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      Early voting, a first for a New York mayoral primary, drew 191,000 voters.

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      This is the first time New Yorkers have been able to vote early in a mayoral primary, and experts said the turnout was pretty good.According to the city’s Board of Elections, 191,197 New Yorkers came to the polls during the early voting period, which began June 12 and ended on Sunday.“It was slow and steady,” said Bruce Gyory, a veteran Democratic strategist who has closely studied the city’s electorate. “It wasn’t like the presidential election with lines around the corner.”The city could be on track to see more than 800,000 Democrats vote in the mayoral primary — more than in the last competitive race in 2013, Mr. Gyory said. That includes early voting, absentee ballots and those who vote in person on Primary Day.The city’s Board of Elections has received about 220,000 requests for absentee ballots, and in a closely fought race like this one, those votes could make a difference. As of Monday, more than 82,000 people had filled out and returned their absentee ballots.If 300,000 Democrats vote early or by absentee ballot, then 500,000 voters on Primary Day would bring the total past 800,000 voters. Any figure above 850,000 would be considered a “healthy turnout” and one million would be impressive, Mr. Gyory said.“My own sense is I think it’s going to cross 850,000,” he said, though he noted that he was watching weather forecasts for rain on Tuesday, which could hinder turnout.If turnout is high, that could help someone like Andrew Yang, the 2020 presidential candidate, who is courting new and disengaged voters. One of Mr. Yang’s campaign managers, Chris Coffey, said he was pleased by signs of higher turnout in neighborhoods like Sunset Park, in Brooklyn, where turnout has historically been low.“We’ve seen lots of irregular voters showing up and lots of neighborhoods showing up in large numbers that don’t usually show up,” Mr. Coffey said. More

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      Eric Adams, Maya Wiley and Two Approaches to Policing N.Y.C.

