Just weeks after trouncing Councilman Charles Barron (D-East New York) to be re-elected as Council Speaker, Councilwoman Christine Quinn (D-Chelsea) stripped Barron of his position chairing the Higher Education Committee. In a near repeat of the 48-1 vote in the Speaker race, the Council voted 47-1 to demote Barron. In both instances, Barron cast the only vote in his favor.
Barron told the Daily News that Quinn's move to demote him was "racist" and said "[t]his shows that she is vindictive; she is punitive; she's a dictator," according to the Post. In his campaign against the Speaker, Barron — who had lead the Higher Education Committee since he was elected in 2002 — argued that because minorities now constitute the majority in the Council, the Speaker should be a minority. He gained no support from his Council peers, though his backers heckled politicians who voted against him with chants of "Uncle Tom" and "sell-out."
The Daily News editorializes in support of Quinn's decision to strip Barron of his position as committee chair, calling the politician "a one-time Black Panther who is given to racial views and to a nonsensically divisive confrontational style." Quinn also demoted Councilman Vincent Gentile (D-Bay Ridge) from the finance committee after he opposed her on term limits and congestion pricing. She hasn't said much about the issue, noting only: "I believe it's important to have committee chairs who are unifying forces." The Observer reports that the Higher Education Committee will now be chaired by Ydanis Rodriguez (D-Washington Heights).
