the full day for every child because the greatest investment we can make infighting and equality for the long run is get more kids a good education. I say that as a Public School parent. I will be the First American history of the city to serve while having a child in the Public Schools and i have to tell you i know that the investment in Early Childhood education, which we have not been making, will be the difference maker. Parents knowing they can get full day prekindergarten. There are 50,000 kids right now who should have gotten the full day this. Did not test this plan wasnt in place. They should be an afterSchool Programs but but they are not getting it right now. For those who make 500,000 dollars or more, from 3. 9 up to 4. 3 for the next five years but what it would mean in terms of addressing inequality would be vast. We would reach kids when they are most able to learn and we are most able to fight back against the disadvantages they may have experienced when they are 3m four years old, that is the greatest time to educate our children and put them on the right path so they can and will graduate and be a strong member of our economy. Ms. R. Thompson and then quinn. Given the inequality and the responses of your colleagues, why will you not propose raising taxes on some of the wealthiest new yorkers you . I supported tax increases when the president did, when the governor pushed for it, i supported it. Tax increases are a last resort, not a first option. And to be honest, we have seen tax increases before that have come through the city council at some of my colleagues up here have voted for and they were not increases on the wealthy. They were increases on middle class new yorkers and those are the tax increases we have seen. When it comes to closing the inequality gap, we have to focus on education. Those are the important things, making sure our children are reading on the grade level and that in the end we provide the opportunity for them to go to college or be able to get a job. That is how we close the inequality gap the best way we can, by not closing schools, by working hard to make the Education System work. If i could followup . Would universal prek not be central to that . Way toou find another pay for that that you could specify . We send money back to the state of new york for prek. The governor has indicated that he wants to Work Together on universal prek. Mayor of thethe city of new york should be doing right now making sure the money is returned and we turn it into fullday prek and we fight to get the space needed. Thats the biggest problem. Ms. Quinn. Theres no way you can rule out the potential that you will not raise taxes. If we have to, i will do it progressively. I supported the call when they put the millionaire tax in place and, if we have to do it, we cannot find the resources within our budget to get what we need, we will fight for more progressive taxes. One thing i will do regardless, right now in new york city, people at the lowest income who pay the earned income tax credit , we are one of the only places in the country where they still pay a personal income tax and its insane to take money like that. Im i will push for legislation im going to push for legislation in albany to change that but the key to really addressing income inequality is, in addition to education, create the opportunity for a pathway to more middleclass jobs and i will give you one example. Companies in have the south bronx and queens that retrofit trucks to make them nonpollutant. Are turning away work. Why . They dont have enough trained green mechanics. I will open a Technical High School to to train people for those jobs. They willto tin people for those jobs. 40ey will start at 30 dollars an hour in be on a path to the middleclass. I will also first goal in the budget and get rid of all of the outside contract we dont need and figure out how much money we have two dedicate to the services we want to expand and if we need taxes after that, i will absolutely do it progressively. [applause] thank you all. The next will be led by grace. Unemployment rate right now is 8. 4 , a full point higher than the National Average and new jobs are being added but not enough to keep up with the newcomers coming to the city looking for work mf fact is many of the new jobs that are being are in lower paying areas like tourism, education, retail. What would you do to create know, good paying jobs in new york and would the best thing just to be to get government and regulation out of the way so the businesses can grow on their round . We will start with mr. Thompson. The first thing, as we look to create jobs, and we have to grow jobs, we have been dependent on wall street for way too long. We need to diversify our economy. First, look up the hightech sector. There are a lot of jobs being created their round i want to support growth in that area. However, young people dont have the training to get those jobs. We need to bring career rentech bill education we need to bring Technical Education back. There are so many jobtraining entities out there but there is no coordination, nothing that ties them together and they are focused on placement, not attention, and not focusing on the jobs of tomorrow. I want to create a chief jobs officer in city hall to get that done and tie those jobs together , to be able to prepare people for the training they need to get better paying jobs. Minority and women owned businesses, the state of new york is trying to get to 20 . New york citys numbers are 3 . Mal, we need to create a tie in between minority and women owned businesses and city contracts. If the stay can get to 20 , the city can do better. Last and not least, we have to move on. Mr. Wiener. [applause] first, the lowwage workers that are virtually in poverty wages, we should help them organize. Thehey unionize, they raise quality of living and we will require those companies to provide insurance for the workers. Small businesses are undoubtedly getting tied in knots by higher to do my bestoing to try to put the department of Small Business back on the side of those businesses and one reason i talk so much about healthcare and the the need for a singlepayer system is that it is a giant employerbased we are leading with her on the vine. Think about health care, the lowest wage workers all the way up and our entire workforce and get 13 hot ills we have allowed to close. We will not only stop them from closing but reopened the ones we have because we will control more of the money with him. Finally, we need like micro loans and financing. We have the ability to float debt that individual citizens dont have access to. This is where 65 of new jobs are created and this is where we need to revitalize. Many people would argue that the mayor is limited in their ability to actually create jobs. Is that the case . S to createe case jobs . Its a real thing the mayor can do to help sectors that are doing well to do even better and bring new ones. We talk a lot about the high tech sector and were very lucky the hightech sector sector is interested in new york city right now. Cornell coming here is terrific but i will not lose a minute sleep over the first cornell graduating class, but i do lose sleep over their future, so lets take the potential of hightech being interested in new york and when i am mayor, lets turn it into a pipeline for those jobs. Its possible we already started. We graduated the first class of the tech apprenticeship program, thertnership the between council and every one of those students got a fulltime, great paying job in the place they interned. Lets also use the power of city contracts to raise peoples wages and put more money in their pockets. Im so proud to have passed the prevailing wage and a living wage law. On day one, i will drop the lawsuits against those bills and put them into effect. [applause] to do more to support the Small Businesses out there. This program can help with that but we also need to move to make every first time find that is not about health or safety, make warning, not a financial violation, just like we will do with restaurants next month by law. Mr. De blasio. I want to bring you man, you have been supportive. To raisebout working wages for workers in the city ok. It disrupt or is going to be removed. Ok, great. Peaking about trying to raise wages and the city, its something you have certainly been supportive of them many have argued quite strenuously against it saying you may raise wages for some workers but at the expense of new jobs, that businesses cannot afford to hire new people at the have to pay their workers more. How do you strike the right balance . Wages would raising wages, at the expense . The expense . This has been deepening over the last few years and its on except the bull. Said 46 of new yorkers at or near the poverty level. Gottenhe situation has worse