Councilwoman Christine Quinn was re-elected as Council Speaker yesterday in a lopsided, 48-1 victory over Councilman Charles Barron, who cast the only vote on his behalf. Though Quinn's victory doesn't come as a big surprise, AMNY reports that the scene inside City Hall became chaotic when a dozen Barron supporters gathered on a second floor balcony and heckled black councilmembers who didn't vote for the East New York politician with chants of "sell-out," "Uncle Tom," and "Charles Barron for speaker!"
Before the vote, Barron addressed the newly-elected Council — where minorities now constitute the majority — and said: "We owe it to our children to stand up like men and women and say our time has come." According to the Daily News, he added: "And to bring up race doesn't mean that you're anti anyone, you are pro you. And to be pro us doesn't mean to be anti-white or anti anybody else. But I do think that it is time that we elect one of us to be speaker in this body."
After the vote, the Barron supporters — who the Councilman insists came on their own accord — were escorted out of by police. As they were leaving, one of them "asked loudly when Quinn would get 'indicted' for 'that slush fund,'" though Quinn seemed unfazed, the Observer reports. After the hecklers left, she gave a speech emphasizing the value of diversity in City Council. "[Just] as this City Council looks very different from the Councils of old, we have governed differently too," she said. "We have pioneered a new politics of inclusion, bringing together diverse stakeholders and traditional opponents in unprecedented ways. We've pushed the definition of bipartisanship far beyond the realms of Democrat and Republican."
