Mayors

Subterms

    More stories

    • 125 Shares139 Views

      in Elections

      Police Investigate Threats to Mamdani in Mayoral Race’s Final Days

      by

      Voice mail messages promising violence against Zohran Mamdani, a progressive Democrat, came as attacks on politicians, judges and other government officials have skyrocketed.The New York Police Department is investigating threats against Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, one of the leading candidates in the city’s Democratic mayoral primary.Andrew Epstein, a spokesman for Mr. Mamdani, said he was cooperating with the department’s Hate Crimes Task Force after an unidentified man left a string of profane voice mail messages at his district office in recent weeks. One message left Wednesday morning threatened Mr. Mamdani, who is Muslim, and his family.The man called Mr. Mamdani a “terrorist” who “is not welcome in New York or America,” according to audio provided by the campaign. Although Mr. Mamdani does not own a car, the caller said he should be careful starting one.“The violent and specific language of what appears to be a repeat caller is alarming and we are taking every precaution,” Mr. Epstein said in a written statement.“While this is a sad reality, it is not surprising after millions of dollars have been spent on dehumanizing, Islamophobic rhetoric designed to stoke division and hate.”A police spokesman said there had been no arrests, but that an investigation was continuing.The threats came at a deadly moment for elected officials in the United States. Violence against politicians, judges and other government officials has skyrocketed in recent years.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 113 Shares124 Views

      in Elections

      Adams Bars Reporter From News Conferences for Being ‘Disrespectful’

      by

      After a contentious exchange, Mayor Eric Adams said, “Make sure security knows he’s not allowed back into this room.”Chris Sommerfeldt, who covers City Hall for The Daily News, spent part of Tuesday reporting on ICE agents’ arrest of Brad Lander, the New York City comptroller, at a Manhattan courthouse.By then, he was already the subject of some interest himself, after Mayor Eric Adams took the extraordinary step of barring him in the future from the weekly City Hall news conferences that are reporters’ only regular chance to ask Mr. Adams whatever they want.The mayor, whose interactions with reporters have often been contentious, imposed the ban after calling Mr. Sommerfeldt “disruptive” and “disrespectful” for shouting questions without being called on first, as is the custom at the so-called off-topic events.Mr. Sommerfeldt, one of two Daily News reporters who cover City Hall, has not been called on at one of the weekly events in more than three months, the newspaper reported.The exchange that preceded the mayor’s unusual move came as he discussed his plans for the general election campaign.Elected as a Democrat in 2021, Mr. Adams is skipping the party primary this year and has said he intends to run for re-election on two ballot lines of his own creation: EndAntiSemitism and Safe&Affordable.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 100 Shares129 Views

      in Elections

      Why Did Eric Adams Have So Many Cellphones?

      by

      Mayor Eric Adams of New York was said to have used seven different phone numbers. He argued that “many New Yorkers have several phones.”One surprising detail emerged in the trove of documents released about Mayor Eric Adams’s federal corruption case: The mayor used at least seven different cellphone numbers during the yearslong period in which he was under investigation.Mr. Adams had a ready explanation for why he had so many phones.“You have your office phone, you have your personal phone — you can’t mix the two,” Mr. Adams told reporters over the weekend, adding: “Many New Yorkers have several phones. I had also my campaign phone. So there’s a series of phones that you have.”The mayor said that he had to get additional phones after federal authorities stopped him on the street in November 2023 and took his electronic devices as part of the investigation.It was a glimpse into the personal life of a man whose habits have often been shrouded in uncertainty — his place of residence has at times been hard to pin down, and he has rarely been seen in public with his longtime partner — and have long been the subject of public curiosity.The mayor’s many devices were a prominent part of the federal investigation that led to his indictment in September on five counts, including bribery, wire fraud and solicitation of illegal foreign donations. Mr. Adams has maintained his innocence.The F.B.I. obtained warrants to track Mr. Adams’s location using cellphone data and found that he had used seven different phone numbers since the investigation began in August 2021, according to the roughly 1,700 pages of documents from his case that were released on Friday.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares199 Views

