Leslie Crocker Snyder said she has never asked anyone to vote for her because she’s a woman, but she's painting the race for Manhattan district attorney as an extension of her career-long fight against the “old boys network” and “glass ceilings” she says have held her and other women back for years.
She also said she hopes being the only woman in the race works to her advantage.
Last night, Snyder took offense to an opponent’s use of the word “temperament,” likened herself to Sonia Sotomayor, who is “like myself, a strong woman and a strong judge,” and explained that she didn’t get a single major newspaper endorsement this year because the Times, News and Post are all part of the group of "old boys" holding her back. (Snyder made that comment on the steps of City Hall yesterday afternoon, while announcing support from members of the Women’s Bar Association of New York.)
“It was interesting when Cy [Vance] made his opening statement–did you notice he used the word ‘temperament?’ “Snyder said during last night’s televised debate, making quotes marks with her fingers. “If you recall the recent confirmation hearings of Sonia Sotomayor, who is a strong woman and a strong judge, and I like to think like myself, a strong woman and a strong judge, and self-made, like me.”
(“Temperament" was a term used by critics and defenders of Sonia Sotomayor.)
At one point last night, debate moderator Dominic Carter of New York 1 News asked Snyder to explain who is part of this “old boys network.”
Snyder said it was made up of “the establishment, a group of people – there can even be a few women in it now, it’s not necessarily all old boys – who know each other, have certain power, talk to each other, pick up the phone, and tell people what to do.”
Yesterday, Snyder said she was “laughed at” when she applied to work in the criminal division at the U.S. attorney’s office which, at the time, was run by Robert Morgenthau, who later became the Manhattan district attorney she tried unseating four years ago.
A spokesman for Morgenthau disputed Snyder’s claim, and noted that among the women Morgenthau employed in the U.S. attorney’s office was Patricia Hynes, now the president of the New York Bar Association.
Hynes is also co-moderating the next week’s debate for Manhattan district attorney candidates.