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      An urgent debate is playing out right now in the Democratic Party about policing as cities see sharp rises in violent crime. The fight to control that disorder is also a battle for the direction of the party — do police departments need more resources to fight crime? Do they need to be restrained, given a long record of abuses and controversial policies like stop-and-frisk? How do the police earn more trust from Black and brown residents? Which tactics are right, and which tactics violate our rights?Nowhere are these questions more fully joined than in New York City, where two leading Democratic candidates for mayor, Eric Adams and Maya Wiley, have had a running war of words over race, policing and civil rights. Their clashes reflect an important debate within Black communities that stretches back decades. And if Mr. Adams or Ms. Wiley wins in Tuesday’s primary, he or she would become a national voice on crime; their arguments are revealing about the trade-offs facing Democrats and the urban voters who help make up the party’s base.“Eric thinks the solution to every problem is a badge and a gun,” Ms. Wiley said this month. “Sometimes armed police are the solution, but some problems we actually make worse when we bring in a cop who isn’t trained for the situation rather than a mental health specialist who can actually keep everyone safe.”For his part, Mr. Adams has slammed Ms. Wiley repeatedly, saying she wants “to slash the police department budget and shrink the police force at a time when Black and brown babies are being shot in our streets, hate crimes are terrorizing Asian and Jewish communities, and innocent New Yorkers are being stabbed and shot on their way to work.”The debate reflects a cruel, decades-old dilemma: Black neighborhoods are often over-policed and under-policed at the same time. The Kerner Commission study of inner-city riots in 1960s found a widespread belief in Black communities that “the police maintain a much less rigorous standard of law enforcement in the ghetto, tolerating illegal activities like drug addiction, prostitution, and street violence that they would not tolerate elsewhere.”When aggressive profiling and brutal use of force exist side-by-side with a lenient acceptance of low-level criminal behavior, a toxic downward spiral follows, as criminologist David Kennedy has noted: “Being overpoliced for the small stuff, and underpoliced for the important stuff, alienates the community, undercuts cooperation and fuels private violence: which itself often then drives even more intrusive policing, more alienation, lower clearance rates and still more violence.”Mr. Adams and Ms. Wiley are proposing two distinct paths.Mr. Adams, a 22-year veteran of the N.Y.P.D., has a public safety plan centered on hiring, training and deploying police differently. He wants to create a new version of the department’s plainclothes unit to target illegal guns, surge officers into high-crime neighborhoods, and reassign 500 cops who currently do work that could be handled by civilians.He also has laid out a process where community boards and precinct councils can help select local precinct commanders, and has vowed to create a more diverse police force, including by naming the first woman police commissioner.Officers stopping a driver at gunpoint in New York City.Wong Maye-E/Associated PressMs. Wiley, a former chair of the Civilian Complaint Review Board, has been vocally critical of the N.Y.P.D., most notably in a hard-hitting television ad that starts with jarring images of police officers clashing with protesters following the death of George Floyd, after which Ms. Wiley says: “It was an injustice to those of us who know Black lives matter. … As a mom and civil rights lawyer, I’ve had enough.”Her plan calls for “a radical reimagining of policing” that includes freezing incoming classes of cadets for two years, thereby reducing the N.Y.P.D. head count by 2,500 officers; creating a civilian commission to oversee the N.Y.P.D.; overhauling the Patrol Guide and removing cops from mental health crisis cases, traffic enforcement and school safety.All of these ideas should receive scrutiny and debate, because if one of these candidates wins, the N.Y.P.D. could become a laboratory of sorts for policing reforms and practices. Unfortunately, Mr. Adams and Ms. Wiley have tended to caricature each other’s positions, and some interesting nuances about their careers have been lost in the sniping.While Mr. Adams did, indeed, spend two decades in the N.Y.P.D., he joined at the specific urging of the Rev. Herbert Daughtry, a fiery activist who helped lead demonstrations against the department and recruited Mr. Adams and others to become police officers with the specific mission of making change from the inside.And Ms. Wiley’s career includes a three-year hiatus from civil rights work to work in the U.S. attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and a couple more years as a top adviser to Mayor Bill de Blasio. She later became the head of the Civilian Complaint Review Board, and has drawn criticism from some activists who think she didn’t do enough to reform the N.Y.P.D. from her powerful perch.New York City police officers clearing a subway train of passengers at the Coney Island station in Brooklyn last year.Corey Sipkin/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesIdeally, the next mayor will blend both of their approaches. A Mayor Adams would have to take seriously the public’s demand to fundamentally change the mission and mind-set of the N.Y.P.D. in ways that go beyond bureaucratic tinkering. A Mayor Wiley would quickly discover that a much wider range of tasks than she imagined requires the use of force and must be entrusted to the cops we have, not the cops we wish we had.Police officers, especially Black ones, are constantly navigating the tension between keeping neighborhoods safe and remaining true to deeply held community values of the need to fight for racial justice. My late father, Edward Louis, a 31-year veteran of the N.Y.P.D. who retired as an inspector, often spoke with pride about traveling with a contingent of Black cops to the 1963 March on Washington as volunteer marshals helping with crowd control. My father loved the sounds, sights and people of his native Harlem, where he grew up and spent most of his career — but he also understood the need to do battle, including physically, against the gun-toting drug pushers, armed robbers and pimps who had disrupted, degraded and destroyed countless lives in his beloved neighborhood.Many years later, I find it heartbreaking and infuriating to read about killings and shootings going on in the same streets and public housing developments my father patrolled — and equally disheartening to read about abuses of police power that erode trust in the ability of the N.Y.P.D. to help keep communities safe.We arrive at this crossroads for public safety at a peak moment of Black political power in New York. Black leaders currently lead four of the five Democratic county organizations in the city (Staten Island is the exception), and the State Legislature is run by the Assembly speaker, Carl Heastie, and the Senate majority leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, who both command supermajorities. And the seven Black members of the New York congressional delegation are the largest number of Black politicians ever sent to Congress from any single state in American history.In the past, Black leadership has periodically embraced harsh law enforcement tactics and tough-on-crime messaging. The controversial 1994 federal crime bill was passed with support from desperate Black officials in communities devastated by drug addiction and violent street crime. After other moments, like last year’s wave of Black Lives Matter demonstrations, more than 100 laws reforming bail, incarceration and police accountability were passed all over the country.It now falls to Black Democrats to show up and vote in big numbers in this primary election to resolve a debate where they have the most at stake, and offer judgments on two candidates who understand the issue and whose decisions as mayor would resonate beyond the five boroughs.Will we see a major investment of public dollars moved from the N.Y.P.D. into social services, as Ms. Wiley wants, believing that more community initiatives like youth programs and mental health services will translate into less crime? Or will we start with an Adams-style crackdown on guns and gun violence as a first step toward restoring safety and order in Black and brown neighborhoods? Or might we end up with some combination of both approaches?The 2021 election for mayor will be a moment that we’ll look back on — in satisfaction or in horror — at how New York chose to handle the twin challenges of public safety and civil rights. More so than in most elections, Black Votes Matter.Errol Louis is a longtime New York City journalist and the political anchor of NY1, where he hosts the weeknight show “Inside City Hall.”The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. More

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      Scenes From the Final Day of Early Voting

