Mayoral Candidates (Except Chris Quinn) Invited to Jim Owles Democratic Club Annual Awards Ceremony

Original published at: cityandstateny.com

By Laura Nahmias

All of the 2013 mayoral candidates (including our publisher Tom Allon) are listed as benefactors on the back of a flyer we just received for the 2012 Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club Gay Pride Awards Ceremony this year except for one: City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

The awards ceremony, which happened yesterday, honored former Mayor David Dinkins and cites many elected officials on the invitation.

Jim Owles Club president Allen Roskoff said there was a reason Quinn had been left off.

“We did not ask Chris Quinn to be on the invitation because we are a progressive club and therefore she would have been out of place. Please note that all the other Mayoral candidates were on the invite and Scott Stringer, Bill Thompson, Bill de Blasio and Tom Allon attended,” Roskoff said.

Roskoff is an outspoken critic of Quinn, as Dana Rubinstein noted in a piece for Capital New York:

“Roskoff heads the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, whose board of governors includes three non-gay candidates running to the left of Quinn in the incipient field of 2013 mayoral candidates: Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and Comptroller John Liu. It’s an indication of the fact that Roskoff and his colleagues fault Quinn for being insufficiently liberal on non-gay-specific issues, too, and for her general closeness with the mayor. They point in particular to her role in overturning term limits for the mayor (and, not incidentally, the City Council), and to her unwillingness support “living wage” legislation and a law mandating paid sick leave.”

In July last year, protesters including Donny Moss, a filmmaker who is also a severe critic of the speaker, gathered outside of a fundraiser Quinn was having at the Dream Downtown Hotel, in Chelsea. According to the Daily News, Quinn’s director of community outreach Tony Simone said some unpleasant things to Moss and Roskoff.

“Told that the filmmaker was indeed among the group, Simone responded: “Tell him to go f— himself.” Moss says Simone then spotted longtime gay rights activist Allen Roskoff, and shouted “F— you” at him before heading inside to the fund-raiser."