White Plains CitizeNetReporter - Thursday Night Fights? Camacho-Quinn Seethes at “Good of the Party Calls.

WPCNR Backroom Bulletin. By John F. Bailey. May 8, 2003: The most reliable sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, report to WPCNR that Eridania Camacho-Quinn is furious at the lobbying calls she has been receiving from Democrats asking her not to seek to overturn the City Committee’s Nominating Committee choice of Arnold Bernstein to run for outgoing Councilman William King’s seat.

The Committee will place the names of incumbent Common Council President Benjamin Boykin and Robert Greer and that of Mr. Bernstein, Adam Bradley’s Campaign Manager in nomination tonight at the upstairs Democratic Headquarters at 170 East Post Road.

Camacho-Quinn is reported to be determined to go ahead with a floor challenge of the nomination, and is receiving strong advice through phone calls not to make that fight.

Sources close to Ms. Camacho-Quinn report she is receiving calls from Democrats asking her not to mount a challenge “for the good of the Democratic Party.”

Councilwoman Rita Malmud Makes a Personal Call

WPCNR has learned that one of those calls to Ms. Camacho-Quinn was from Rita Malmud, who, when she first ran for the Common Council came to it through her work with the League of Women Voters, and was a housewife herself, according to persons who knew her at the time. Malmud, it is reported, pointed out to Ms. Camacho-Quinn, a new mother, that the council job was very time-consuming, and that Ms. Camacho-Quinn had no idea of how demanding it would be, implying that the council seat responsibilities would take her away from her newborn son, Sebastian.

Sources report Ms. Camacho-Quinn felt this was “condescending” of Ms. Malmud to approach her this way.

Nominating Committee Did Not Like Camacho-Quinn’s Independence on the Issues.

Sources in the Nominating Committee have told Democratic Councilman that Camacho Quinn’s presentation showed a lack of understanding of the issues in White Plains and that they were stunned by her inept presentation.

Camacho-Quinn reportedly is furious at this “official” version of her nominating interview events being fed the media and District Leaders and Democrats by the Nominating Committee, saying that she feels she gave “the wrong answer” when the Nominating Committee asked her how she would make decisions on issues.

Ms. Camacho-Quinn has told friends she answered that she would listen to Mayor Delfino, examine all sides of the issue, and make the decision she felt represented the interests of all the people of White Plains. Friends said Ms. Camacho-Quinn reported she sensed a definite “chill” in the air on the part of the four Nominating Committeepersons interviewing her, believed to be: Adam Bradley, Howard Glassman, Barbara Schwartz, Jim Payne and Robert Wall. Friends report her confiding to them that “It (the interview) went downhill from there, after I indicated I would make up my own mind.”

The Nominating Committee story of the interview, related by White Plains Democrats who reported what they had been told by the Committee, is that Ms. Camacho-Quinn spoke poorly on the issues, and they were shocked at how unready she was to run. On the other hand, the Nominating Committee asked her to interview to run for Council. One Councilman told WPCNR , “They’ll kill me if you tell them I said this, but she would have made a dynamite ticket.”

Experience Needed?

The official story on the Camacho-Quinn rejection maintains she does not have the experience to run for the Common Council. However, experience and familiarity with issues has not distinguished any recent newcomers to Common Council candidacy in the past. Numerous errors of fact, perception, memory and reality were committed by recent successful Democratic candidates for Council, including incumbents, so experience is no guarantee of intelligent, factual campaigning or performance in a Council seat.

The refusal of Ms. Camacho-Quinn, who is described as working terribly hard getting out the vote for Adam Bradley’s upset of Naomi Matusow in last September’s primary, to accept her dismissal is motivated, her friends say by the circumstance that she was never prepped for the nominating committee interview, she was lead to believe she was wanted to run, and that she has a track record of successful, grass roots connection with voters.


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