Liz Crowley’s Attendance Issues

In the wake of the mini-controversy over Councilwoman Liz Crowley’s texting during congressional debates, the campaigns opposing Crowley are now gleefully pushing out the fact that she’s had a string of attendance problems at those debates as well.

The underlying suggestion, of course, is that this is another example of Crowley not paying adequate respect to her possible future constituents — and that she is not quite ready for prime time.

The facts on Crowley’s recent debate attendance, which are in some dispute:

-Crowley was about 30 minutes late to a recent debate at the MinKwon Center for Community Action, according to a rival campaign. (Crowley’s campaign confirmed this, and acknowledged the tardiness was unexcused.)

- Crowley was late to a debate at the Kissena Park Civic Association, with her late arrival  shown in the below video. (A rival campaign said she was substantially late, but Crowley said she came about 90 seconds into the event.)

- Crowley was about 30 minutes late to a debate last night at West Cunningham Park Civic Association, with the late entrance captured in the below video. (Crowley’s campaign says she was about 15 minutes late, and had been knocking on doors beforehand.)

- Crowley outright skipped a debate held by Make the Road New York on May 17, canceling at the  sending an email at the last minute citing “prior commitments” and an unplanned press appearance, according to an email sent to the debate’s organizer, which Crowley’s campaign provided. Crowley’s campaign says it never confirmed that the candidate would be attending the event, which was held outside the district.

In all fairness, Crowley’s campaign also notes that she attended a forum held by the Middle Village Property Owners that Assemblywoman Grace Meng and Assemblyman Rory Lancman did not, and a Glendale property owners’ candidates night that Meng did not.

While this doesn’t seem like a huge deal, Crowley already got a slew of bad press in the local Queens papers this week for texting during the Kissena Park debate, though Crowley said she was merely taking notes. This editorial in The Forum was especially brutal in its coverage of Text-Gate.

And the fact that the other campaigns are now spending time going after Crowley, after ignoring her for much of this congressional race, probably reflects the fact that Crowley is performing better than expected.