New York City Democratic primary September 10

• NYC Comptroller: There's less than a week left before Tuesday's Democratic primary, Quinnipiac's new poll still shows an incredibly tight race for comptroller. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer barely edges former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, 47-45. A week earlier, the race was tied at 46. A recent Siena poll (the one with the very long field period) had Spitzer up 15, but another survey from Penn Schoen Berland had him ahead by just 3.
• NYC Mayor: With just days to go ahead of Tuesday's Democratic primary, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is joining former Comptroller Bill Thompson in going negative on front-runner Bill de Blasio. In a new TV ad, Quinn tries to undermine de Blasio's argument that he's the "true progressive" option in the race with two separate attacks. First, the narrator says that de Blasio "took over $50,000 from slumlords on his own list of the city's worst landlords." Then the spot features a clip of de Blasio himself saying, "You can't eliminate the basic police tactic of stop-and-frisk because it is a valid policing tactic," before cramming in a quick positive on Quinn. Were I Quinn, I'd have led with the de Blasio footage and run that exclusively, because he's both tried to portray himself as the candidate most hostile to stop-and-frisk while simultaneously taking a nuanced position on it. Indeed, in his own ads, de Blasio carefully says he'll end "a stop-and-frisk era that targets minorities"—not end stop-and-frisk altogether. Of course, Quinn doesn't support ending stop-and-frisk, either, and de Blasio is howling that Quinn selectively edited his remarks, but this is politics, and trying to make your opponents pay for nuance is standard procedure. Quinn just doesn't seem to want to go for the jugular, though, but given de Blasio's recent surge in polling and the very short amount of time left, it probably doesn't matter. P.S. Thompson also has a new ad, touting his support from teachers (and their unions), including his own daughter.