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      [Want to get New York Today by email? Here’s the sign-up.]It’s Monday. Weather: Partly sunny, with a high around 90. Scattered storms beginning this evening. Alternate-side parking: In effect until July 4 (Independence Day). Clockwise from top left: Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times; James Estrin/The New York Times; Hilary Swift for The New York Times; Andrew Seng for The New York TimesThe last day of early voting saw the top Democratic mayoral candidates fanning out across the city to make their final pitch to voters before Primary Day on Tuesday.[A swirl of activity was marked by creative politicking and deepening acrimony between Eric Adams and the rest of the field.]Here are a few scenes from Sunday:Garcia and Yang go for a walk in ChinatownKathryn Garcia, a former sanitation commissioner, and Andrew Yang, a former presidential candidate, appeared together in Chinatown ahead of a get-out-the-vote rally focused on attacks against people of Asian descent. It was the second display of unity between the rivals this weekend.Mr. Yang has encouraged his supporters to mark Ms. Garcia as their second choice on the ranked-choice ballots. But despite the apparent solidarity, Ms. Garcia has not returned the favor, saying she will not tell her supporters how to rank their ballots.Adams talks street violenceEric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president and presumed front-runner, denounced gun violence by returning to a Bronx street where a masked man had nearly shot two young children while attacking another man. “We need to get him,” Mr. Adams said of the gunman, his voice rising in anger. “He needs to be off our streets.”Stringer and family canvass the Lower East SideScott M. Stringer, the city comptroller, and his wife and two sons canvassed the Lower East Side of Manhattan, stopping to talk to voters, many of whom greeted the candidate warmly. At one point, a neighborhood resident asked Mr. Stringer for a photo.“That’ll cost you a first-place vote,” Mr. Stringer joked.Maya Wiley goes to church and then hula-hoopsMaya Wiley, a former MSNBC analyst and counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio, spent Sunday morning at two Black churches in Harlem and Brooklyn. Later in the day, she was seen hula-hooping at the Tompkins Avenue Merchants Association Festival.More on the mayor’s race:Why We May Not Know Who Won the Mayoral Primary for WeeksWho Do the Billionaires Want for Mayor? Follow Their Money.From The TimesNew York Faces Lasting Economic Toll Even as Pandemic PassesNew York City Lost 900,000 Jobs. Here’s How Many Have Come Back.‘It Hurts’: Season Is Over Before Nets See How Good Big Three Can BeWant more news? Check out our full coverage.The Mini Crossword: Here is today’s puzzle.What we’re readingEight candidates running to be the next city comptroller took part in a televised debate Sunday morning. [Gothamist]New York City’s building sector remains 25,000 jobs below its prepandemic peak — a warning sign for the construction industry. [The City]Service cuts on the B, D, N, Q and R lines are likely to continue through November 2022. [Daily News].css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-3btd0c{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-3btd0c{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-3btd0c strong{font-weight:600;}.css-3btd0c em{font-style:italic;}.css-w739ur{margin:0 auto 5px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.625rem;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-size:1.6875rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}@media (min-width:740px){.css-w739ur{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-9s9ecg{margin-bottom:15px;}.css-uf1ume{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:justify;-webkit-justify-content:space-between;-ms-flex-pack:justify;justify-content:space-between;}.css-wxi1cx{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:column;-ms-flex-direction:column;flex-direction:column;-webkit-align-self:flex-end;-ms-flex-item-align:end;align-self:flex-end;}.css-12vbvwq{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-12vbvwq{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-12vbvwq:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-12vbvwq{border:none;padding:10px 0 0;border-top:2px solid #121212;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-qjk116{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-qjk116 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-qjk116 em{font-style:italic;}.css-qjk116 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:visited{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}And finally: New York reopens, but normalcy is elusive The Times’s Troy Closson writes:The lives of New Yorkers were marked by solitude and alarm during the worst months of the pandemic: Tens of thousands died, thousands of businesses closed and the city’s regular tempo screeched to a halt. But as vaccination rates have climbed, the city’s long hibernation has begun to end.When some capacity restrictions and mask mandates fell away, neighbors, for the first time in months, greeted one other with bright smiles, no longer struggling to recognize the person behind the mask. Family members and friends reunited with long-sought embraces. Still, some parts of pandemic life — temperature checks and socially distanced lunch tables — remained.Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s order last week to lift almost all virus restrictions on businesses and social gatherings represented one of the final steps in the city’s reopening. The governor said the new guidance represented a “return to life as we know it.”But for some, the news was only a symbolic triumph, as the most stringent restrictions had been removed weeks ago. And the decision over whether to do away with precautions lies with individuals and business owners, many of whom said the governor’s announcement would not spur immediate change.“We’re not back to normal,” said Sedonia Croom, a longtime worker at Croom Boutique Salon & Spa, a family-run business in the Crotona area of the Bronx. The shop, she said, has no immediate plans to throw out its face-covering or capacity guidelines.“You still got to protect yourself and your clients,” Ms. Croom said. “You have no other choice.”It’s Monday — start anew.Metropolitan Diary: Playing hookyDear Diary:As a teenager, I lived along the Hudson River near the Croton-Harmon train station. During my senior year in the high school, I would cut class, take the train to New York City and use my babysitting money to go to museums.I knew when all the free and discount days for students were, and I would bring a book of my father’s that listed cheap and interesting restaurants where I could go for lunch. I would get back to school in time to take the bus home (or at least to make it look like I had).One time, I was headed home on the train and I spotted my father. (I found out later that he had left work early because he was sick.)I moved up a couple of cars and hid in the bathroom the rest of the way.I never told my parents.— Cheryl MayrsohnNew York Today is published weekdays around 6 a.m. Sign up here to get it by email. You can also find it at nytoday.com. More

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      Why We May Not Know Who Won the Mayoral Primary for Weeks

