Yetta Kurland, who is rapidly gaining on incumbent, Christine "Bloomberg" Quinn, is having a hard time debating Christine Quinn because Quinn seems too scared to debate. Quinn has been a no show to four debates, showing not only her fear of debating Kurland, but also he disdain for the community she claims to represent. This comes from the Kurland campaign:

'Speaker Quinn Ducks Out Of Four Important Debates on Issues she Claims Leadership on in Her Platform for Re-Election Including Education, LGBT Youth, Good Government and Community Preservation'

New York, NY. Tuesday, September 6, 2009. Yetta Kurland, whose opponent is Christine Quinn in the hotly contested City Council race in the 3rd District, expressed outrage at Quinn's refusal to show up to four consecutive debates on central issues to the community.

"These debates highlighted key issues in the District, and issues Quinn has staked her re-election bid on claiming leadership in. Yet she is totally absent when it comes time for the community to ask her hard questions on what has really happened under her tenure as City Council representative for the 3rd District, and when its time to tell the community where she stands on education, LGBT youth, good government and historic preservation. How dare she claim to be a leader in these issues when she won't even show up to talk face to face with the people in our district about these issues?"

One of the forums Quinn ducked on was held last week at FIERCE, an LGBT youth advocacy organization. Kurland stated at the forum "I am saddened that [Quinn] is not here, LGBTQ youth have been ignored for too long. And you deserve to have all three of the candidates here tonight... We need our elected officials listening better."

Quinn was also AWOL at a televised debate sponsored by the League of Women Voters earlier this week.  read more »

Yetta Kurland, running against Christine Quinn, Tsar Bloomberg's co-dictator, for the 3rd City Council seat in Manhattan, just picked up another endorsement:

Yetta Kurland, who many say is quickly becoming the frontrunner and overtaking incumbent Christine Quinn to be the next City Council Member in the 3rd District, received yet another endorsement today from a local Democratic Club - The Women's Democratic Club of New York City.

The club is especially important not only because it was started almost two decades ago in Greenwich Village, but also because of its strong ties with feminists, women and men, in the community, and its support for insurgent candidates running against politics as usual in the City.

Kurland has a long history in women's rights including organizing around reproductive rights and anti-violence work as far back as the 1980's. She has also recently been very involved in working to raise awareness around street harassment in her District and throughout New York City.  read more »

This comes from the Yetta Kurland campaign:

YETTA KURLAND, CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATE FOR THE 3RD DISTRICT WILL BE KEYNOTE SPEAKER AT BRONX PRIDE - SATURDAY AUGUST 21ST

New York, NY. August 21, 2009. Today will mark the fourth annual celebration of Pride in the Bronx. Yetta Kurland, a candidate for City Council in the 3rd District, a district known for having a large LGBT population, will be the keynote speaker at the event.

"This is a year for change, hope and opportunity, and it is an honor to be a part of the 4th annual Bronx celebration of Pride. The LGBT community in the Bronx is finding its voice, and I am proud as a member of the LGBT community to be here to show support."

Kurland is running a campaign that many say is overtaking incumbent Christine Quinn's efforts to stay in office for a 3rd term, running on a platform of restoring the voice of her community.

This year's day long event includes musical performances and starts at 12pm in Barretto Point Park. The theme of the Pride is "We Matter".

Seems Simcha Felder wants to eliminate the office of Public Advocate. Because, you know, the people of NYC don't really need someone like, ADVOCATING for them in light of just how honest and fair all our politicians are.

This response comes from Yetta Kurland's campaign for City Council:

Kurland condemns efforts to eliminate Office of Public Advocate calling on New Yorkers to stop these efforts by voting for new leadership to create local change in City Government in the Democratic Primary on September 15th

New York, NY. July 29, 2009. Yetta Kurland running to unseat Christine Quinn in the 3rd District in the upcoming Democratic Primary with a message of restoring the voice of her community to local government, blasted legislation proposed today to eliminate the position of Public Advocate from New York City Government.  read more »

Two new endorsements have been announced for candidates I am supporting.

First, Democracy for NYC has endorsed Yetta Kurland for the 3rd City Council District in Manhattan. Here is their announcement:

Democracy for NYC is proud to announce that our members have voted to endorse Yetta Kurland in the Democratic primary in Council District 3. Voting opened on July 1st and closed on July 10th. Here are the results:

Yetta Kurland: 69%

Christine Quinn: 12%

Maria Passanante-Derr: 0%

About the vote:
We have been asking DFNYC members through our email newsletters, as well as at Linkups and other events, to suggest 2009 Democratic primary races in which DFNYC should hold endorsement votes of its members. (Please see this page at our website for more details: http://dfnyc.org/content/view/2398/15/) The responses thus far indicated that the DFNYC community is interested in Council District 3. DFNYC members who attended three DFNYC events in the past year were eligible to vote.  read more »