Gennaro-Quinn lovefest

From The Politicker:

Although Council Speaker Christine Quinn has largely avoided tearing into her electoral opponents as she campaigns for mayor this year, the same can’t be said for everyone in her legislative chamber. Councilman James Gennaro, notably, has repeatedly and aggressively attacked her rivals on a wide range of issues, earning a reputation as a reliable “attack dog” for her campaign.

The list of examples is long. Mr. Gennaro accused Public Advocate Bill de Blasio of being on a “quest for relevance” during the paid sick day debate. He hit Mr. de Blasio again for his call to end horse-drawn carriages in Central Park. On the environmental front, Mr. Gennaro, the chair of the Council’s environmental protection committee, called Mr. de Blasio and another Gracie Mansion hopeful, Comptroller John Liu, “panderers” for opposing the construction of a waste transfer station on the Upper East Side. “I applaud Speaker Quinn for facing the critics,” he added.

A term-limited member who has represented portions of central and eastern Queens since 2002, Mr. Gennaro is widely known as a close Quinn ally. Although she has already been endorsed by Council lawmakers like Domenic Recchia, Diana Reyna and Julissa Ferreras, no one has stepped forward as aggressively as Mr. Gennaro.

Why has Mr. Gennaro been so bold? One Queens Democratic source, who said he was familiar with Mr. Gennaro’s plans, said the councilman is interested in landing a plum job in a future-Mayor Quinn’s administration.

“Jim is term-limited and because of that, he’s saying, ‘What the hell am I’m doing next year?’ And I think if Jim was offered a job in new administration of Christine Quinn, he would love that,” the Queens Democrat said. “He has a great environmental background, he could maybe be [Department of Environmental Protection] commissioner or a deputy commissioner candidate. I think he’s becoming a little bit of an attack dog for Chris and he figures he has nothing to lose, everything to gain.”