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      Although the primary is being held on Tuesday, an official winner is unlikely to be named before the week of July 12.The New York City primary election is this Tuesday, but it could be weeks before we find out who won the top contest — the Democratic primary for mayor.Given the electoral makeup of the city, the winner of that contest is highly likely to be elected mayor in November. On Tuesday night, we should find out which candidate is leading among the ballots cast in-person on Primary Day and during nine days of early voting.But election officials must then wait for tens of thousands of absentee ballots to arrive, and those will need to be counted as well.And there is a new wrinkle this year that makes the timeline more complicated: The city is using ranked-choice voting for the first time in a mayoral race. Only New Yorkers’ first-choice votes will be counted right away, but their other choices could potentially be decisive.Here’s what to expect.When we will know who won the Democratic primary for mayor?We might not have an official winner until the week of July 12. But we will find out some information before that.If a candidate wins more than 50 percent of the first-choice votes, he or she wins outright. But with 13 Democrats on the ballot this year, that is highly unlikely. If no one wins a majority, the rankings come into play.In ranked-choice voting, the last-place candidate is eliminated, and his or her votes are reallocated to whichever candidate his or her supporters ranked next. This continues until there are just two candidates left, with the winner being the one who receives the majority of votes.The city’s Board of Elections plans to reveal the first round of ranked-choice results on June 29, and it will release updated results once a week after that as absentee ballots are counted.The results posted on July 6 are expected to include some absentee ballots, according to the Board of Elections, but more complete results should arrive the week of July 12.Why will it take so long to find out the winner?Absentee ballots are not due until a week after Primary Day, and voters have time after that to “cure” any problems that arise.The city’s Board of Elections has received about 210,000 requests for absentee ballots, and in a closely fought race like this one, those votes could make a difference. More than 68,000 people have filled out and returned their absentee ballots so far.And perhaps more significantly, we cannot assume that the candidate who is winning after first-choice votes are counted on primary night will end up victorious. Another candidate could win more second- and third-choice votes and overtake that candidate.That’s why proponents of ranked-choice voting are urging New Yorkers to be patient.“Democracy takes time, and every vote counts,” said Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause New York, a good government group. “Accurate and fair election results are worth waiting for.”Is the candidate who is ahead on primary night likely to win?Ranked-choice voting is used in other cities like San Francisco, and the candidate who is ahead after the first round usually prevails.But there have been exceptions, including the 2010 mayoral election in Oakland, Calif., in which Jean Quan won despite placing second in the first round. Ms. Quan collected more second- and third-choice votes than her top rival, boosting her to victory..css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-3btd0c{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-3btd0c{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-3btd0c strong{font-weight:600;}.css-3btd0c em{font-style:italic;}.css-w739ur{margin:0 auto 5px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.625rem;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-size:1.6875rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}@media (min-width:740px){.css-w739ur{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-9s9ecg{margin-bottom:15px;}.css-uf1ume{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:justify;-webkit-justify-content:space-between;-ms-flex-pack:justify;justify-content:space-between;}.css-wxi1cx{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:column;-ms-flex-direction:column;flex-direction:column;-webkit-align-self:flex-end;-ms-flex-item-align:end;align-self:flex-end;}.css-12vbvwq{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-12vbvwq{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-12vbvwq:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-12vbvwq{border:none;padding:10px 0 0;border-top:2px solid #121212;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-qjk116{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-qjk116 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-qjk116 em{font-style:italic;}.css-qjk116 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:visited{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}So be wary of any candidate who tries to declare victory on Tuesday night.What should voters look for as election results arrive?The campaigns will look at two key figures on election night: voter turnout and the gap between the two candidates who get the most votes.There are about 3.2 million registered Democrats in New York City. In the last competitive mayoral primary, in 2013, about 700,000 Democrats voted.More than 191,000 people cast their ballots during the early voting period that ended Sunday.If overall turnout is high, that could help someone like Andrew Yang, the former presidential candidate, who is courting new and disengaged voters.If turnout is low, that could help a candidate like Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, who has support from unions and party leaders who are highly likely to show up at the polls.The campaigns will also examine the gap between the top two candidates and whether the person in first place on primary night is winning by a wide margin. If that is the case, even a strong showing by another candidate as voters’ second and third choices might not make up the difference.What about the Republican primary?The Republican primary for mayor is much simpler. There are only two candidates: Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, and Fernando Mateo, an entrepreneur.We should know the winner on primary night based on who has a majority of votes.The winner of the Republican primary will face off against the winner of the Democratic one in the general election on Nov. 2.Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than six to one in New York City, meaning it is likely, though not guaranteed, that the Democratic candidate will win in November. More

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      Who Are the Billionaires’ Picks for New York Mayor? Follow the Money.

