Running For Mayor After Your Friend Cashed In On You Being Speaker
An Inept Attempt By the NYT To Clean Up Issues That Will Be Used By Her Mayor Opponents
Will Lobbyist Emily Giske Will Become NYC's Jack Abramoff?Quinn Friendship May Pose Test in Mayoral Bid(NYT) Quinn, the City Council speaker, is close friends with Emily Giske, a lobbyist, and the relationship will be tested ahead of the 2013 mayoral contest. * Lobbying City Hall is a significant business for Ms. Giske’s firm, Bolton-St. Johns. In recent years, the company has reported earnings of $2 million to $3 million annually while lobbying the city government, billing its clients nearly $15 million in the six years since Ms. Quinn was elected speaker. Quinn blocked paid sick day measure supported by Council members, benefiting fast-food joints repped by Giske firm
NYT Did Not Get Into How Much Money Giske Clients Contributed to Quinn's Campaigns
The Highline on of Giske's many clients has given Quinn Big Bucks Christine Quinn gives your cash to West Side project - and gets campaign money (NYDN) Quinn Funded the High Line Through the Slush Fund and Got Campaign Contributions From Developers Whose Property Values Shot Up By the Building of the Trendy Park
Quinn Pay to Play Friend Giske and the Taxi Industry Nets Her Campaign $$$ To Limit Pedicabs
Quinn Wielding Her Clout in Contest Over Pedicabs - The New York Su * In 2006, the taxi committee, which represents taxi medallion owners, paid Bolton-St. Johns $98,000 to lobby the council on a variety of issues, including the pedicab bill to limit the number of pedicabs on city streets. In 2011 Quinn got over $30,000 from the taxi industry
Ms. Quinn and other council members have directed hundreds of thousands of dollars to nonprofit organizations that Bolton-St. Johns represents, including most recently Care for the Homeless; the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center; and the Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation. Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center, also represented by Ms. Giske, has received capital financing from the Council in the last two budgets. *Quinn’s Friendship With Lobbyist May Pose Test in Mayor Bid (NYT)
Much More to the Quinn Keogh Slush Fund Story Will Come Out During the Mayoral Campaign
Ms. Quinn criticized two of her staff members for continuing the practice of holding money in reserve accounts after she had ordered it stopped. After they left her employ, one of them, Michael Keogh, took a job at Bolton-St. Johns. Ms. Quinn was surprised by Mr. Keogh’s move and unhappy about it. Ms. Giske was upset over news accounts suggesting that the lobbying firm had given Mr. Keogh a soft landing, according to Mr. Adler. In 2009 right after he was pushed out of the speakers office because of the slush fund investigation Keogh was listed as top lobbyists for Boltonn St. Johns for the Highline.
