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

    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.

    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

    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

    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

    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

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    Garcia and Yang Campaign Together for Second Day in Mayor's Race

    Kathryn Garcia and Andrew Yang appeared together in Chinatown on Sunday ahead of a get-out-the-vote rally focused on attacks against people of Asian descent, the second display of unity between the two Democratic mayoral candidates in as many days.Ms. Garcia, a former sanitation commissioner, and Mr. Yang, a former presidential candidate, met with a hug and a handshake at Kim Lau Square before walking together to the nearby rally. Mr. Yang said at a news conference before their meeting that he had long admired Ms. Garcia and that his supporters should include her on their ranked-choice ballots. He said he expected to campaign with Ms. Garcia again before Tuesday’s primary. “New Yorkers know we need to come together,” Mr. Yang said. That two of the leading candidates would appear together days before the vote underscored how ranked-choice voting has complicated the mayor’s race. It also showed how rival candidates can band together in a ranked-choice election to stem the momentum of a front-runner — in this case, Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president.“Andrew Yang No. 1 and Kathryn Garcia No. 2. That’s the way I want your ballots to look,” Mr. Yang said at the rally.But the message has not been equal from both candidates. Ms. Garcia has stopped short of explicitly asking her supporters to rank Mr. Yang — a position she reiterated on Sunday before meeting him in Chinatown.“I want his No. 2’s,” she told a voter before the rally, emphasizing she had not endorsed Mr. Yang. Later, during the rally, Ms. Garcia said voters should fill in all five choices offered on their ballots, and that people could have a “No. 1 and a No. 2.”For his part, Mr. Yang was repeatedly pressed at the news conference about Ms. Garcia’s comments — and whether he had expected an explicit endorsement from her. But he did not answer the question.“I’m thrilled to be campaigning with Kathryn yesterday and today,” he said.For all Ms. Garcia’s ambivalence about Mr. Yang, Ms. Garcia seemed to appreciate the possibility that some of his support would rub off on her.As the two candidates walked together for about two blocks, a crowd of his supporters marched around them. Periodically, they would start chanting Mr. Yang’s name emphatically. After the cheers died down, Ms. Garcia turned to him and said, wryly, “They really love you.”Another leading candidate, Maya Wiley, also attended the rally separately. More

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    Giuliani Embraces Eric Adams Before Primary. Adams Says No Thanks

    Eric Adams may not want Rudy Giuliani’s support, but he got it anyway on Friday when the former mayor of New York City said that if he were a Democrat he would back Mr. Adams in the mayoral primary.“There’s no question that Adams gives us some hope,” Mr. Giuliani said, stopping short of a full-throated endorsement. The former mayor highlighted Mr. Adams’s approach to crime, a top issue for voters across the city.In a subsequent campaign appearance on Friday, Mr. Adams did not seem particularly pleased by Mr. Giuliani’s comments and suggested it was an attempt by the former mayor to sabotage the campaign of a sometimes former critic.“I don’t need Giuliani’s endorsement, and we don’t want his endorsement,” Mr. Adams said. “One of the ways you sabotage a campaign is that you come out and endorse the opponent that you don’t want to win, and that’s what I believe he has attempted to do.”Mr. Adams became a Republican during Giuliani’s tenure, only to return to the Democratic Party later. Over the years, he has sent mixed messages about the former mayor, criticizing police brutality under his watch while also crediting him for the city’s falling crime rate.Mr. Adams is currently the frontrunner in the mayor’s race, though credible polling is sparse and the race remains fluid. He has also won praise from right-wing TV host Tucker Carlson, praise that Mr. Adams has also rejected.After Mr. Giuliani’s remarks, Mr. Adams’s opponents pounced.“Eric Adams is RUDY GIULIANI’S #1 pick in the Democratic primary,” said Eric Soufer, an adviser to Andrew Yang, the former presidential candidate, on Twitter.That prompted Rebecca Kirszner Katz, a campaign adviser to the campaign Scott Stringer, the New York City comptroller, to note that Stephen Miller, the architect of former President Donald J. Trump’s anti-immigration policies, has praised Mr. Yang for taking “positions antithetical to the progressive left in a very progressive primary.”“Andrew Yang is Stephen Miller’s #1,” she said on Twitter. “Don’t rank either of them.” More