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      Ultrawealthy donors have given $16 million to super PACs dedicated to the New York City mayor’s race. Half of that money has gone to three moderate candidates.More than seven years after one of the nation’s wealthiest men stepped down as New York City’s mayor and was replaced by a successor who shunned the rich, billionaires have re-emerged as a potent force in the mayor’s race.Together, billionaires have spent more than $16 million this year on super PACs that are primarily focused on the mayoral primary campaign that ends on Tuesday — the first mayoral election in the city’s history to feature such loosely regulated organizations devoted to individual candidates.Overall, super PAC spending in the mayor’s race has exceeded $24 million, according to the New York City Campaign Finance Board, making up roughly 30 percent of the $79 million spent on the campaign.The impact has been dramatic: a deluge of campaign mailers and political ads on radio, television and the internet, especially in recent weeks, as the unusually large field of Democratic candidates vied to win over an electorate distracted by the pandemic.Dedicated super PACs exist for all but one of the eight major Democratic candidates, but half of the billionaires’ spending has benefited just three of the field’s more moderate contenders: Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president who is considered the front-runner; Andrew Yang, the 2020 presidential candidate and a top rival; and Raymond J. McGuire, a former Citigroup executive who trails in the polls.At least 14 individuals that Forbes magazine has identified as billionaires have donated to mayoral-related super PACs. Several run companies that are headquartered in New York City, while others have interests that would benefit from a good relationship with City Hall, and they are hedging their bets in an apparent effort to improve their chances of backing the winner.Steven A. Cohen, the hedge fund billionaire who owns the Mets, donated $500,000 to Mr. Yang’s super PAC and $500,000 to Mr. Adams’s in mid-May, when the two candidates were leading the polls. But as Mr. Yang’s support appeared to wane and Mr. Adams’s grew, Mr. Cohen cut off Mr. Yang and donated another $1 million to Mr. Adams.A similar trajectory characterizes the giving patterns of Daniel S. Loeb, another hedge fund billionaire and an outspoken supporter of charter schools and former chairman of Success Academy Charter Schools. He donated $500,000 to Mr. Adams’s super PAC and $500,000 to Mr. Yang’s super PAC in mid-May. Three weeks later, as Mr. Adams was cementing his front-runner status, Mr. Loeb gave Mr. Adams’s super PAC another $500,000.Both Mr. Adams and Mr. Yang have expressed support for charter schools. Ray McGuire’s super PAC has raised roughly $7 million from donors like Kenneth Langone, the billionaire co-founder of Home Depot.James Estrin/The New York TimesThe flood of money — which has also affected other key contests like the Manhattan district attorney’s race — comes as the pandemic has illuminated the stark differences between the city’s have and have-nots even as the mayor’s race has been more focused on gun crime and public safety than on inequality.The super PACs also threaten to undermine New York City’s campaign finance system, which is designed to combat the power of big money in politics by using city funds to match small donations.This year, the city rolled out an enhanced version of that system, offering richer rewards for small donations, and has thus far handed out more than $39 million to the mayoral candidates. But it is far from clear that New York City’s campaign finance system — considered a national model — can withstand the big-money onslaught wrought by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision of 2010, which allowed outside groups to spend an unlimited amount of money in elections.A super PAC played a small role in the last competitive mayoral primary in 2013, when an animal rights group helped fund a super PAC that attacked Christine Quinn, then the City Council speaker who had been a favorite in the race, because of her support for horse-drawn carriages in Central Park.The following year, the courts struck down a state cap on the size of contributions to super PACs.“Now in 2021, New York City has a term-limited Democratic incumbent with no heir apparent, which has led to a wide open mayoral race run with campaigns run by consultants with deep experience using candidate super PACs in federal campaigns,” said John Kaehny, the executive director of Reinvent Albany. Super PACs are theoretically independent of the political campaigns, and their spending is not supposed to be coordinated with individual candidates. But questions of the funds’ independence emerged in April, when New York City’s Campaign Finance Board withheld the release of public matching funds to the campaign of Shaun Donovan, who served as the Obama administration’s housing secretary and budget director.The board wanted to delve into the relationship between Mr. Donovan’s campaign and the super PAC supporting him, New Start N.Y.C., which is largely funded by his father. The board eventually released the matching funds.“Who’s going to be mayor matters to a lot of people with a lot of money,” said Lawrence Norden, the director of the electoral reform program at the Brennan Center for Justice. “You have to ask yourself when people are spending tens of thousands of dollars or hundreds of thousands of dollars to support a candidate, why are they doing it and what do they hope to get out of it?”Some billionaire donors who had supported a super PAC behind Andrew Yang have switched financial allegiances to Eric Adams.Andrew Seng for The New York TimesOne thing some may hope to get is an expansion of charter schools in the city. Other billionaires financing super PACs in this primary include four investors who support charter schools, a favored cause of financiers skeptical of district public schools: Stanley Druckenmiller and Paul Tudor Jones, who donated $500,000 and $600,000, respectively, to the Adams super PAC; Kenneth Griffin, another hedge fund manager, who has donated $750,000 to both the Adams and Yang super PACs; and Pennsylvania investor Jeffrey Yass, who donated $500,000 to Mr. Yang’s super PAC.As it happens, the president of Mr. Adams’s super PAC is Jenny Sedlis, who is on leave from a charter school advocacy group, Students First