and worse, mayor bloomberg has fiddled while rome burned and has not address the inequality crisis. Its time for a very different approach and i have to say to mr. Thompson and ms. Quinn that it must include taxing the wealthiest new yorkers. Its necessary to start addressing this crisis particularly in education. We cannot do full day prek without additional investment and new investment. It is the city governments responsibility and we have many tools to do it. I have called or an end to subsidies for big companies. I thing this money would have been better spent on Financial Aid so that they could get the kind of degrees that would get them jobs in the tech sector. It would be better spent on loans for Small Business to create jobs at the grassroots level. Those are the types of progressive policies that address the inequality and we need them now. You talk about the subsidies and i think we have seen that the vast majority of these the subsidiesget dont create the jobs they originally promised. What we are doing is shelling out aliens to private corporations while neglecting cuny students and job training sites. We need to keep the money in the hands and develop our own Human Capital survey can truly create the jobs and get people the opportunities they need. Would there be any room for subsidies . Not subsidize corporations because you know what . The vast majority of jobs are being created by the private sector and its only a small of politically connected companies that get the subsidies. Lets level the Playing Field especially for the Small Businesses. Tax break andm a take it away from the multibillion dollar companies. Lets talk about a living wage in this city, something i ,upported as a councilmember controller. They refuse to support a living wage until the final days when it was apparent it was going to pass with or without them and Bill Thompson never even weighed in on the issue. I think he still opposed. People can stand up here and talk about anything they want, but you have to look up the record am mine is one of Economic Development and economic equality. Its not just about the quality but equity. Mr. Thompson, are you in favor of the living wage bill . I would like to come the publichat advocate indicated. When he talked about universal prek, i support it. Right now, money is sent back to the state of new york each and every year. Thats wrong. We need to redirect that money into universal prek. Tax inoposal is almost a search of an idea. Lets be honest about it. We want universal prek, but the only taxes i seem to remember you increasing when you were in the city council, 18 point five percent in property taxes and others that seemed to hit working new yorkers and middle class new yorkers so lets be honest with the public. This are going to have conversation, no more flip flopping when it is convenient for you. [applause] a response . Spoken thompson has not to Public School parents lately. Do they need fullday prek for their children, will it make a huge difference for their children . The answer is a resounding yes, so lets be clear. I have not heard mr. Thompson say he has a plan to right now finance fullday prek for every child in the city. I have submitted such a plan. It is not in search of a problem but ready to address a very real problem that parents cannot i and fullday prek and after School Programs to help keep them safe. They know we need this investment and asking the wealthy to do a little more is fair and just in terms of what we need to do for the future of our city. Mr. Thompson has not offered a plan to provide this help for children. Up, thank to wrap it you. Now we will turn to david chen. Do i get to talk at all . I havent spoken a while. Whats going on here yo . [applause] do i have to just jump in here . Is a lot of hot air loading around them by want to talk to, you know . Good evening, again. A reader emailed me this morning and said in her opinion, with the exception of the mayorrd, she thought bloomberg and ray kelly did a good job responding to crises that she has no idea how each of you would respond to a crisis. Lets play along for a second. It is summer 2014. Youre out of town on your first vacation as mayor, not in bermuda, presumably. In hear that power goes out new york city and you are not sure why. You think its a blackout that you dont know if its a natural disaster. You cannot get in touch with people. Thatou hear secondhand is power could be out for a few days. What do you do . Albanese, why dont we start with you . [laughter] first of all, let me come back to the question of inequality because im the only candidate we can get back to it later. There will be room for that. The waiving wage law was people 12 an hour. I think a lot of people are quite curious as to how you might handle a crisis if you can talk about the living wage later. I would rarely take a vacation as mayor. [laughter] i would stay on the scene to things worked perfectly. I think the city of new york had a crisis almost on a daily basis. You have to be in touch. I will have a deputy mayor for operations who will be well versed in dealing with a crisis, and i certainly would not let what happened during the snowstorm take place where everyone was on vacation back in december. I will be working very hard and vacations are going to be very rare. I will be in touch on a daily basis. Very, highly communicative society so i will be handson constantly. I will be in the neighborhoods and i will respond to emergencies myself because i would not be too far away from the city, if at all. Mr. Thompson, you have talked about being in france, if im not mistaken, so i would like to get your take on what you would do. You have been out of office for four years now. I dont think the mayor is going to leave me the plane. Will be within driving distance of the city. Part of this is also setting protocol ahead of time and making sure that we are ready, that the opposite of Emergency Management, the deputy mayor, the number one first deputy mayor is ready to go. Those are the things, not waiting until a situation occurs but being ready for the situation. We have seen in the last 15 years that almost everything happens to new york city and we have to be ready for any emergency that is planning, being heavier at being ready ahead of time, understanding the protocol, having the head of the fire, police, first deputy, others already. Thats what its about, not waiting but being ready ahead of time. Mr. Salgado. Vacationnt taken a out of the country in a while. I have six children. Its very costly when you want to leave the country. Andlast was in florida there was a storm and also an earthquake while i was on vacation. We decided to drive back and and that iswas good exactly where my church is out some a near coney island. We started to pray and the storm disappeared. I believe in that. That is why i say we have to do that for sure. Now, i have not spoken a while so you have to bear with me. It is precisely this kind of thatlist economic ideas kills jobs. Any working east during it did not work in eastern europe, cuba, and i dont think its going to work in new york city. They are talking about taxing weight, weight, mr. Wait, mr. Salgado why . Im going to switch to mr. Wiener. If you can finish your answer quickly, then i will go to mr. Wiener. The kind ofxactly socialist economic ideas that kill jobs. Soon we will be at zero percent like in cuba. These people invest in the money need to continue doing so. If we want equality, we have to concentrate and create more jobs. Have over 20 different storefronts closed because nobody wants to go into business anymore in new york city because everything is about taxing, ticketing, and people need to work. We need to in courage the Small Businesses to continue what they are doing and we have to let the people who invest money in the city to continue doing so so we can create more jobs and then the inequality economically in the city. Thank you. Mr. Wiener, you have a different perspective because you worked in the federal government so im curious what kind of experience you would bring to handling a crisis or whether you would do anything different from your associates have said so far. A lot of people in the city would dispute the idea that it is the only time when the mayor got it wrong when people in rockaway were digging out of their own homes and they were hearing stories about how the marathon would continue, it had a sense of discord that really struck people. One thing i would do would be to create an environment in the city thats different. Its not the city talking down an all fiber rose. For example, im going to fight for this as mayor, but we need to take some of the power lines down around some of these and put them underground so they dont get not down during every storm the people in Southeast Queens have floods when it rained, they have