The Manhattan Democratic club excluded the only gay candidate from a mayoral debate for 2021 because she’s not liberal enough.
“I think it’s outrageous, and it doesn’t comport with what I consider liberal Democratic values,” retired Brig. Gen. Loree Sutton told the New York Post after she was excluded.
“I have to raise the question. I’m the only gay candidate, and I’m the only military veteran in the group, so I have to wonder on what basis did Allen Roskoff determine who was acceptable for including?” she added.
The former Army psychiatrist was excluded because she wants to mandate protesters in the city to obtain permits before demonstrating. New York City saw protests, riots, and repeated nights of violence over the summer in the wake of George Floyd’s death on Memorial Day.
“We’re not going to entertain somebody whose positions are diametrically opposed to what the Democratic Party should stand for,” Roskoff told the New York Post.
The Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, led by Allen Roskoff, is slated to hold the first debate on Oct. 13 and invited six other candidates to partake. The group describes itself as “NYC’s progressive LGBTQ Democratic club.”
Roskoff added that other candidates were also left out of the lineup, such as Citigroup Vice-Chairman Raymond McGuire.
The senior adviser to Sutton’s campaign, Wendell Jamieson, said Sutton is a “true, blue Democrat who, I assure you, holds many classically liberal views.
“But I’m sorry — she doesn’t think it’s cool to deface your city or set it on fire. She’d love to discuss her views but is being cut out of the conversation before it begins because she’s a different kind of candidate,” Jamieson said.
Sutton previously served as Mayor Bill de Blasio’s first Veterans Services commissioner.
