6 DAYS UNTIL THE 2023 PRIMARY ELECTION
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| By Jeff Coltin | |
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Four women of color are running in Democratic primaries for mayor in Westchester County’s three biggest cities, hoping to better represent the suburbs’ diversifying population.
Mount Vernon Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard is running for reelection, hoping to show stability in a city that saw its last elected mayor plead guilty to stealing campaign funds. She was the first Black woman to be elected mayor in the county back in 2019 and is now in a rematch against André Wallace, who briefly served as mayor before Patterson-Howard.
In New Rochelle, Yadira Ramos-Herbert is weathering a minor scandal over the county party looking like it was trying to hide some big real estate donations to her campaign – which just served to highlight the level of support she has, ranging from the outgoing mayor to unions to Rep. Jamaal Bowman and the Working Families Party. Her opponent, Westchester County Legislator Damon Maher, who is white, has few to no endorsements, and barely any cash. Ramos-Herbert, an attorney and City Council member, is Afro Latina and proud of how much housing has been built in New Rochelle. “It’s a really exciting time to think of the suburbs,” she said, with people moving in and pushing “for a progressive, more diverse representation for leadership.”
Read more about the other women of color running for Yonkers mayor. |
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The number of people who had voted early through Tuesday in New York City, and … yeah that’s not great, if you like turnout. It’s about a quarter of what 2021 turnout was at the time, and half of either of the 2022 primaries. But the city Civic Engagement Commission is running a get-out-the-vote effort focused on select City Council districts where ranked choice voting will be in play: Districts 9, 13, 23, 41 and 43. It’s a $2 million multilingual effort focused on both ranked choice voting education and letting people know they can vote in their language – from Arabic to Yiddish – with an interpreter. Meridian Strategies and Full Contact Communications are among the contractors going door to door, but there are also ads in community media and more. The city is also, crucially, partnering with nonprofits, which a new report credited with driving up turnout in 2021.
Not everyone has races, of course – sorry Staten Island – but Democrats in the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn have boroughwide contests, and a good chunk of Manhattan has primaries too. | |
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'I DO NOT HAVE THE SPECIFIC NUMBER' |
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Yusef Salaam doesn’t know how many members are in the New York City Council – even though he’s running to be one of its 51 members. “On the City Council from every single borough – that I do not have the specific number,” the Democratic candidate for District 9 in Harlem said when asked by City & State yesterday. He’s never been to a council meeting, though he has “virtually participated in some. And when I say participated, I mean as an outside viewer.” He doesn’t know what ULURP stands for – though he knew the acronym for Uniform Land Use Review Procedure was a land use thing. He wouldn’t say how he would have voted on the budget last year, since “I have not considered all of the moving parts.” And Salaam wouldn’t venture a guess on the rough size of the city’s $106.7 billion operating budget. But he does know “we are not operating from a position of lack. We are operating from a position of abundance,” he said. “So that part, I do know. (Laughs.) The specific numbers?” He shrugged.
But an experienced political consultant said a candidate not knowing basic facts about the council isn’t as rare as you’d think. “They don’t know any of that shit … they know the buzzwords and all the stuff, but they didn’t know shit,” the consultant said, based on conversations with dozens of candidates over the years. “It’s not a disqualifier.” |
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Bronx district attorney challenger Tess Cohen has gotten more campaign cash from out of state family members – $21,980 – than she has from Bronx residents – $10,873. It’s a tough task taking on Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark, who’s got the full force of the Democratic political establishment behind her, and $281,000 on hand as of June 16. (Some $47,003 of that came from individual Bronx donors this cycle, by the way, bolstered by bigger donations from Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie’s PAC, Montefiore Medical Center’s PAC and billionaire financier Mario Gabelli.) Cohen’s got less than $16,000 on hand, and she’s only afloat thanks to the $40,000 she’s personally loaned the campaign. Her team didn’t respond to a request for comment. Cohen is a former assistant district attorney in the Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s Office, and she’s now a defense attorney and running as a progressive to the left of Clark, criticizing her push to roll back discovery reforms. But Cohen’s campaign has gotten no support from the progressive orgs and electeds who backed Tiffany Cabán for Queens district attorney in 2019 and were so active in the open race for Manhattan DA in 2021. Her website doesn’t boast a single endorsement. That may be, in part, because Clark is Black and Cohen is white – and a white candidate hasn’t been elected BP or DA since Stanley Simon’s last reelection as borough president in 1985.