flooding through the community and the notion that the city is even ready for a stiff wind right now alone a bigd, let emergency. We need a mayor who understands all five boroughs and we dont have that right now. With me, we are going to do something else. Is going to be there on the Community Boards with the deputies, commissioners, the people in charge to hear about the challenges before they arrive. We will not wait for an emergency and then tell people to go one. Quinn, who do you call, what do you do . What would be your Decision Making tree when it it comes to Something Like this . City, iwas out of the would come back immediately regardless of disaster. If it is something we could see coming, obviously you would never leave in the first place. Second, we know just about every kind of disaster we could face in the city. As mayor, one thing i will make sure as we have clear plans in place from a citywide event how to deal with them but also plans broken down not just by bro or neighborhood but sec ears within neighborhoods of people who will be on the ground if Something Like this happens. We need to make sure every agency has its own plan and that we run tabletop on those plans over and over so people are ready. Reader wrote about a blackout but the truth is there are lots of other things that could happen and we need in advance be investing into the infrastructure that will prevent that. We need to get power lines underground. We need to fix up the city sewer system which is hundreds of hundreds of years out of date. We need to make sure we are moving to more alternative forms of energy so we are not such a drain on the grid every summer in the city and its critical to have both a first deputy mayor, a deputy mayor of operations, and a head of the office of Emergency Management to are the best that can possibly be as it relates to being on the job, clear, focused and crisis situation but, least of all, after you get out emma you have for youreal debris staff they are new yorkers. I would go and have town meetings and communities to find out what irks and what did not. [applause] let me swing this over to mr. Liu for second. I would like like to get your of the mayorsrt emergency plans you would keep and what you would scrap, i guess. Any kind of situation, whether it be ongoing or emergency, we need a strong Police Commissioner, fire commissioner, commissioner for Emergency Services and management. We need to have these individuals in place to we also need to be able to communicate. That is the premise of your question. What happens if communications go down . This administration has spent the better part of a decade trying to come up with in emergency 911 system. They spent 2 billion on the system and recently they had to revert back to paper and pencil to take down emergency calls. Myt would not happen under administration. And fact, the 911 system is something i raised alarms early about at tenure as controller to say it was a project i was so mismanaged and overblown that 1 billion overrun and we have a system that is not usable. Infrastructure is right emma but you start with Communication Systems so you can communicate with your Police Commissioner, fire commissioner, and you make sure that they can communicate with their own staff and communicate with each other. Number oneons is the priority in any kind of emergency situation and that is something i would never let fall by the wayside. Thank you. We saw that with sandy. We had a reactive government. For 10 years, they did nothing. People are ranting and raving, disgusted, shocked, dismayed its the government. You have the controller, the speaker, the public advocate you have a member of congress and their cost only outraged about the fact we didnt do anything . [cross talk] i had saved 4 billion as controller. Gentlemen, please. We are going to move on. It is now time for the cross examination where each candidate gets a chance to ask a question to one and one only of his or her opponents. Will go first. My question is for speaker quinn. There is a historically important vote in the city of the and after years overuse of stop and frisk and communities being alienated alienated from the police because of discriminatory treatment, because of unconstitutional policing practices, we have a chance tomorrow to take a major step in the right direction. The city council will have the chance to override mayor bloomberg ts veto. Previously, you voted against the ban on racial profiling by the nypd. You stood with mayor bloomberg against the ban on racial profiling. Will you tomorrow vote against the ban on racial profiling . City council, the something incredibly significant is going to happen. Were going to override the veto of legislation relating to stop and frisk and these overrides are going to put in and, a huge step towards putting an end to unconstitutional stops. Coupled with the courts actions and the work of activists all across the city. Unlike the public advocate whos really good at telling other people what to do but not always good at getting things done himself, tomorrow, i will put legislation in effect that will have permanent monitoring of our police department. The young man i met and talked to today on the steps of city hall, who told me on his way home from college he was stopped , we will be monitoring that so it will not happen. Lets also be clear about the factas a relates to the that the public advocate is misrepresenting tonight emma racial profiling is illegal in the city of new york, as it should the, and i support that. Is not to banrow racial profiling but to give individuals the opportunity to go to state court as well as federal court. We saw the ruling in federal court last week. We know people can get redress of their. Im afraid that if we have two courts involved that we would get contradict record decisions which will be tough for us to implement, but tomorrow, let me be clear. With my colleagues, im the one who will put legislation in practice, something you have not done, bill. I will pass a law to help us and unconstitutional stops period. [applause] there is a fundamental quinnsction in speaker position because she wants to keep ray kelly, the architect of stop and frisk, as her Police Commissioner and shes opposed to the legal ban on racial profiling. I just asked if she was going to vote yet again against the ban. I did not hear it particularly straightforward answer but i assume the answer is yes, tomorrow she will vote against the ban. I think the people of new york city as they make a decision about the future need to know if you are actually going to vote against a local law to help make sure the nypd stops profiling people of color and appropriately. Bill, again youre misrepresenting what this law is about. I want the watchers and viewers to know, because you are representing it, rachel racial profiling is already illegal, as it should be. This allows people to go to state toward an additional two federal court in addition to federal court. I will not vote to give state courts the ability to weigh in on our police apartment. Its appropriate in the federal court thomas lets not misrepresent. Today, by aling is, law passed by a former city Council Illegal and Public Advocates should stop misrepresenting that. [applause] salgado will ask the next question. By the way we are going to go in order, john liu. You and all of the other candidates were told in advance what this will be. Please no more inch interruptions. My question is for bill de blasio. I know Christine Quinn understood in the beginning and she went out but you were talking about this in the daily news and you said it was something that needs to be done in this city. Not need toy did have an identification card. You are the public advocate. Why were you not an advocate before for this idea . Do a lot in new york city right now to address the reality of immigrants around us who are not documented. They need support, too. We finally have an opening for some real change. The statedream act up level. We need to stay to also act on drivers licenses. People should have an opportunity to get a drivers license if they qualify regardless of documentation and we should have a city id card for those who choose to use one, even for those who are doneumented, as has been successfully like in cities like San Francisco and new haven. To actuallyelp embrace and support people who are living here but are not given the rights they deserve. Unfortunately, we cannot depend on washington ec to be fair to immigrants. New york city, the ultimate city of immigrants can lead the way and be an example and this is the moment when these things are finally possible and that is why i believe we need to redouble our efforts to achieve them. Lets embrace everyone regardless why would the advocate ado, you can control the question. You cannot control the answer. He did not