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    Yang and Garcia Form Late Alliance in Mayor’s Race, Drawing Adams’s Ire

    Andrew Yang and Kathryn Garcia campaigned together on Saturday in a show of unity that their top rival, Eric Adams, sought to portray as racially motivated.Andrew Yang and Kathryn Garcia, two leading candidates in the New York City mayor’s race, joined each other on the campaign trail on Saturday, a late alliance that the contest’s front-runner, Eric Adams, immediately sought to portray as an attempt to weaken the voice of minority voters.Mr. Yang and Ms. Garcia stopped short of an official cross-endorsement, with Mr. Yang urging voters to rank Ms. Garcia second on their ballots but Ms. Garcia refraining from doing the same for him. Still, the two distributed fliers at a rally in Queens that featured their photos and names side by side.“Rank me No. 1 and then rank Kathryn Garcia No. 2,” Mr. Yang said.The display of unity, just three days before the Democratic primary scheduled for Tuesday, appeared to be aimed at Mr. Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, who has been leading in the polls. Mr. Yang and Ms. Garcia are centrists in the top tier of candidates who are trying to stop Mr. Adams’s momentum, and theirs was the first major alliance under ranked-choice voting.The new voting system, in which voters can list up to five candidates on a ballot in ranked preference, has made campaign strategies more complicated. Candidates are not just asking for votes; they need to persuade as many of their rivals’ backers as possible to rank them second or third. If Mr. Yang and Ms. Garcia can persuade their supporters not to rank Mr. Adams, that could significantly hurt him.Mr. Adams inserted the notion that Mr. Yang and Ms. Garcia were playing racial politics, a provocative claim that his campaign attempted to back up by distributing statements from several of his more prominent supporters, including the former Gov. David A. Paterson and the Bronx borough president, Rubén Díaz Jr., who echoed the accusation.Mr. Adams said that the alliance between Mr. Yang and Ms. Garcia was aimed at preventing a “person of color” from winning the race. “For them to come together like they are doing in the last three days, they’re saying we can’t trust a person of color to be the mayor of the City of New York when this city is overwhelmingly people of color,” Mr. Adams said.At a separate news conference, Mr. Yang responded, “I would tell Eric Adams that I’ve been Asian my entire life.” (Mr. Adams clarified that he was accusing Mr. Yang and Ms. Garcia of trying to prevent a Black or Latino person from becoming mayor.)The Brooklyn borough president, Eric Adams, said the Yang-Garcia alliance was an effort to weaken the voices of minority voters in the mayoral election.Desiree Rios for The New York TimesMr. Adams, appearing at a news conference on Sheridan Avenue in the Bronx, where a man was shot this week as two children scrambled to get out of the way, said that Ms. Garcia and Mr. Yang were being hypocritical, and he highlighted how Ms. Garcia had previously criticized Mr. Yang. “We heard Kathryn talk about how Yang treated her as a woman,” Mr. Adams said. “We heard how she felt he did not have the experience, the know-how, to run the city.”Ms. Garcia and Mr. Yang dismissed Mr. Adams’s allegations. “I’m not even going to respond to that,” Ms. Garcia said. Her campaign later released a statement that accused Mr. Adams of “resorting to divisive politics that erode New York City’s democracy.”Mr. Yang, however, still made it clear that the rally was aimed at Mr. Adams, whom Mr. Yang has criticized in the past as a corrupt and unprincipled politician.“There’s some candidates I do not think should be anywhere near City Hall,” Mr. Yang said before adding, in reference to the police captains’ union and to Mr. Adams, who is a former police captain, “One of them — his union endorsed me this week, and that should be all you need to know.”Ms. Garcia was more circumspect, even about her alliance with Mr. Yang. She praised Mr. Yang and said they shared some of the same stances, but said she would not ask her supporters to rank him second.