Former New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who made an unsuccessful bid for mayor in 2013, slammed Cynthia Nixon a day after the “Sex and the City” actress announced her candidacy for New York governor.
“Cynthia Nixon was opposed to having a qualified lesbian become mayor of New York City. Now she wants to be an unqualified lesbian to be the governor of New York,” Quinn said Tuesday in an interview with the New York Post. “Being an actress and celebrity doesn’t make you qualified for public office.”
Nixon, who is married to a woman and has publicly identified as bisexual, endorsed one of Quinn’s mayoral opponents, Bill DeBlasio, in the 2013 Democratic primary for mayor of New York City. Quinn, an out lesbian, is currently supporting incumbent Andrew Cuomo, who will face off against Nixon in the Democratic primary.
Nixon, according to the New York Post, brushed off Quinn’s remarks, saying, “Her being a lesbian and my being a lesbian” is not the issue. The race, Nixon told the paper, is about “corruption in Albany,” the state’s capital.
In a series of social media posts Tuesday afternoon, Quinn sought to clarify the comments she made in her Post interview.
"To be clear, Cynthia Nixon’s identity has no bearing on her candidacy and it was not my intention to suggest it did. I want to be clear about that. I would never, EVER, criticize someone because of their identity," Quinn tweeted. "The real point I am trying to make is that qualifications matter and records matter. I do not believe she has the qualifications or the record."
Nixon, a liberal activist and actress, announced her bid for governor on Monday in a video she posted on social media.
“I love New York. I’ve never lived anywhere else. But something has to change,” Nixon said in the announcement video. “We are sick of politicians who care more about headlines and power than they do about us. It can't just be business as usual anymore."
In the video, Nixon called out the state’s income inequality, New York City’s “broken subway” system and the need to end “mass incarceration."
Nixon is considered the underdog in the Sept. 13 primary, with 66 percent of registered Democrats supporting Cuomo, compared with 19 percent for Nixon, according to a Siena College poll released on Monday. But Nixon has room to grow, with around six-in-10 Democrats remaining undecided about her.