answer it. Duly noted. My question is to bill de blasio. Bill, i think we all agree that stop and frisk is a serious issue and needs to be confronted seriously. The ad that you just put up a few days ago talks about how you are the only one in new york city of all of the candidates who will and the stop and frisk era, and minorities being profiled them that dust is not true, bill. Any of the people in candidates on this day to have come out and said that they would also eliminate stop and frisk. Or that they would make sure that the people are not profile. Bill, the New York Times has reported the ad is inaccurate. Why dont you take it down . It, i think about its important that you stop lying to the people of new york city. [applause] to end the crisis of stop and frisk, and the aero where people of color have been unfairly targeted and unconstitutional practices were taken place, we ave to do new things, getting new Police Commissioner, we need an independent and i emphasize the word independent Inspector General and we need a law ending racial profiling. We need all three of those things. Mr. Thompson, this agrees with the legislation that would give us an independent Inspector General and it would legally ban racial profiling. Ms. Twain disagrees, as we heard a moment ago, with the ban on racial profiling and wants to keep ray kelly as Police Commissioner. Im the only candidates who will do the three things to actually and the stop and frisk. Thats a fact and i stand by it. [applause] ms. Quinn. Comptrolleron is to thompson, a followup on the discussion weve been having so far. As you said, the New York Times has characterize the ad words as he is the only one who makes wrong. And and the and frisk as misleading and inaccurate. Are you satisfied with the answer you just got . [applause] thank you. [applause] clicks away to a street smart to allow that one. Way too street smart. Its nice to be popular. Not satisfied with the answer. If anything, you talk about your bill, i one, first, dont need legislation or lectures from you on this issue and i dont need legislation. It takes a man with courage and conviction to and stop him frisk end stop and frisk. We need to make sure the way to end the way it is used does not violate peoples cant use no right this is just a part of a pattern. Violates peoples Constitutional Rights. Wanted to beyou the speaker of the new york city council, you supported changing term limits through legislation. Itemsyou were against after you are no longer on the city council. When you were there, you were a huge beneficiary. If you go back and look at the tv show to tell the truth, will be real bill de blasio please stand up . [applause] in professional wrestling they allow tag teams. If we are going to do that here, i will say this. Its very clear, and mr. Thompson will remember the history clearly, i led the opposition to the mayors proposal on term limits. I led the action on the floor of the city council against it and it was the closest vote the history of the city council and im very proud to have stood up to the mayor when the speaker gave him a backroom deal to allow him to have a third term he should not have had. Mr. Thompson knows those are the facts. I think we have aired out the issue. John liu. We have two billy, latelys joining this issue when for months and years i have supported it. My question is to Bill Thompson. For a long time, the city was outsourcing all kinds of work left and right, bringing inexpensive consultants. I was very proud of the record i established of saving 4 billion of taxpayer money, a record that is very clear, a record that the public advocate does not have, a record the speaker does not have and under Bill Thompsons watch, this project was supposed to cost 63 million and by the time i took office, it had mushroomed to over 700 million i put a stop immediately to any more money going into that. What happened, bill . How did he get from 63 million to over 700 million . Youre the one who cuts the checks. What happened . The mayors contract was something that the mayor was focused on. I stayed on top of mayor bloomberg. I stayed on top of the person he had in charge, the budget director of the city of new york and pressured and posted them. The contract had expanded in scope, as you well know, which led to the escalation. Could i have done more . Absolutely. Could the mayor have done more . Definitely. Could the city council in providing supervision do more . A lot of things could have been done and were not. You not your point was made. Mr. Albanese. My question is for bill de blasio staffers tweeted out kill the police. Accurate right there. Let me finish my question. Decision butght you employ those staffers . Yes or no . You have given and inaccurate question and i will at. Give you a question looking farred to a day when wy can bring police and communityoa weck together. I have heard from so many heard precinct commanders off the record. So have immense respect for the men and women of n. Y. P. D. They are the a funny way of showing they need new policy that will actually support them. Mr. Wiener, your question. My question is for speaker quinn. I have a question about the Slush Fund Scandal i dont think has been asked or answered yes. Almost 5 million. You, yourself, mentioned it was for your political leverage. , money used, our taxpayer money, that it be released. You said you were not going to do that. But answer one question. During the period of this time, bill de blasio was a member of your negotiating team, so there during,urprises before, or after the primary election. Can you assure us that he is not implicated in any way, that there is no mention of him in anyway . If there is no release of the report, can you at least assure us of that . First, i am not sure of what talkingr. Weiner is about. What we have has been turned over to the authorities and looked out. This isaspersions on just outrageous, and i want to make it very clear that anything that mr. Weiner is trying to point to, i do not have any idea what he is talking about, and i think it is really unfortunate. [applause] question, letthe me say to the speaker, when i became speaker, did i inherit a very problematic budget process . Yes, and i did exactly what you want a leader to do. When i found out about that problematic practice, i reported it to the authorities and asked them to investigate it. I stopped it, and then i reformed the entire process relating to discretionary funds. It is now heralded by one of tonights sponsors as one of the best is not the best way to distribute money to community groups. Look, if you are mayor, we all are not going to have any idea going to come across our desk, but what you want in a mayor is someone who admits a problem, asks for help, does an investigation, stops what is wrong, and fixes it, and that is what i did, and i am very proud of it. [cheers and applause] assuming you are being sarcastic when you say i cast aspersions. Three of your members went to jail on your watch, and you refused to release the product, so i asked the question so there are no lastminute surprises in these elections. You have it. Just say de blasio it. Just say that mr. De blasio is not included, just say that mr. De blasio is not in it, and we are done. Year d for the more law year attorney. Probably follow up. There wasmove on, something in the press that involve the public advocate and his wife, and i went to give you the opportunity, which you can decline, if you like, to clear the air. There were some statements about Christine Quinn. There was some backandforth about whether it whether it was reported accurately or not, and there was an exchange of letters, a lot of confusion. Say i have want to no idea what he was talking about, and i want to say thank you for his response. The statement and the call him times is ayork misquote. It is very clear. My wife meant no offense. It was so we had afterSchool Programs for our children, and she simply disagreed with the approach that speaker quinn has taken on that issue, and i think it was a respectful and and intive statement, the case of my wifes comment, it was from a parent, speaking about what parents need in the city and what they are your thing to see in the politics moving forward, which we have not seen in the bloomberg years. I think it was substantive and respectful. The comments, as they were fully reported and corrected by the colonists are ones, i have to say, i found very hurtful and upsetting because they basically raised the question of whether or not the fact that i do not have children is relevant to how hard i would fight for families. First of all, i fight as hard as anyone in the city of new york for families and children. That is why next month, we will have mandatory kindergarten in the city of new york, at the real issue here is there are many reasons why some families have