Brad Lander holds a lead over Corey Johnson, the speaker of the City Council, after the first ranked-choice voting ballot.
As Maya Wiley fought to unite progressives to catch the presumed front-runner, Eric Adams, in the New York City Democratic primary for mayor, Brad Lander was doing the same in another citywide contest, for comptroller.
Members of the city’s progressive movement have had success in capturing City Council, state legislative and congressional seats over the past few years, but they have struggled to stretch that influence across the five boroughs in citywide races.
As Primary Day approached, that trend seemed to apply to the comptroller race: A recent poll showed Mr. Lander, a councilman from Brooklyn, trailing Corey Johnson, the speaker of the City Council and a late entrant into the race, by nine percentage points; 44 percent of likely voters, however, were undecided.
But after the first round of first-place votes was counted on Tuesday night, Mr. Lander had an almost nine-point lead over Mr. Johnson. Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, a former CNBC anchor, was in third, another nine points behind Mr. Johnson, with seven other candidates finishing in the single digits.
Mr. Lander had the support of the city’s progressive movement, with endorsements from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; Jumaane Williams, the public advocate; and Tiffany Cabán, a former candidate for Queens district attorney who is currently leading in her race for a City Council seat.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez also endorsed Ms. Wiley late in the mayoral race, well after she had endorsed Mr. Lander. He was also supported by other prominent progressive leaders like Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, enabling him to firmly establish himself on the left — unlike Ms. Wiley, who vied for that status with other candidates.
Mr. Johnson was supported by several labor unions, which usually translates into on-the-ground support and money for advertisements. But Mr. Lander had one of the more memorable campaign ads of the race, featuring his daughter making fun of him for being a “policy nerd.”
Mr. Johnson led the Primary Night vote count in Staten Island and the Bronx; Mr. Lander leads in Queens, Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Ms. Cabán said that progressive groups had campaigned aggressively for Mr. Lander and that he had returned the favor, endorsing 12 progressive candidates for City Council and campaigning with them.
“It’s a huge deal,” Ms. Cabán said. “His campaign and the execution and the outcome is a beautiful model of how progressive movements can build power.”
The race for comptroller, one of only three citywide elected positions, flew under the radar at a moment when the position has never been more important.
As the city’s chief financial officer, the comptroller is the primary auditor and fiscal watchdog, and will help oversee New York’s record-high $99 billion budget as deficits loom in the coming years, as well as at least $14 billion in federal aid coming because of the coronavirus pandemic. The comptroller is also responsible for $250 billion in pension funds covering 620,000 people.
Mr. Johnson was a late entrant to the comptroller contest after he dropped out of the race for mayor, citing his mental health.
While Mr. Lander proposed being more of an activist comptroller, Mr. Johnson was proposing a “thoughtful, strategic and prudent” comptroller to focus on the city’s finances. He cited his experience shepherding three $90 billion budgets during his time as speaker as an example of his experience and leadership.
Anthony Perez, Mr. Johnson’s campaign manager, said they were in a “strong position” as the vote count continued.
“We’ve built a broad, diverse coalition with support from communities of color and organized labor, as well as second-choice endorsements from dozens of elected officials and community groups in Brooklyn and Queens, putting us on the path to consolidate support in future rounds of ranked-choice voting,” Mr. Perez said.
Mr. Lander said he felt good about his position but that he was a strong proponent of ranked-choice voting, and urged people to wait until all the votes were tabulated.
“This is not a race that people paid a lot of attention to, and that left room to be out communicating with voters,” Mr. Lander said. “We had a strong ground game. We were out there.”
Source: Elections - nytimes.com