      in Elections

      Rodrigo Duterte Is Expected to Again Become Mayor of Davao City

      by

      Former President Rodrigo Duterte, who faces international court charges of crimes against humanity, remains very popular at home.Six weeks ago, a van piled high with flowers pulled up at the International Criminal Court’s detention center in The Hague. The court also received deliveries of birthday cards. Lots and lots of them.They were all for the newest inmate, Rodrigo Duterte, the former president of the Philippines, who turned 80 on March 28. He is accused of crimes against humanity, and he could spend the rest of his life in prison.“The place was inundated with flowers, and I brought some of the mail out because they didn’t know what to do with it,” Nicholas Kaufman, Mr. Duterte’s lawyer, said in a telephone interview. He said he had left with three sacks of mail for Mr. Duterte that the court was unable to vet. In the Philippines, thousands of people dressed in the green associated with Mr. Duterte’s political party flooded the streets of Davao City.Mr. Duterte, who ordered a brutal antidrug campaign in which tens of thousands of people died during his presidency, remains very popular in the Philippines. With Filipinos voting in midterm elections on Monday, he is expected to win another term as mayor of Davao City, his eighth, by a landslide. For now, he remains eligible for office.Mr. Duterte’s sudden arrest and extradition to The Hague in March has sharply divided the Philippines. While some polls show that a majority of Filipinos back the international investigation, many of Mr. Duterte’s supporters believe that he is a victim of political persecution by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., once an ally of the Duterte clan.Soon after Mr. Duterte’s dramatic arrest, Mr. Marcos’s approval rating plummeted to 25 percent from 42 percent a month earlier, in a survey conducted by Pulse Asia. But that of Sara Duterte — the current vice president and daughter of Mr. Duterte — rose to 59 percent from 52 percent.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 150 Shares99 Views

      in Elections

      3 Lawmakers Involved in Newark ICE Protest Could Be Arrested, DHS Says

      by

      The legislators were with Mayor Ras Baraka when he was arrested Friday outside an immigration detention facility. A Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman said they could face assault charges.A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security suggested on Saturday that three Democratic members of Congress might face assault charges after a confrontation outside an immigration detention facility in Newark during the arrest of the city’s mayor, even as new details emerged that appeared to contradict the Trump administration’s account of the surrounding events.The three lawmakers — Representatives Bonnie Watson Coleman, Rob Menendez and LaMonica McIver of New Jersey — were inside the facility on Friday for what they described as a congressional oversight visit, which they have the right to conduct under federal law. The facility, Delaney Hall, received its first detainees last week and is eventually expected to hold as many as 1,000 migrants at a time.Soon after the legislators left the building on Friday afternoon, Newark’s mayor, Ras J. Baraka, was arrested by the head of Homeland Security Investigations in a brief but volatile clash that involved a team of masked federal agents wearing military fatigues and the three lawmakers. He was then taken to a separate federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the city and released five hours later.Precisely what led to Mr. Baraka’s arrest on federal trespassing charges, in a public area outside a facility that is owned by a private prison company, remains unclear. But much of what unfolded was recorded by journalists, as well as by cameras worn by law enforcement officials and videos taken by activists protesting nearby.Mayor Ras J. Baraka had pushed back against the Trump administration’s characterization of the events surrounding his arrest. “This is all fabrication,” he told reporters Saturday.Dakota Santiago for The New York TimesTricia McLaughlin, the Homeland Security spokeswoman, told CNN on Saturday that a body camera video showed “members of Congress assaulting our ICE enforcement officers, including body-slamming a female ICE officer.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares99 Views

      in Elections

      Eric Adams to Meet With Trump in Washington About NYC ‘Priorities’

