June 20, 2013
By Joe Maniscalco
Queens, NY – New York City Comptroller John Liu formally accepted Plumbers UA Local 1’s endorsement for mayor on Wednesday, blaming the Great Recession on “some people on Wall Street who went crazy cowboy”and vowing to continue to fight for working men and women.
“In recent years this city has lost a lot of its promise,”Liu told members gathered inside the union hall located at 37-11 47th Avenue. “Nowadays, it seems as if that promise is broken. It’s always about the rich and powerful – they get everything and everybody else gets left behind.”
Liu faces a tough battle with about 12 weeks to go before the Democratic primary. The comptroller recently picked up the endorsement of the 30,000-member International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union 3, but organized labor doesn’t appear to be coalescing around a single candidate.
“There are some unions looking at the mayoral race hoping to pick the winner,”Plumbers Local 1 Business Manager John Murphy said. “But we’re not followers. We want to create that winner.”
Liu was first elected to the New York City Council about 12 years ago. Four years ago, he ran for the office of comptroller and won the race. In both instances, Liu was an underdog, and not expected to win.
“The pundits always think they know everything,”Liu said. “But we showed them wrong.”
Murphy hailed Liu as an elected officially who has steadfastly stood with organized labor throughout the course of his political career, and promised that the 6,000 members of his union will campaign hard for the comptroller’s election as mayor.
“Since each Democratic candidate either holds or has held elective office, it’s less important to listen to what they say that they’ll do, than what they’ve actually done,”Murphy said. “Based on that criteria alone, there’s only one candidate that stands head and shoulders above the rest.”
Liu pledge to be a relentless campaigner saying, “We have this election to win, and a city to change.”
