Pearl Gabel/New York Daily News
Bill de Blasio and his wife Chirlene Mckray is introduced by Felix Ortiz at the SOMOS Conference at the Conrodo Plaza Hilton in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
SAN JUAN — While their colleagues worked on their tans and sipped cocktails by the pool, several New York City Council members were hard at work here Friday trying to line up the support to become the next Council speaker.
Councilman Mark Weprin (D-Queens) took more than two dozen fellow Council members out to dinner Friday night, hoping to corral their support, sources said.
This was after the powerful health-care workers union SEIU/1199 threw a party Thursday night for another candidate for speaker, Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito (D-Manhattan, Bronx) at the Condado Plaza Hilton.
The union’s political director Kevin Finnegan lauded her as a “dear friend to the union.”
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Pearl Gabel/New York Daily News
Councilman Mark Weprin (D-Queens) took more than two dozen fellow Council members out to dinner Friday night, hoping to corral their support, sources said.
Finnegan did not publicly endorse Mark-Viverito, but his union reps were calling members on her behalf behind the scenes, said a source.
The backdrop for the wheeling and dealing is the annual Somos El Futuro conference, a regular gathering of Latino legislators from New York that attracts much of the state’s political establishment.
With the mayor’s race over, the battle for speaker — the second-most powerful position in city government — is now taking center stage.
“It’s all anyone is talking about,” said one operative.
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CIRO FUSCO/EPA
Not only is Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio a star in New York City, he’s also big in his family’s native Italy, where a craftsman in Naples puts finishing touches on a de Blasio Christmas figurine.
Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio, also in San Juan for the conference and a postelection vacation, has so far kept out of the speaker’s race.
His top aide Emma Wolfe — who is expected to have a large role in the administration — privately told people that it was too early for him to weigh in, said a source.
But de Blasio’s allies have been quietly pushing Mark-Viverito, according to sources.
Weprin is believed to be popular among the city’s county Democratic leaders, whose endorsement could sway votes in the vote.
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CARLO HERMANN/AFP/Getty Images
A christmas figurine depicting New York City’s new mayor Bill de Blasio.
Three of the county leaders went out to dinner Friday night in San Juan to discuss the race.
Mark-Viverito demurred when asked how she is pitching herself to Council members. “I have expressed my interest,” she said with a coy smile.
Mark-Viverito did admit to attending meetings with members to wrangle some votes.
Also in the race is Upper East Sider Dan Garodnick, and Bronx reps James Vacca and Annabel Palma — all Democrats.
It remains to be seen how much influence de Blasio will try to exert in this race.
“De Blasio is the big fish,” said a source in the Council. “But will he weigh in in full force?”
With Kenneth Lovett
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