Rivals Challenge Quinn on Term-Limit Stance That Helped Bloomberg

Ángel Franco/The New York Times Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, again found herself on the defensive on Tuesday for helping lift Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s term limit.

As the Democratic mayoral candidates meet at near-daily forums leading up to the September primary, the City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, is increasingly finding herself on the defensive over her 2008 decision to support lifting the term limits law and allow Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to seek a third term.

On Tuesday morning, at a forum on small business issues organized by the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce and held at St. Francis College, the public advocate, Bill de Blasio, said he saw an increasingly punitive attitude by the Bloomberg administration toward small businesses in the third term, when, he said, the administration had increased fines on businesses.

“It became a very focused effort to get revenue the wrong way,” Mr. de Blasio said.

He added, “So you can thank Speaker Quinn and those who believed in giving Michael Bloomberg a third term by changing the term limits law for the fact that small businesses were under attack for this last four years.”

When the moderator, the ABC 7 political correspondent Dave Evans, asked Ms. Quinn to respond, she at first skirted the issue, saying, “I think the public advocate’s point is about challenges for small businesses,” and going on to enumerate actions the Council had taken to relieve small businesses from excess fines and penalties.

“I’ve done something about it, not just talked about it,” she said.

When Mr. Evans pressed her to respond specifically to the implication about her role in lifting term limits, Ms. Quinn said, “As I’ve said many times, I believed at that moment in time, given the very extreme, challenging economic times we were in â€" I hope we don’t see those again â€" that it was appropriate to give the voters a choice of consistency.”

Another candidate, William C. Thompson Jr., who, as Mr. Bloomberg’s Democratic opponent in 2009 made the mayor’s about-face on term limits a major campaign theme, was not going to let this go by, however. When it was his time to speak, he criticized Ms. Quinn’s explanation.

“In all due respect, we change presidents in the middle of wars,” Mr. Thompson said. “We don’t change the Constitution to go back and say, ‘Let’s give somebody a third term,’ because the economy’s bad, because, you know, the sky â€" because it’s cloudy today.”

“It was wrong â€" let’s just acknowledge that â€" this bad term that we’re living right now,” he said, at which point members of the audience began to applaud.

Mr. de Blasio was right, Mr. Thompson continued, in saying that the fines against small businesses had increased in the third term.

Echoing Mr. de Blasio, he said, “To be honest about it, Speaker, we have you to thank for that third term,” at which some members of the audience clapped again, and others laughed or emitted oohs.

Later, Mr. de Blasio returned to the issue, saying, “I can’t ignore Speaker Quinn’s tortured logic that she gave Mayor Bloomberg a third term, then he did bad things to small business, then she â€" quote unquote â€" ‘did something’ about it.”

“I want to use a phrase from retail, Speaker Quinn: ‘You broke it, you own it,’” he continued. “He wouldn’t have the opportunity to have done what he did to small business if you hadn’t helped him to have his third term.”

The discussion later turned to subjects including bridge tolls, bike lanes, and whether regulations on street vending should be made uniform throughout the city, but no issue appeared to stir as much interest - or, at least, as vocal a response â€" from the audience as the scuffle over term limits.

Three other candidates, John C. Liu, the city comptroller, Sal F. Albanese, a former city councilman, and Erick J. Salgado, a minister, also participated in the forum.