Quinn to Keep Kelly if She Becomes Mayor?

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly have cut a private deal that will keep Kelly at his post for a fourth consecutive term, if Quinn wins the race in November, reported the New York Post.

Kelly is now in his 12th year as Bloomberg’s commissioner. He previously served two years as commissioner under Mayor David Dinkins. And if the deal between him and Quinn goes through, Kelly will become the longest-serving NYPD commissioner since the position was created in 1901.

New York City Comptroller John Liu and former Comptroller William Thompson, two other candidates in the race for mayor, both have said publicly they have no plans for keeping Kelly if they win. And the fourth candidate, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, has not confirmed whether he would keep Kelly or not.  

Kelly is popular with conservative outer-borough Democrats, business and real-estate community leaders, and Republicans for keeping crime down in the city-- now at a 2012 record low of just 418 murders.

According to sources, Quinn’s latest back-door deal is a strategic move to appeal to these core constituencies, all of which are key in helping her secure a win in both the primary and general elections.

However, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne denied in an email that any such deal was cut between Quinn and Kelly, and spokesman Jamie McShane said only that the speaker “has repeatedly said that the next mayor of the city of New York would be incredibly lucky to have Ray Kelly stay on as their police commissioner,” reported the paper.