      by

      The meeting on Friday between Mayor Eric Adams of New York City and President Trump comes as documents related to his abandoned federal corruption case are set to be released.Mayor Eric Adams of New York City was scheduled to meet with President Trump in Washington on Friday just hours before documents related to his abandoned federal corruption case were set to be released.The mayor’s office announced on Friday morning that Mr. Adams would visit Mr. Trump at 3 p.m. to “discuss New York City priorities.”The timing coincides with the expected release of material related to the shuttered criminal case against Mr. Adams, which the Trump administration dropped earlier this year. The material, which is scheduled to be filed by the Justice Department late Friday afternoon, includes search warrants related to the investigation, as well as affidavits describing the evidence.The material is expected to elucidate the charges against Mr. Adams, which a federal judge, Dale E. Ho, dismissed last month after a request from high-ranking officials in the Justice Department who said it was hindering the mayor’s cooperation with the president’s immigration agenda.Earlier this week, the New York Police Department announced it was investigating why its officers gave investigators from the Department of Homeland Security the sealed arrest record of a New Jersey woman who was detained at a protest as part of their efforts to deport her.The Justice Department’s move to abandon the case against Mr. Adams caused an uproar within the department and led to the resignation of at least eight prosecutors in New York and Washington, including the acting U.S. attorney in Manhattan, Danielle Sassoon.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 163 Shares149 Views

      in Elections

      Bob Filner, Mayor of San Diego Who Left Amid Scandal, Dies at 82

      by

      A progressive member of Congress for two decades, he resigned as mayor after 18 women accused him of sexual harassment.Bob Filner, a progressive Democrat who served two decades in Congress and then successfully ran for mayor of San Diego, promising to shake up City Hall — but whose career imploded within months amid a storm of sexual harassment charges — died on April 20. He was 82.His family announced the death. The announcement did not give a cause or say where he died, but The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that he died in an assisted living home in Costa Mesa, Calif.Mr. Filner, who was known for his brash and combative style, resigned as mayor under pressure in August 2013, after 18 women accused him of sexual misconduct in his time as mayor and during his years in Congress.The women included a retired Navy rear admiral, a university dean and Mr. Filner’s former communications director, who said that Mr. Filner had told her he wanted to see her naked and asked her to work without underwear.He left office denying any wrongdoing. But two months later, he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of false imprisonment and misdemeanor charges of battery involving two other women. He was sentenced to three months’ home confinement and three years’ probation.“I never intended to be a mayor who went out like this,” he said.Mr. Filner, when he was the mayor of San Diego, at a news conference in July 2013 at which he apologized for his conduct toward women. He would resign the next month.Fred Greaves/ReutersWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 125 Shares189 Views

      in Elections

      Barbara Lee Wins Oakland Mayor’s Race in Her Return Home

      by

      The former congresswoman, a progressive Democrat, campaigned on a promise to unite residents in the beleaguered California city. Her challenger, Loren Taylor, conceded on Saturday.Barbara Lee, a progressive lawmaker known for her lone vote against military force after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, won the mayor’s race in Oakland, Calif., less than four months after she retired from a decades-long congressional career.Oakland, a city of about 436,000 residents across the bay from San Francisco, has struggled to bounce back from the coronavirus pandemic shutdowns, and frustrated voters last year recalled Mayor Sheng Thao after she had served less than two years in office. Ms. Lee, 78, was seen in the city as a trusted and experienced voice who could stabilize Oakland and help guide it out of crisis.Her rival, Loren Taylor, a former member of the City Council who ran as more of a moderate, conceded on Saturday after a dayslong vote-counting process. Mr. Taylor, 47, had gained traction with his detailed plan for improving Oakland, and appealed to voters who said they were increasingly fed up with crime and governance problems in the city.In the latest vote tally, Mr. Taylor trailed Ms. Lee by more than 4,700 votes, a gap that is unlikely to be closed by the remaining ballots. Mr. Taylor has received 45 percent of the vote and Ms. Lee 50 percent.After Mr. Taylor’s concession, Ms. Lee said she would address the most pressing problems in Oakland, working to unite a deeply divided city. “I accept your choice with a deep sense of responsibility, humility and love,” she said in a statement. Mr. Taylor said he hoped that Ms. Lee would fulfill her commitment to bring Oakland together by listening to those who had voted for him.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More