children and some families do not. Medical reasons, financial reasons, professional reasons, and my wife and i both lost our motherss when we were young girls, so the decision is a deeply personal one, and i just think this is obviously the attack we have seen in this kind of a political race, but raising someones family, and we in new york have families of all shapes and sizes. It should have never happened, and it was very hurtful in my household. [applause] i wish people would look at the accurate statement which was now put out by the New York Times, not allowing a vote, opposing a tax, and it is not personal, it is substantive. All right, lets have our lightning round. Lets start with anthony weiner, and the first question will be this question will be, yes. Someone may have a short answer, as well. Should all Public Employees be required to live in the city . No. No. No. Lets start with mr. Albanese this time, have you been to a baseball game this season . I have not this season. I have, yes, not major league though. Yes, once. No. This season. No time for baseball this year, sadly. No, sir. Ok, we will start with john liu. Should there be more surveillance cameras in our city . Yes. Yes. Yes. No. Yes. Ms. Quinn, have you ever texted while driving . [laughter] no. Yes, i have. I have stopped doing it though. I have a driver, so i am allowed to. That is a good answer. My wife is sitting in the front road, and if i said no, she would laugh me out of the house. Yes, i have sinned. I have stopped now the. Mr. Albanese . [applause] it is a tough act to follow. No. Mr. Liu . I have, but i have never smoked pot. We will start with mr. Thompson, do you have a metra card in your parket . Yes. No. Bs. Yes. I have got mine, too. Ms. Quinn, in your pocket or purse . In my pocket book. Have you ever taken the subway without paying . No. No. No. Yes, but had my school bus pass. No. No. If you arelasio, elected, will you live in Gracie Mansion . I will let the people decide that. That was not a yes or no. Held yes. My wife and i, we love our house, but we will be glad to live there. I think it is a jinx to answer questions like that before you have the option to move in, so i will not answer. It is the peopless house, so, yes. Mr. Wiener, if you have to have one of your rivals on the stage to work in your administration, who would it be, and what job would you give him . In charge ofse Early Childhood development. Thank you, mr. Mayor. Who would i select . The reverend. Chaplain. Mr. Liu . Freshill be looking for people with new faces. Nobody. Ms. Quinn. Bill thompson to make sure the minority owned businesses of women get to the best level. I do not think i am taking any jobs in the administration. If it was, reverend salgado in faithbased development. To all ofoffer a job them, but i do not know if they will accept them. Take one, and give them a job. Pick one . I would like to say sal albanese , but i do not have a proposal. In what job . I would have to think about it. I respect my colleagues, but i also would be looking for an all new team. I have my own plan. I do not support the bloomberg measure. I did, because it would have provided more out of bro transit. Yes. Not now. The mayor approve of bloomberg proposal, no. Mr. Wiener, no. Mr. Liu, have you taken a book out of the Public Library this year. It was for my son. I have not. Absolutely not. [laughter] i have not have the chance. I have a bookstore as my business, so i do not need to. Out aave driven to take book, but i did not text while driving. Mr. Wiener . No. Should students be allowed to have cell phones in school . Absolutely. Definitely. Yes, but not in the classroom. They should check them in and check them out. It should be up to their parents, but yes. Yes. Should, mr. Thompson, should you be free to drink a beer on your own . Yes. At all. Er yes. Yes, and i should be able to drink them on the beach and at a park, two. Yes. Yes. Let me ask one more, and then we will move on to our other questions. Should helmets be mandatory for bike riders . Yes. It should be for a city sponsored program, and that is something that will keep us with bike riders and pedestrians safe. No. Yes. Strongly encouraged but not mandatory. Enough of the nanny state. No. Thank you, candidates. Lets get back to our central questions, and we will get through as many as we can in the time remaining. Our time is growing short, and we have to allow time for closing statements, and if i interrupt, it is for that reason and that reason only. Avenue are years from now, it 80 years from now, what is going to be your legacy . The mayor bloomberg options for the city with the pedestrian plaza and bicycle lanes and smoking free areas, what would be your physical imprint in this guideline, on the street of new york city . Mr. Thompson . Be rememberede to for education, and, obviously, if there is a physical part, it would be more schools and schools that are in better shape, but i want my legacy to be new york citys Education System being better, that the achievement gap be closed at schools, and if you want to talk physical plants, that schools are not closed any longer, that we have turned those schools around, that young people are able to do collegelevel work, that they are able to go off and do jobs. The physical plant, i would say schools built, but the truth is education. That is what i want to be remembered as. Mr. Wiener . They talked about how bloomberg transformed the skyline by shiny new market rate housing. The challenge facing the middle. Lass may not be things that go this is the guy who wanted to i think we have to improve our schools, things that do not go into a diorama on the first page, but things that citizens can see and touch that are real. Most new yorkers watching this program will not be able to move into the market rate housing of michael bloomberg. That is the problem. I do not care if it is big or small, but we need it for them. I want to be remembered as a mayor who fought for all of the inhabitants of new york city, especially those who are basically enslaved in this modern kind of slavery, where there are millions of latinos is himve that slavery polished. Dr. Reverend Martin Luther king fought for his people. I want to remember be remembered for the latino people. Thank you. We are talking about this because we know we have challenges with Climate Change, and we are going to have to change the way new york looks. Changes are not about the appearance of the city. I want to be known as the mayor who created jobs. We have an Unemployment Rate that is higher than the National Average. We have jobs that are being created, but for some reason, the Unemployment Rate continues to go up, and it is not just because people are coming to new york. Fix thee need to situation. We have got to bring down unemployment. We also have to bring down unemployment disparities, because i would like to be known just not as the man who created the jobs but to afford opportunities to everybody on a level Playing Field, an equal opportunity is what we need to restore for the city of new york. I want to be remembered as the mayor with the capital of common sense, the capital of capital ofth a culture. We should be the common sense city. I want to be remembered as somebody who put lands into place to make sure that the city can survive the next hundred years. Our infrastructure, we have to protect our shoreline and our power grid. This is not the thing that gets you votes, but it is very important create i want to prepare the city for the next 100 years. When i leave the city, i want people to say that i made the place a better place, in terms of schools and in terms of treating people fairly. At the end of my eight years in office, one of the most important things would be to see that there is more people in the middle class than there are at the beginning of my term. That is one thing i am going to want to fight for and make sure happens, more folks in the middle class. Two, at the end of those eight have, i want them to 40,000 more apartments that they can live in, and i am going to take efforts to bring rent down to make sure middleclass people can stay in new york city. We want to make a housing livable for the 600,000 folks who live there are living and quality conditions. Schoolto lengthen our day and stop spending millions on textbooks and spend more on tablet so schools are in the 21st century and make new york Climate Change ready. Change . Ajor in the skyline of the city . The challenge of our times is addressing the inequality of the city, and there are ways of doing it. It is not about building fancy new skylines and luxury condos preit there is pressure to close down community hospitals, so what i want to do is protect unity hospitals, build Affordable Housing over the next 10 years by striking a new balance with the Real Estate Industry where the public comes