- 'Who Are You Calling A Lady?' - 5/28/2013
NEW YORK -- It was an unscripted moment made for Christine Quinn.
One of her Democratic rivals in the New York City mayor's race had tried a bit of wry gallantry after both started answering a candidate-forum question at the same time.
"Ladies first," John Liu said. It was a National Organization for Women event, after all, and Quinn was the only woman on the stage.
"Who are you calling a lady?" she wisecracked back, to laughs from the crowd. "But I'll take the opportunity."
Take opportunity? It could be said that Quinn stands to redefine it. Currently the front-running Democrat in the race, she would be both the first woman and the first openly gay person to lead the nation's biggest city.
Ebullient and seemingly inexhaustible, with an intensity tempered by a ready laugh that can be heard from down the hall, the red-headed Quinn is the kind of person who can describe herself as a "pushy broad" and not make you wince.
At the same time, Quinn is a veteran, work-through-the-system city council chief who champions consensus and compromise. When she faces criticism, the knock is she's too pragmatic as often as too pushy.
"To get things done, you have to get people together," Quinn said in an interview Friday. But "consensus doesn't happen by magic. ...You have to drive to it."
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