Days before he died of congestive heart failure, former Mayor Edward I. Koch made an announcement in his hospital room: “I want to help Chris Quinn.”

An aide to Mr. Koch, George Arzt, alerted Christine C. Quinn, the speaker of the City Council and a leading mayoral candidate, and her campaign sprang into action: one of her top political consultants, Mark Guma, was assigned to bring Mr. Koch information so he could make a new statement on her behalf

But it was not to be. Mr. Koch died three days later, and among his many legacies is now a peculiar question for Ms. Quinn: how to utilize an endorsement by a popular and influential advocate who also happens to be deceased.

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