first rather than the developers, so we can actually get fullday prekindergarten and devote ourselves to that and after school, and these are the policies that invest in Human Capital, that make sure we are a city that is not going to accept 46 of our People Living at or near the poverty level, but that we are creating a city for everyone again. Do, but lot we have to the mayor of new york city has a lot of resources. My focus is on ending inequality in new york city. Thank you. Now, it is time for closing statements. We will start with will de blasio, and we will time you for one minute. Please keep it to their. I will pick it up. We are living a tale of two cities, people at or near the poverty level, and our middle class is disappearing. We need a real break from the bloomberg years. Instead of more luxury condominiums, we need a plan for Affordable Housing, as i said, and a plan to Save Community hospitals, because health care has to be available to people locally. When you need the emergency room, you need to know that it is nearby, and i devote myself this. Tecting and the stop and frisk, that has so unfairly targeted people of color. We have to stop living a tale of two cities, and we cannot leave any new yorker behind, and that is what i would do as mayor of new york city. I am not a politician. I am just a new yorker. It is very difficult. I have been discriminated against and for economic reasons. The Quinnipiac University does yet,ant to include me, and there is 37 in the Republican Party. I believe it is essential for all new yorkers to be able to actually come and serve and then go back to the private sector. Any new not allow yorker to be able to do so, we are putting ourselves in jeopardy. I believe we have to stop stop and frisk, and i believe my addressed. Ve been so, yes, we have to be very involved, and we have more than 900 87,000 registered latino democrats. It will be me and Christine Quinn in the runoff. You. Ank mr. Thompson. Two weeks ago, the scores came out, and the truth became apparent. More than 80 of our black and latino students were not performing on level. The were not deemed by scores as competent, and so many of our children, it is clear that the Education System was not suiting them, was not performing for our young people. I am the school of a new york city Public School teacher. My mother taught for 30 years. I believe education is the greatest way we can turn inequality around in the city of new york. Thent to fix schools in city, not close them. I want to make sure we work with our teachers and principals, not demonize them. I want to bring parents in and have them work with the School System so it serves their children. I do not want to be the education mayor. It is not about me. I want to make new york the education city. It is about you and our one million children and providing a Better Future for each and everyone of you. That that is why i want to be the mayor of the city. Thank you. Ms. Quinn . Thank you. My entire career, i have fought and delivered for new yorkers, fighting to help people get to the middle class and stay there, and that is what i am going to do as mayor. I am going to fight to give them the best shot they have. I am going to keep this the safest large city in america, and i am going to do it while ending unconstitutional stop and frisk. I am going to use the power of our neighborhoods for Economic Development to bring good jobs in every neighborhood, particularly those neighborhoods that have been left behind. I am going to take head on the affordability crisis. People cannot find homes and apartments they cant afford, so i am going to make sure we build more Affordable Housing, improve the housing authority, and get new york city over its own rent law. We are the greatest city of the world, and we can be even greater when we create more opportunity for folks to move into the middle class. That is what i have done my entire career, delivered for new york, and that is what i am going to do for mayor, and i ask for your vote tonight. Thank you. Applause]d mr. Liu. I am an unlikely candidate for mayor, getting my degree in physics, spending most of my adult career outside of governmental politics, but i entered politics because i wanted to see a change creates i wanted to make a difference, and as City Council Member and controller, i am proud of my record, shaving taxpayer money so Additional Service cuts and reductions would not be necessary, and looking at our investment record, i am very proud of the last fiscal years of 58 investment return on our Pension Funds and creating jobs by accelerating our Capital Construction plan. I have talked about, and i intend to enact changes that are very progressive for the city of new york and that level the Playing Field and include more people. I am proud to be the consistent progressive candidate in this race, and i need your help. Spanish] gracias. Gracias. Albanese mr. . I am proud to be the only one not taking money from city hall. That i have to make a statement about Public Safety because it has been politicized in this campaign. The fact of the matter is that we all agree that there were killed many steps. The department had made headway. Stops had declined 30 in the city because of the great training that the department has theived, and we are on right track, and i am concerned about my opponents in this race, that they are doing things that are going to handcuff our Police Officers and cause them to sit around twiddling their farms. Officersmon sense that have the right, have the right to stop someone if they believe there is reasonable suspicion, and i do not think we should play politics with the police of this city like we are doing in this campaign. I am horrified that all of my colleagues demonize Police Officers. They compare them to a George Zimmerman vigilante. Some of them are compared to not nazis. Ot see thank you. Mr. Wiener . Soon, it would be your turn create you get to decide what you want in the new mayor, and if you want more of the same, you have got plenty of choices on this stage, but if you believe we need a fighter for the middle class and someone with a specific land, here it is. We need to take 20 of the housing and reserve it to the middle class. We need to protect Police Officers, who are required to wear cameras on their lapels, recording what they do. We need to restore jobs, cover everyone, and save taxpayer money. We need to get back to basics in our schools and restore discipline so teachers can teach and students can learn, and we need to pay teachers a little bit more to take the toughest assignments in the School System, something that some have opposed. Look, we need a real plan. We do not need more of the same. My name is anthony weiner, and i want to be your mayor. Thank you. Question, this will be one of our lightning round type of responses, and we will go right down the line, starting. Ith mr. De blasio make your location known at all times, including on weekends and vacations . Yes. Yes. Yes. And i vacation in the rockaways. Yes. Let me try another one. If you could be mayor of another city anywhere, what would it be . Irishould be mayor of the riviera, rockaway, new york. Chicago. I do not know of any other city like new york. There is nowhere else. Whofter new york city, would want to be mayor of any other place . If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere, so you should stay here. Let me try another one, a quick one. Every year, the budget process leaves threats to cut very important services, including senior centers. If elected, what is one agency or service that you would want to make offlimits baseline or by any other means to take it out of the annual budget gap . Nothing. School system. Notou cannot say there are cuts in every agency. Every agency has areas. If you could take one out, what would it be . I went to cut out waste, and i want to cut out where they are in efficient. If there is an agency that should be left out, our seniors. No cuts in Senior Citizens services. One area that is morally wrong to cut is services for homeless and runaway youth, and i would add to it over the years. Thank you, very much, candidates. That is all the time we have for this debate. I want to thank you for joining it, and here is a reminder that the general election is november 5, and another reminder, along with these debates, there is the official nonpartisan voter guide, and this has introduced a new mobile platform which makes this available at your fingertips. That is available at the so much for thanks watching. Have a great evening. