Longtime uptown Assembly Denny Farrell told a crowd at a block celebration in Harlem on Sunday that he predicts Inez Dickens will soon hold the speaker’s gavel in the New York City Council.
“Our City Council woman is doing a fantastic job,” Farrell said, while he was flanked by both Dickens and Congressman Charlie Rangel. “And I think that in the near future we will be using the word ‘speaker’ in front of her name. That is what it is going to be all about. And we are working to make sure that happens.”
It is unclear which “we” Farrell was referring to here. The Harlem political establishment? The Manhattan Democratic Party, which he used to lead? He and Rangel? Or was it the royal “we.”
Either way, it would seem to doom the prospects of Melissa Mark Viverito, the East Harlem Councilwoman also mentioned as a possible Speaker. Mark Viverito however would need the support of her fellow uptowners, which seems unlikely given Farrell’s statement.
Other names mentioned as possible future speakers include East Side councilman Dan Garodnick, Mark Weprin from Queens and Stephen Levin from Brooklyn.
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