“I am not telling my voters what to do,” Ms. Garcia told reporters at a news conference in Manhattan, adding that she would be open to campaigning with other candidates.A victory by any of the four leading candidates would be momentous: Mr. Adams would be the city’s second Black mayor; Ms. Garcia would be the first female mayor; and Mr. Yang would be the first Asian American mayor. Maya Wiley, a former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio, would be the first Black female mayor.The Rev. Al Sharpton, who has not made an endorsement in the race, said that candidates should be free to make their own strategic decisions about how to encourage voter turnout.“My sense is, everybody should do whatever they can to get the vote out,” he said. “I think it would be good if the other candidates teamed up, too, to get the vote out.”.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;}Indeed, aides to Ms. Garcia, who has been trying to increase her support in the Black community, said that the campaign of Raymond J. McGuire, a Black candidate and a former Wall Street executive, had contacted her campaign two weeks ago to discuss a cross-endorsement. After a forum, Ms. Garcia approached Mr. McGuire and said, “We should talk.”Ms. Garcia wanted access to the base of Black support that Mr. McGuire had cultivated in Harlem and southeast Queens, and she wanted an introduction to Representative Gregory W. Meeks and Assemblyman Robert J. Rodriguez, both of whom had endorsed Mr. McGuire as their first choice. Ms. Garcia wanted to visit a subway stop in southeast Queens with Mr. McGuire or take a trip to the Bronx with Mr. Rodriguez.The plan was progressing until Mr. McGuire’s campaign leaders changed their minds, feeling that the cross-endorsement would not help them because they already had white supporters, according to a person familiar with the matter.“It didn’t work out,” Annika Reno, a spokeswoman for Ms. Garcia, said, confirming the negotiations. Ms. Wiley suggested on Saturday that she, too, had been offered the opportunity to campaign with Mr. Yang and Ms. Garcia. But she said she “couldn’t do it” after Mr. Yang’s comments at the final debate about wanting to get people with mental health problems off the streets.The campaigns of Mr. Yang and Ms. Garcia both denied that Ms. Wiley had been invited to Saturday’s events. Ms. Wiley declined to criticize the joint appearance of Ms. Garcia and Mr. Yang, even as she seemed to dismiss the possibility of doing something similar.“Candidates gonna candidate,” she said on Saturday. “I’m going to talk to people.”Ms. Wiley also received an endorsement on Saturday from Alessandra Biaggi, a prominent state senator, another sign of momentum for Ms. Wiley among progressive leaders. Ms. Biaggi had endorsed Scott M. Stringer, the city comptroller, but withdrew her support after he was accused of sexual misconduct. Mr. Sharpton suggested that Mr. Adams’s strategy appeared to be centered on attracting as many Black and Latino voters as possible in places like the Bronx, Central Harlem and Central Brooklyn, and making inroads with moderate white voters. Public polls suggest that Mr. Adams has a clear advantage with Black voters, but Mr. Yang and Ms. Garcia are also competing for Latino and moderate white voters.“He’ll get some moderate white voters because of his crime stand,” Mr. Sharpton said of Mr. Adams. “With this uptick in violence, he’s the one that’s taken the definitive stand in terms of public safety.”The Yang-Garcia event did cost Ms. Garcia a ranked-choice vote from Jumaane Williams, the city’s public advocate. Mr. Williams had endorsed Ms. Wiley as his first choice and announced his secondary choices on Saturday, among them Mr. Adams.Ms. Garcia’s alliance with Mr. Yang, he said, was enough to exclude her from his ballot. “As I’ve said previously, while I have concerns about multiple candidates, at this point I’m singularly most concerned about Andrew Yang for mayor,” he said.Mr. Adams, for his part, seemed to be having fun on the campaign trail. At Orchard Beach in the Bronx, he appeared in swimming trunks, grinning and waving at beachgoers who called out greetings from the sand. Then Mr. Adams waded out into the water.Reporting was contributed by Anne Barnard, Katie Glueck and Michael Gold. More