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A white guy who lives outside the district may be in a good position to win New York City Council District 43 – even though it was specifically drawn to group residents in the growing Asian community together. That’s Vito LaBella, who lives in nearby Bay Ridge. But his opponent in the Republican primary, Ying Tan, can’t really criticize him too strongly. She lives in Rego Park, Queens, and said, "Last year, I was the biggest contributor of Vito’s campaign." She gave him office space, hosted events and recruited campaign volunteers for him when he was running in the Asian opportunity state Senate district that he also did not live within.
Now, she has turned on LaBella, saying he isn’t conservative enough and is too soft on vaccines and “critical race theory” in schools. LaBella said that’s bullshit. He thinks the government wasn’t honest about the COVID-19 vaccine, so he’d never mandate it, and that actually he gets called racist online specifically because he does oppose “the negative parts of CRT.” The retired NYPD lieutenant joined the race late, subbing in for Jack Ho who dropped out after submitting petitions. LaBella said Tan left him no choice. He wanted to defer to her, but she refused to even meet with the local Republican Party and Conservative Party chairs, and they needed a candidate.
LaBella’s running a shoestring operation and he has failed to report campaign spending beyond large reimbursements to himself (more spending, on posters, should be up soon, he said). But he’s likely favored among the approximately 9,000 registered Republicans in the district since he just ran for state Senate last year – and did well. But Tan said she was in the race first and has been working to grow the Republican Party with Asian voters. “Let them know, you have your right to vote,” she said. “And this is the chance for you to get somebody elected to represent you.”
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The New York City Bar Association reviewed judicial and district attorney candidates and approved both Melinda Katz and George Grasso for Queens district attorney but did not approve Devian Daniels … Gov. Kathy Hochul endorsed Katz … Former gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin endorsed Inna Vernikov in New York City Council District 48 … And his running mate, former lieutenant governor candidate Alison Esposito, endorsed Anne Belfiore-Delfaus in District 47 … former Rep. Pete King also endorsed Belfiore-Delfaus … Former Brooklyn Republican Party Chair Craig Eaton endorsed Ying Tan for District 43 … Former City Council candidate Harpreet Singh Toor and other Sikh community members endorsed Lynn Schulman in District 29 … New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams also endorsed Schulman … state Attorney General Letitia James endorsed Yadira Ramos-Herbert for New Rochelle mayor … the Rev. W. Franklyn Richardson of Grace Baptist Church and 32 other faith leaders endorsed Mount Vernon Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard for reelection … Emily’s List endorsed Schulman and Council Members Linda Lee in District 23 and Marjorie Velázquez in District 13 … Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local 1 and Local 7 endorsed Al Taylor in District 9 … New York City Mayor Eric Adams endorsed Inez Dickens in District 9 – and check out all the endorsements in that race.
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Got tips? Who are you working for? Who are other people working for? Email or send a DM to Jeff. |
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City Council District 41 in North Brooklyn, including the neighborhoods of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville and East Flatbush Incumbent: Darlene Mealy (Democratic) 2020 census demographics: 70.8% Black, 15.9% Hispanic, 5.5% white, 1.5% Asian 2021 Democratic primary election results (first round): Darlene Mealy: 57.3%, Alicka Ampry-Samuel: 42.1% 2021 mayoral general election results: Eric Adams (D): 92.2%; Curtis Sliwa (Republican): 5.1%; All other candidates combined: 2.7%
Who’s running: Darlene Mealy (D), Joyce Shearin (D), Isis McIntosh Green (D), Reginald Bowman (D)
Don’t count out New York City Council Member Darlene Mealy, who has won this district four times before, and many more times as Democratic district leader. But critics like Isis McIntosh Green have said Mealy doesn’t have much to show for those years in office, and she often doesn’t even show up for council meetings. McIntosh Green is allied with Assembly Member Latrice Walker and former Council Member Alicka Ampry-Samuel, so this primary is just the latest battle in a longer power struggle. Also running are public housing advocate Reginald Bowman and author Joyce Shearin, but this is a two-person race, with no general election in November. McIntosh Green has failed to qualify for matching funds but is still outspending Mealy, thanks to big loans to herself. And she has friends in high places, with endorsements from the Working Families Party, and $84,000 spent so far from the Labor Strong 2023 super PAC, affiliated with some of the city’s biggest unions.
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Thanks for reading City & State New York’s Campaign Confidential newsletter, where City Hall Bureau Chief Jeff Coltin is covering the biggest races in New York, from the City Council to district attorneys, and looking ahead to the 2024 elections.
Once a week, on Wednesdays. |
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