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] when[inaudible conversations] our road to the white house coverage continues friday with the speech by texas senator at a New Hampshire gop fundraiser live on cspan at 7 00 p. M. Eastern. Tomorrow night on cspan encore presentation of first ladies. Frances cleveland is just so popular. People are imitating her. Theyre really just want a piece for themselves. We always felt as if we and the first lady. And so pictures of the first lady became extremely popular. You can purchase your own picture of ms. Cleveland to have in your home. She is used in campaigns. While we have Grover Cleveland running for president , we also have mrs. Cleveland running for first lady. The encore presentation continues tomorrow night at 9 00 eastern on cspan. Especial book tv Program Continues in a few moments with a look at the civil war in the summer of 1863. The author of a chain of founder, and novel of the defeat at vicksburg. After that an interview in london. And in about two hours. Now jeff shaara talks about his book a chain of thunder which examines the civil war battle in the summer of 1863. The author of several historical novels he spoke from the more than an hour in jackson, mississippi. The reason for me to be in jackson this time more so than in the weather is what took place about 40 miles west of here which is what i want to talk about tonight at vicksburg. I mean, this is quite a story and it is a story that some people around here dont know. That is great fun for me, but i need to start out talking about something that i always mention. Whenever i am doing in the event like this, i am quite sure that at least some of you have some interest in the civil war for one reason because some time many years ago you wrote a book called the killer angels. Every time i say that people not there had. If you have no idea what that is , thats okay. Is not required. We will explain it to you. Threatened by my father, cannot in 1974. It is the story of the battle of gettysburg. Now, with the killer angels is not is the history of the battle of gettysburg. This is not a history book will. Its a story as told to you from the characters themselves. The people is decisions determine that there will even be a battle of gettysburg. I mean, these of the people whose decisions made that history. The reason we know about can is byrd today. My father took you there to that battle to put you in their heads until do the story the way would tell it. Nobody has ever done that before. Every major History Department as the civil war guy. There is the british guy and the roman guy and the medieval guy. Florida State University as the civil war guy. Who are you . The killer angels a book that should never have been written. A year after that a marvelous thing happens to live on the. The telegram comes deciles. Congratulations. The killer angels as been awarded the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. I dont know if he took that telegram over to the history apart and at Florida State and lack the guy in the face. They still werent friends. Any of the it wins a Pulitzer Prize as the right to believe end of the vietnam war. Nobody in this country want to read this book about generals. A crushing blow to an was that the killer angels faded away. If youre a civil war but in the 70s. Faded away into 1993. 1993, the movie gettysburg came down which is based on the killer angels. The great risk. Millions of dollars to put the puck on screen. Five years after my fathers death. He did not live to see that. Turners people came to me and said, ted wants to make more movies. Bill both directions before and after. All is about the movie. I was a businessman in tampa. I started working on the prequel going before gettysburg back to the beginning of the war. Headsaw the same characters my father used. From people like stonewall jackson, fabulous character. Billy and fun and started putting together. Someone else would adapt for a screenplay. Up with the store and get a using my fathers kind of research, the original material. Tyrees, memoirs, collections of letters. I remember that from my fathers writing. Whenever i come up with is lousy because in the trash. They take my phone call on writing the prequel. You ought to send this. The phone call i got was we dont care if its a movie. We like the book. We think youre a writer. Heres a contract. That changed my whole life. Does not exaggeration. Out 13 books later, yeah, it definitely changed my. The point of those stories, the magic of the killer angels, what my father did is he was able to take you with him back to a time where you could see the story in no way you have never seen it before. You dont get that from a modern biography your history book. That is not what historians to. Historians tell you the facts and figures. Get the story straight. My father did it very differently. What i began to hear when i was talking about those books and then i began to get a different sources, back to the mexican war it amazed me how many people did not know that there was a mexican more. We fought mexico. The key to the mexican war is who took part. All these generals you know from the 1860s. There were like young lieutenants. Some of them clueless about being a soldier. Thats a good story. All that in school, but the really know the story . That is when i have fun and really sort of fit the ground running really begin to enjoy getting into the hands of these characters. Coming into the war on our side and saving gas. The british, the finest army and navy in the world. Defeating is until the french came in and join us thats the story most people dont know. I began to hear from audiences. Thats fine. And thinking, okay. What story dont you know . How about a world war one. A sense statement to make. World war to resemble one, movies, then make them today. The hundreds and hundreds. I can count on one hand. Paths of glory was people dont know about the drolen the red baron. The marines. Youve heard of them. I bet you dont know the story. What the marines accomplished, they say paris. Responsible for the germans now winning the war by capturing pairs. Black jack pershing. I think you get the point. If i can find these characters, if i can find a story you dont know, i would be excited about that. Hopefully it gets you excited as well and makes you want to read the book. I was a little hesitant about that. What can i tell you . You dont know. Back to what i just said. You find the story of north africa. We dont go the year. We get a bucket. Thats not a movie hollywood will make a lot because its not a movie americans want to see, but its whats happening. It was interesting. I cant tell you how many people wrote to me and said, i did not want to like rumble. You cant help it. Hes a good character. I was going to do correa. Have been getting a lot of letters and talking about career for years now. Started getting on my case. If we are getting older. People talk about a world war two. Carey is right there with them. I understand that. Most americans know about kerrey is nash. Really not about korea and all of vietnam. Hawkeye, try saying that to a general in 1951 and watch what happens to you. Its 1970s. Inchon, the value river. These are stories that are important to a great many americans. What about the story of truman and macarthur, the relationship. Talk about people who are not friends. History making stuff. A store and most americans dont know. Am excited about doing korean. Then this thing comes along in 2011, the sesquicentennial of the civil war. Of 150th anniversary, and im talking to my publisher. You know, we could probably take another look at civil war. I have sort of done a step in the east. I cant tell you how many letters ive gotten from people in mississippi and tennessee have said, you know, we are kind of tired of hearing about robert e. Lee in virginia. There were whole lot of stuff that goes on west of the Appalachian Mountains that no one ever talks about. One character jumped out at me. I cantor of this came out to you with some hesitation. I was in atlanta last night. Whenever already heard from people, what he did is one thing. Who he woolens is an interesting man. Hes not the nicest guy in the world. And dont try to gloss that over. A lot of people in the 1860s still fog of war as this spat between gentleman. He stood up with honor and face your phone and all of that stuff that had gone on for hundreds of years. Sherman understood it changed. Hes right. The idea of using him as a pivotal character, very interesting. A lot of places a very important during the civil war. The first one of those was shiloh. So the book a blaze of glory which came out last year deals with the battle. Each of these books comes out. The last year was shiloh. When i get into the research was surprised. Sherman and you would be a character. And then there was the other character, the pau confederate police, a character that i was not all the familiar with. A lot of view of glacier and not all the familiar. Is death changes the course of history. Thats not an exaggeration. Im talking about Albert Sidney johnston. If you dont know anything