NY, and co-founded Success Academy, which has received direct financial support from Mr. Griffin.Scott M. Stringer, the New York City comptroller, has been critical of some charter school practices, which helped earn him the endorsement of the United Federation of Teachers. NY4Kids, a teachers’ union-backed super PAC supporting Mr. Stringer, reported raising nearly $6 million, with about $4.2 million raised and spent for the mayor’s race, a spokesman said.Mr. Stringer’s campaign has struggled following accusations that he made unwanted sexual advances decades ago, which he has denied. Cassie Prugh, the treasurer of the organization, said the group had focused on using their budget to make relatively early investments for Mr. Stringer. Various corporate entities controlled by the Dolan family, which owns Madison Square Garden, have put roughly $6 million into another super PAC, the Coalition to Restore New York, which highlights the same quality of life issues that have been central to the campaigns of Mr. Yang, Mr. Adams and Kathryn Garcia, a former sanitation commissioner. The super PAC has asked mayoral candidates, as well as candidates for other city offices, how they would fight crime, reignite tourism and stop the “exodus” of New Yorkers from the city.“The Coalition to Restore New York is candidate-agnostic and is not supporting or opposing anyone for office in 2021,” said Rich Constable, an executive vice president at Madison Square Garden.State and city records indicate the super PACs for Mr. Donovan, Mr. McGuire and Mr. Adams each raised about $7 million, and the two super PACs for Mr. Yang together raised more than $4 million. The super PAC for Ms. Garcia, another leading moderate, started late in the race and has raised $306,000..css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-3btd0c{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-3btd0c{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-3btd0c strong{font-weight:600;}.css-3btd0c em{font-style:italic;}.css-w739ur{margin:0 auto 5px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.625rem;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-size:1.6875rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}@media (min-width:740px){.css-w739ur{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-9s9ecg{margin-bottom:15px;}.css-uf1ume{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:justify;-webkit-justify-content:space-between;-ms-flex-pack:justify;justify-content:space-between;}.css-wxi1cx{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:column;-ms-flex-direction:column;flex-direction:column;-webkit-align-self:flex-end;-ms-flex-item-align:end;align-self:flex-end;}.css-12vbvwq{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-12vbvwq{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-12vbvwq:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-12vbvwq{border:none;padding:10px 0 0;border-top:2px solid #121212;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-qjk116{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-qjk116 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-qjk116 em{font-style:italic;}.css-qjk116 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:visited{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}Those who donated to the super PAC supporting Mr. McGuire may not get much of a return. Mr. McGuire, the only major candidate who is not participating in the city’s matching funds program, continues to poll in the single digits. Four individuals that Forbes considers billionaires have nevertheless supported the super PAC backing him, including the Home Depot co-founder, Kenneth Langone; the Loews Corporation heiress, Laurie Tisch; the Estee Lauder heir, Leonard Lauder; and William Ackman, an investor.Two super PACS supporting Maya Wiley, the leading left-wing candidate, have reported raising $1 million.Jonah Markowitz for The New York TimesMaya Wiley, the former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio, is considered the leading left-wing candidate, and she has the support of two super PACs; one is affiliated with Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union and the other with the Working Families Party.The billionaire investor George Soros has committed $500,000 to each. The Working Families Party will use that funding to make phone calls and knock on doors in support of Ms. Wiley and its other candidates in the primary, targeting New Yorkers who voted on the party’s line last year.“Right wing hedge fund billionaires think they can buy this city, spending millions on Eric Adams and Andrew Yang,” the Working Families Party national director, Maurice Mitchell, said in a statement.Billionaire interest has also extended to City Council races and the race for Manhattan district attorney, where one candidate, Tali Farhadian Weinstein — a multimillionaire herself — has garnered support from several wealthy donors, including Mr. Griffin and Mr. Ackman. Ms. Farhadian Weinstein has said that the donations will not influence her.In recent weeks, Ms. Farhadian Weinstein gave her own campaign $8.2 million, drawing anger from some of her competitors.Mr. Norden of the Brennan Center said that such giving was not without precedent in New York politics, comparing it to the self-funding in the mayoral campaigns of the billionaire Michael R. Bloomberg.“The trouble is that money shouldn’t be determining who has a shot at being on the ballot and getting their message out to voters,” he said.Mr. Soros also pledged $1 million to the super PAC Color of Change, aimed at helping another district attorney candidate, Alvin Bragg. A spokeswoman for the super PAC said that nearly $500,000 had been spent on Mr. Bragg’s behalf as of Friday.The billionaire with arguably the longest-standing interest in the mayor’s race, the Hudson Yards developer Stephen M. Ross, is also funding a super PAC, but is not backing a particular candidate. Rather, the Related Companies chairman is trying to sway the election toward the center by sending mailers to New Yorkers who only recently registered as Democrats — a tactic that dovetailed with another super PAC, sponsored by a Related executive’s wife, created to persuade Republicans to switch parties.“Remember, who you vote for is private, but whether or not you vote is a matter of public record,” one such mailer reads. “We’ll be checking the voter rolls after Election Day on June 22 and hope to see your name among those who have voted.” More

