Photo by: Taleen Derdespanian

The second most important election in this municipal campaign cycle has yet to occur—that’s the vote for Council speaker, which has come down to a contest between two Councilmembers from Manhattan: Melissa Mark-Viverito, who has the support of Mayor Bill de Blasio, and Dan Garodnick, who has the support of the press.

De Blasio’s campaigning for Mark-Viverito—he reportedly did some high-pressure phone lobbying and made some promises along the way—was something the city hadn’t seen in at least a generation. And given how harshly de Blasio criticized former Speaker Christine Quinn for working closely with former Mayor Mike Bloomberg, it looked pretty hypocritical for de Blasio to hand-pick the speaker he has to work with.

But if de Blasio’s offensive on Mark-Viverito’s behalf was unprecedented and a tad unseemly, the counterstrike by the mainstream media has more than made up for it.

Read more here.