about him, thats fine. Most people dont. Johnson was the commander at shiloh, the confederate commander. He does not survive the battle. The reason that is important is in the confederate hierarchy Albert Sidney johnston of rings robert e. Lee. When i posit to you and will debate with any historian, in the summer of 1862 les given command of the army of Northern Virginia by Jefferson Davis on the virginia peninsula it is highly likely that if robert Sidney Johnston was alive who by the way happens to be Close Friends with Jefferson Davis, the likely and proper that that command would, instead, have gone to oversee the just and and we never would have robber really. Theres a flip side to that. At the time of justice death on april 61862 and about 3 00 in the afternoon his army is winning the battle. Theyre carrying the day. What hes trying to do is keep his people between grants army in the Tennessee River were grants base is. If he can cut them off grant is no word ago. He will i destroy the army and it will have to surrender. Enormous victory for the confederacy if it happens that my. At the time of johnstons death it was happening. No, had it happened we never would have heard of Ulysses Grant. That would have been the end of his career. Were talking about the 18th president of the united states. Thus the way history changes sometimes by and make of a piece of lead in the back of Robert Sidney jones me that clips an artery and the bleeds to death without even knowing his dying. And a simple tourniquet would have saved his life. He had one in his pocket. It did not know. Thats the kind of story. The spot where you usually hear about the battle of shiloh. Is not about what regiment it was. Its about the people. The of the part of this, and this carries for, when i got to world war one, got into the 20th century, up until that point all these books, fathers books had been told from the top to how. The generals, with the head guy. When you get to the 20thcentury that does work in more. One of the things, the problem, one of the reasons is killed at shiloh, one of the final breed of people. The generals who lead from the front. Not a good idea. By world war one the generals and figured that out and realize its not a good idea to lead from the front. The sting back there. The problem with that from a story power of you, you cant tell the story from the top down the generals are 10 miles behind the line. You need that kind who is out front. Who is it . Its the kid, the 19yearold kid with the springfield of a musket or the m1. Thats the story you need to tell. I get into the 20th century. Very important to find that character and not just the general. I liked that a lot. Going back to the civil war, did not trust go back to the generals again. I found the kid who in the 16th wisconsin regiment and is buddies and what they go through and china. Power carries forward to vicksburg and to the victor story. The expert story, the book is called a chain of thunder. It just came out. This book really surprised me for couple reasons. I knew the history, but a lot of people dont. Theres a reason for that. And the reason is going to be illustrated this year more graphically than at any time in recent memory because its the 150th anniversary. Its also the 150th anniversary of the battle of gettysburg. The reason that is significant, that to happen at the same time. Well, today we call them media centers. Even in 1863, where was get expert . Within 100 miles of washington d. C. In philadelphia and baltimore. Not that much further from richmond. Thats where all the reporters and photographers are. The expert is in the middle of nowhere. Think about 1863. If the middle of nowhere. There are not hordes of newspaper reporters and photographers, certainly not on the confederate side. It gets overlooked. This huge news event. Expert, you can make the argument that what happens if expert by opening up the Mississippi River to the union is far more important to the war than what happened to kendis per you can debate that, and i have heard debates about that. Tiresome debates about that, but the point is it is important. It is a really not only does a seven the confederacy in two. Suddenly texas, arkansas, most of louisiana is cut away. You cannot get there in more. And so all those supplies, the food, the manpower coming from the mississippi to the confederacy coming east stops. Does not happen anymore. Union controls the river. The other thing is the expert is of real hope. The growth coming from the east stopped at the river. Things would come back for. That stopped because now the union army controls the railroad. They cut it on. You cannot underestimate the power of rage and real rooms during the civil war. Itd have trucks. It was reason gallons. The union army by capturing expert stops all that from that whole part of the country. The other part of this is now the Mississippi River is wind up for the union army to use, the union need be used to transport material, man, food, equipment, whatever they needed to the south. It very definitely is the beginning of the end for the confederacy. A lot of people in the confederacy know this. There are the book to that effect, but that is the history lesson. You have people like john pemberton. He is not a favorite sun. In fact, hes not a sign at all because hes from pennsylvania. A little irony there because a lot of the soldiers, the confederate soldiers who served under pemberton at vicksburg are not really happy about the fact that this guy from pennsylvania marys a woman from virginia which is why he pledges his allegiance to the confederacy. Theres an awful lot of suspicion before, during, and after the fall of vicksburg that that is really sort of the plan all along. Pemberton really was going to sell us out. Theres no evidence that was the case saddle. I believe he was an honorable man. I just dont believe he was a very competent general, and there are lots of examples. I have a question. What was his problem . Well, i can tell you one thing. He was a micron manager. The problem when you are micron manager, you have to micromanage your managing every detail. Heber forget some of the expense of others. A great example, he gets into a fight with the local farmers because in the Confederate Army the rules are, you show the court and delivered to us and backs as whose kernels of corn cannot ears of corn. Now, as silly as that sounds, its a big fight that he has with the local farmers. So the warehouses do not have corn. Could have filled them up. He didnt. One example. The confederate engineers, marvelous character the fortifications. He tells pemberton, need showmans. He forgets about that. Ignores it. Trying to date these earthworks. Little things like that. The whole war as long as. A real good example of a bid thats one person. Joseph johnston, the other confederate, primary confederate , you know that justin is here in jackson, defense among the union troops come across mississippi. But then he decides not to. They of the union officers. Military value. A town made primarily of wood. You pick this building the burners 15 around it, you know more than anyone else what happens. Of course, thats what happens. Jackson is it becomes a city of chimneys. Ulysses grant, love him or hate him, if you have to understand what grand accomplishes in his capture. We credit the germans in world war ii with a tactic known as the blitzkrieg. The germans invented that. It was invented by Ulysses Grant in 1863 because that is what he does across the state of mississippi. When he finally crosses the river into mississippi and comes through and raymond and jackson, he does it in a remarkably short amount of time. John pemberton cannot get his act together to keep up with it. Thats how they end up there. Pemberton never had a chance. When the confederate troops fall back into the works from the interesting thing takes place. Its very different from what happens at most battles and the confederacy. That is the presence of the civilians. A great comparison to make between vicksburg, fredericksburg virginia. December of 1862. Robert e. Lee behind the town up in the hell. Burnside across the rappahannock the town of flintridge burgers and the way, right of the metal. Against a tenant tells them, get out. They listen to him. Is this sense seen the of this wagon train of refugees tottering wagons, people hauling everything they can carry. Their families. This town becomes empty when the battle takes place. At vicksburg theyre given the same opportunity. They stay. They believed msg the soldiers, it is impregnable. Look at the river. Were up on these high bluffs. Nothing the navy can do about that. We have so much artillery, your toast if you try to come by these. The couple we have done that in the countryside. You know, over 30,000 troops here. The army is right there. Great. This is perfect. n . ÷ncoo