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April 26, 2021
TRUENEWSREPORT
By: NATHANIEL BALLANTYNE
TRUENEWSBLOG- If you live outside of New York City you probably think that ANDREW YANG is the only politician running for Mayor of New York City. He isn’t and most likely will not win.
The former presidential candidate and tech entrepreneur is ahead in all the early polls and has sucked up a ton of the oxygen in the race thus far.
But there are seven other viable candidates competing for the Democratic nod in the June 22 primary and much of the campaign money has yet to be spent on TV and mailers.
So while Yang is the clear frontrunner at 22 percent per a recent NY1/Ipsos poll, roughly 26 percent of voters are still undecided. If the last competitive primary in 2013 is any indication, it’s still too early to tell who will come out on top.
Love or hate NYC, this is the most interesting election this year in America and the winner tends to have a national profile that all but a handful of politicians would envy (even if the office has been more curse than blessing for people with national aspirations; see Giuliani, Bloomberg, de Blasio).
Here’s who is best positioned to overtake Yang — and how they’re maneuvering politically in the crowded primary.
Leading the pack is Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, who came in at 13 percent according to the latest polling. A Black former NYPD captain and New York state senator, Adams has raised close to $9 million — one of the biggest hauls in the race — and has yet to spend much of it.
Adams is running a more conservative campaign focused on public safety. City Comptroller Scott Stringer is closing in on Adams for second place at 11 percent. The career politician has a comparable war-chest to Adams and has won the backing of younger progressive leaders in New York.
The remaining five are battling it out in the single digits. Former City Hall attorney and MSNBC legal analyst Maya Wiley is looking to become the first Black woman mayor of New York. She’s gained some key labor support and political endorsements.
Former Citigroup exec Ray McGuire is campaigning on his rags-to-riches story, coming from poverty to become a powerful Black leader on Wall Street. McGuire has been pounding the airwaves but still polled fourth in the recent survey at six percent.
Shaun Donovan, the former HUD secretary and OMB director under President Barack Obama, is running on his extensive government experience. Donovan also came in at six percent in the NY1/Ipsos poll.
Not far behind them are Dianne Morales and Kathryn Garcia . Morales, a former nonprofit CEO, is running as an unapologetic leftist who would cut the NYPD budget in half. She would be the first Afro-Latina mayor of New York. And Garcia, another possibility to be the first woman mayor, has the most city management experience of anyone. She’s running on her track record as the sanitation commissioner, interim head of the city housing authority, Covid-19 food czar and former executive at the city’s Department of Environmental Protection.
Adding to the uncertainty of the race is the citywide debut of ranked-choice voting, where voters rank five primary candidates in order of preference. The primary is also being held in June rather than September after a change in state law in 2019, cutting off the crucial summer campaign season as the city is just now emerging from lockdown.
So while Yang’s the person to beat, the math doesn’t add up just yet to him landing in Gracie Mansion. The person must likely to win is Eric Adam a seasoned politician with decades of experience. Adams knows the city and has served Brooklyn, the City’s largest borough with distinctions.