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      Adams Clashes With Rivals on Last Weekend of Mayoral Campaign

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      Eric Adams and Andrew Yang tussled on questions of race in a frenetic day of campaigning, two days before the June 22 primary.The leading candidates for mayor of New York City barreled into a frenzied final day of early voting on Sunday, a swirl of primary campaign activity marked by creative retail politicking and deepening acrimony between the race’s presumed front-runner, Eric Adams, and the rest of the field.While the campaign trail was studded with lighthearted moments — Kathryn Garcia did yoga in Times Square; Maya D. Wiley hula-hooped — there were also serious clashes stemming from Ms. Garcia’s late alliance with Andrew Yang, leading Mr. Adams and his surrogates to question the integrity of the election, with two days until the June 22 primary.Allies of Mr. Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, went so far as to baselessly claim that the appearance of an alliance between Ms. Garcia and Mr. Yang amounted to voter suppression — even though such alliances are common in elections with ranked-choice voting.This is the first mayoral election in New York City that is using ranked-choice ballots, allowing voters to support up to five candidates in order of preference.Ms. Garcia, a former sanitation commissioner, made another appearance with Mr. Yang, a former presidential candidate, on Sunday, but insisted again that did not mean she was backing his campaign.Rather, she suggested, their joint appearances, on campaign literature and in person, were a calculated attempt to get Mr. Yang’s voters to rank her second.Maya Wiley takes a circular diversion on Sunday from a day of campaigning.Hilary Swift for The New York TimesIn contrast to a number of her rivals who began the day in church, Ms. Garcia started with yoga in Times Square, and then visited Zabar’s on the Upper West Side and a greenmarket near Central Park, a schedule that might resonate with many a well-heeled Manhattanite.The schedule reflected the importance of Manhattan to Ms. Garcia’s strategy, but it also underscored her challenge: to draw voters from beyond Manhattan and Brownstone Brooklyn. She has openly acknowledged that her appearances this weekend with Mr. Yang represented one tactic to expand her support. She spent time later Sunday in the Bronx, the borough with the largest Latino population.With early voting winding down Sunday evening in preparation for Tuesday’s primary, voters streamed into polling sites in the five boroughs.As of Sunday evening, 192,000 New Yorkers had participated in early voting.Among them was Tom Werther, a retired police officer who carries a gun and thinks crime is the dominant issue of the day. On Sunday, he turned up to vote at the YMCA in Rockaway, Queens, but his first choice for mayor was not Mr. Adams, a retired police officer who also carries a gun and thinks crime is the dominant issue.It was Ms. Garcia who impressed Mr. Werther as “articulate” during a recent meet-and-greet nearby. He ranked Mr. Yang second, and Mr. Adams third.The final day of early voting happened to coincide with Father’s Day. Mr. Yang, a father of two, could be found tapping into his natural exuberance while posing for selfies on Sunday morning in Forest Hills, Queens.Andrew Yang campaigned in Forest Hills, Queens.Andrew Seng for The New York TimesThroughout his campaign, Mr. Yang has seemed happiest when he has been campaigning in person, surrounded by selfie seekers — a testament to the national name recognition and powerful social-media game that he hoped would drive him to City Hall.But as he withstood the natural scrutiny accorded to front-runners, his standing in the polls diminished, and his tone darkened. In recent weeks, he has spoken ominously about the perils of voting for Mr. Adams, someone whom Mr. Yang considers ethically dubious and who is now leading the polls.On Sunday, Mr. Yang’s original, crowd-pleasing spirit, the one he exhibited while vowing to be New York City’s cheerleader, was again on display.Matthew Rubinstein, 19, attributed his vote for Mr. Yang to that energy.“You see Andrew Yang going here, Andrew Yang going there,” said Mr. Rubinstein, who grew up in Forest Hills. “He’s on my TikTok, he’s on my Instagram. He’s everywhere, you know? He’s just more for the people.”Kathryn Garcia started the day doing yoga in Times Square.Michelle V. Agins/The New York TimesMr. Adams and his allies continued to voice concern that by aligning their campaigns, Ms. Garcia and Mr. Yang were trying to disenfranchise Black and Latino voters.Outside of a church in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, Mr. Adams said it was disrespectful for Ms. Garcia and Mr. Yang to campaign together on Juneteenth.“While we were celebrating liberation and freedom from enslavement they sent a message and I thought it was the wrong message to send,” Mr. Adams said. “Yes, Andrew, you are a person of color and the Asian community realizes that I am the strongest voice for people of color in this city.”.css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-3btd0c{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-3btd0c{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-3btd0c strong{font-weight:600;}.css-3btd0c em{font-style:italic;}.css-w739ur{margin:0 auto 5px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.625rem;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-size:1.6875rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}@media (min-width:740px){.css-w739ur{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-9s9ecg{margin-bottom:15px;}.css-uf1ume{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:justify;-webkit-justify-content:space-between;-ms-flex-pack:justify;justify-content:space-between;}.css-wxi1cx{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:column;-ms-flex-direction:column;flex-direction:column;-webkit-align-self:flex-end;-ms-flex-item-align:end;align-self:flex-end;}.css-12vbvwq{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-12vbvwq{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-12vbvwq:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-12vbvwq{border:none;padding:10px 0 0;border-top:2px solid #121212;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-qjk116{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-qjk116 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-qjk116 em{font-style:italic;}.css-qjk116 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:visited{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}At a campaign stop in the Inwood neighborhood of Manhattan, Mr. Adams was asked to respond to the voter disenfranchisement some of his boosters have claimed and he declined, even though his campaign sent out the statements.Mr. Yang and Ms. Garcia both disputed Mr. Adams’s assertion, and so did Ms. Wiley, who is Black. She said that candidates were going to make different decisions about strategy under ranked-choice voting.“I will never play the race card lightly unless I see racism, and I’m not calling this racism,” Ms. Wiley said.She also defended the ranked-choice voting system after Mr. Adams again raised concerns about it. Good-government groups praise the new system as an advance for democracy, by no longer allowing candidates to split the vote and by eliminating the need for costly runoffs. Mr. Adams has long condemned the new system and his allies filed a suit to forestall its implementation that failed in court. Many voters have also expressed confusion about the system.Eric Adams visited with parishioners at St. George’s Episcopal Church in Brooklyn.James Estrin/The New York TimesMs. Wiley, who supports ranked-choice voting, said Mr. Adams must be afraid of her momentum if he was complaining about the system.“I believe that ranked-choice voting is better for democracy, period — whoever people vote for,” Ms. Wiley said.For his part, Mr. Yang suggested he was in fact campaigning with Ms. Garcia to prevent an Adams victory. He has repeatedly cast doubt on Mr. Adams’s moral probity as the borough president has faced residency questions and scrutiny over tax and real estate disclosures. Later in the day, the central argument of Mr. Adams’s campaign — that the rise in street violence necessitates someone with his level of experience in policing — appeared to hit home in a personal way. The campaign used Twitter to announce that one of its volunteers had been stabbed; a week ago, the campaign said that a handgun was discarded in front of Mr. Adams’s campaign office in Brooklyn after a fight.Scott M. Stringer, the city comptroller, kept a relatively low profile on Sunday, though he did make an afternoon appearance with his wife and two sons on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and again in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn.Scott Stringer, the city comptroller, campaigned in Park Slope with his wife and children in Brooklyn on Sunday.Sarah Blesener for The New York TimesMr. Stringer’s campaign faltered after two women accused him of sexual misconduct from decades ago.Still, as he stopped to talk to voters on Sunday, many of them greeted him enthusiastically, and he sounded optimistic about his path to victory.“As you can see on the streets, the reaction is great,” he said.Reporting was contributed by More

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      Adams and Yang Tussle Over Race in Frantic Last Days of Campaign

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      Black leaders continued to raise concerns on Sunday about a new alliance in the New York City mayor’s race between Kathryn Garcia and Andrew Yang after the front-runner, Eric Adams, argued that the strategy was intended to dilute the voice of Black voters.H. Carl McCall, the former state comptroller, called their alliance “an attempt to bring the disgraceful national campaign of voter suppression to New York.” Representative Gregory W. Meeks, chairman of the Queens Democratic Party, said the “stunt reeks of desperation and our community is too engaged to fall for this.” Mr. McCall has endorsed Mr. Adams while Mr. Meeks has said that Mr. Adams will be the second choice on his ranked-choice ballot, after Ray McGuire.Mr. Adams is arguing that Mr. Yang and Ms. Garcia are working together to prevent “a person of color” — specifically a Black or Latino person — from becoming mayor. His supporters have asserted that the alliance could disenfranchise Black voters. (Mr. Yang has responded by saying, “I would tell Eric Adams that I’ve been Asian my entire life.”)In a news conference in Chinatown, Mr. Yang said Mr. Adams was being divisive when he criticized his alliance with Ms. Garcia. “New Yorkers know that we need to come together, that if the next mayor comes into office and we’re still divided, we’re still sniping at each other, we’re never going to overcome the challenges that are getting more serious around us all the time,” he said.Mr. Yang said that he and Ms. Garcia began campaigning together on Saturday in part because he wanted to ensure the city’s next mayor would “stand up for people and families and not be beholden to special interests” or “enter under a cloud of investigation and suspicion.” He declined to say whether he was talking about Mr. Adams.In Chinatown, Mr. Yang sought to give voice to the concerns of Asian-Americans about rising anti-Asian violence, saying “we are vulnerable.” A vote for him, he suggested, would help rebuff the idea that Asian Americans in the city did not belong.“One way to send that message would be to have the first Asian American mayor of the City of New York,” Mr. Yang said.Mr. Yang appeared in Chinatown with Ms. Garcia at a rally against anti-Asian violence. Another candidate, Maya Wiley, also appeared at the event, but separately. Ms. Wiley, who is a Black woman, said she did not agree with Mr. Adams’s assertion that the Yang-Garcia alliance was an attempt to dilute the Black vote. She said that candidates are going to make different decisions about strategy under ranked-choice voting.“I will never play the race card lightly unless I see racism, and I’m not calling this racism,” Ms. Wiley said. Ms. Wiley also defended the ranked-choice system, asserting that Mr. Adams is complaining about it because he is concerned about her momentum. “I believe that ranked-choice voting is better for democracy period — whoever people vote for,” Ms. Wiley said. More

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      Scott Stringer Recruits Family to Campaign on Father's Day

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      A competitive and grueling mayor’s race does not take Father’s Day off.Just look to Scott M. Stringer, who turned campaigning into a family affair on Sunday afternoon, when he, his wife and two sons canvassed on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Mr. Stringer, the city comptroller, said.It was not Mr. Stringer’s first time getting out the vote on Father’s Day. He has been an elected official in some capacity in New York since 1993. That experience has been a major theme in his campaign for mayor. Mr. Stringer has hoped that his extensive political career would appeal to voters looking for know-how, while his shift toward progressive politics would attract left-leaning Democrats.But Mr. Stringer’s campaign faltered after two women accused him of sexual misconduct, allegations dating from decades ago. Mr. Stringer has denied the allegations and suggested that both were politically motivated. But a number of progressive groups and lawmakers who had endorsed him moved their support to other candidates, particularly Maya Wiley, who has sought to establish herself as the left’s best chance at the mayor’s office.Still, as Mr. Stringer stopped to talk to voters, many of whom greeted him enthusiastically, he sounded optimistic about his path to victory on Tuesday.“As you can see on the streets, the reaction is great,” he said. “It’s a different view than the pundits may have. I’ve been in these elections before, and I’ve never been, you know, the pundit candidate. But we end up pulling these elections off, and I’m hopeful.”While he acknowledged that his message and Ms. Wiley’s had become very similar in recent weeks, he still believed that his time in politics made him well-suited to lead.As he spoke and posed for photos with voters, his children — Max, 9, and Miles, 7 — were able to take part in the campaigning. Both sons, wearing blue “Team Stringer” shirts, were enthusiastically handing out Mr. Stringer’s pamphlets to voters. (Their success rate at stopping neighborhood residents was higher than their parents. Childlike cuteness has its advantages with voters.)At one point, a neighborhood resident asked Mr. Stringer for a photo.“That’ll cost you a first-place vote,” Mr. Stringer joked afterward.“Deal,” the man responded, shaking Mr. Stringer’s hand. More