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      The N.Y.C. Mayoral Race Is a One-Party Affair

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      New York City’s local elections are in full bloom, and all through town, Democrats are having a rollicking time.On Saturday night, Maya Wiley supporters were treated to a concert by the Strokes. Last week, outside the first in-person mayoral debate last week, rival campaigns gathered on West 57th Street. Instead of a brawl, though, a dance party broke out. Paperboy Prince, a rapper running for mayor, belted out a tune about affordable housing.“House, everybody needs a house!” he shouted as voters bopped to the beat and nodded in approval.In the crowd, Moises Perez of Washington Heights said Ms. Wiley was No. 1 on his ranked-choice ballot in the June 22 primary because she was “unapologetic about her progressivism.” Also, he said, “New York City needs a woman, a Black woman, for a change.”Nearby, supporters of Eric Adams and Maya Wiley put aside their differences over whether to defund the police and danced together in a circle, rocking out to the Pharrell Williams song “Happy.”After suffering through four years of Donald Trump — and eight years of Mayor Bill de Blasio — New York Democrats are in the mood to celebrate. The only problem? Democracy in New York City has become a one-party show.Before Mr. de Blasio was first elected in 2013, Republicans ran New York City for two decades. Now Democrats outnumber Republicans more than six to one. Primarily, that’s because the city has grown more liberal, while the Republican Party has grown reactionary and out of touch.The victor in the June 22 Democratic primary is so widely expected to win in November that the right-wing New York Post didn’t bother endorsing in the Republican mayoral primary.“It’s a joke,” Joe Lhota, the 2013 Republican nominee for mayor, said of the G.O.P. mayoral candidates. “These guys are buffoons.” Mr. Lhota is now a Democrat.The progressive Working Families Party has more sway in New York than the Republican Party and is a helpful antidote to the state’s often oppressive Democratic machine. Even so, many candidates backed by the Working Families Party also run on the Democratic line. This year, the party endorsed Ms. Wiley, as well as 30 Democrats running for City Council.Given the rancor of national politics, there’s been something reassuringly familiar about the tone of the campaign here, with candidates and canvassers politely trying to persuade voters in parks and at farmers markets.Near the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday, a diverse group of Eric Adams supporters that included off-duty police officers and emergency medical workers were treated to a mariachi band. Jennifer Aguiluz said her E.M.T. union, Local 2507, backed Mr. Adams for mayor because he supports a plan to raise E.M.T.s’ pay, which has long lagged far behind firefighters’ in the same agency. “He understands blue-collar workers,” said Ms. Aguiluz, who is a member of the union’s executive board.After the country was nearly lost to Trumpism, the questions about whether Mr. Adams, the front-runner in the mayoral primary, really lives in New York City at all are sort of quaint. (Mr. Adams says he lives in the basement of a home he owns in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn.)Even Brad Lander’s dad jokes are soothing. “They call me Dad-Lander,” Mr. Lander, a city comptroller candidate, told a small crowd at Brooklyn’s Fort Greene Park on Saturday as people with Black Lives Matter signs looked on.Less soothing was Andrew Yang’s rally on Sunday in the West Village, where a large group of enthusiastic supporters packed into a small space, many of them maskless, prompting this reporter to head for the exit.Seriously, though, one-party elections hardly make New York the Shangri-La of democracy.For one thing, voter turnout in local elections in New York City remains abysmal. In 2017, the year Mr. de Blasio cruised to re-election, just over 21 percent of registered voters filled out a ballot.Democratic politics in the city is flooded with the same special interests and money that undermine trust in government everywhere. The most depressing example this year is the race for Manhattan district attorney. Alvin Bragg remains the best candidate. Unfortunately, his opponent, Tali Farhadian Weinstein — who is married to a hedge fund manager and has raised millions, including hundreds of thousands from financial firms in the city — just poured $8 million of her own money into her campaign.And it is still harder to cast a ballot in New York than it is in several Republican-controlled states. North Carolina, for example, has same-day voter registration, something New York State can finally adopt if voters approve a constitutional amendment this November. Let’s hope they do: New York elections need more competition, not less.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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      What’s at Stake for the Mayoral Candidates in the Final Debate

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      The two-hour debate on Wednesday will be one of the last opportunities for the candidates to redefine the New York City mayor’s race.As the candidates for mayor of New York City barrel into the final stretch of an unpredictable contest, time is running short for standout moments and efforts to redefine the race.Indeed, one of the last chances to reorder the contest arrives on Wednesday night, as eight candidates gather for the final debate ahead of the June 22 Democratic mayoral primary that is almost certain to determine the city’s next mayor.Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, is widely regarded as the front-runner and is expecting to be a focus of attacks again, allies say.He has strong support among Black voters and is connecting across the city with New Yorkers who are motivated by fears of crime, polls show. Kathryn Garcia, a former sanitation commissioner; Maya Wiley, a former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio; and Andrew Yang, a former presidential candidate, are also considered among the top candidates, and one of them could still pull ahead in the final days of a turbulent and rancorous race.Mr. Adams has come under growing scrutiny over issues from his fund-raising practices to questions of residency. The debate is one of the last opportunities for his rivals to offer a counternarrative about his candidacy.The top four candidates are expected to share the debate stage with Raymond J. McGuire, a former Citi executive; Shaun Donovan, a former federal housing secretary; Scott M. Stringer, the city comptroller; and Dianne Morales, a former nonprofit executive.Each of the leading candidates has different mandates headed into the debate, which is co-sponsored by WNBC-TV.Maya Wiley has emerged as the favorite of left-wing Democrats.Jonah Markowitz for The New York TimesMs. Wiley’s allies say that she has a clear lane to herself: She has emerged as the favorite of left-wing Democrats with a message focused on combating social and racial inequities.Her challenge in the race is to build a coalition that is broad enough to win in a vast city that is not uniformly progressive, even in a Democratic primary. She is seeking to win over voters of color across the ideological spectrum as well as white progressives.Mr. Adams, Mr. Yang and Ms. Garcia, along with Mr. McGuire, have often taken a more expansive view of the role of police in promoting public safety than Ms. Wiley has, and issues around criminal justice and combating crime have been central flash points in previous debates.In a recent Spectrum News NY1/Ipsos poll, Mr. Adams had a lead on the question of which mayoral candidate is most trusted to handle issues of crime and public safety, and some of his opponents hope to undercut his standing on that subject.“We want to be contrasting with the other candidates, especially with Eric Adams, but also talking about a safe New York and a positive vision for New York,” said Chris Coffey, Mr. Yang’s co-campaign manager.Andrew Yang has slipped in public polling.Karsten Moran for The New York TimesMr. Yang also said Tuesday he intended to focus on public safety. He has slipped in public polling amid scrutiny of his knowledge of municipal government, as well as voters’ growing focus on the importance of combating crime. The debate is an important, if imperfect, chance to make another pitch.Mr. Yang this week also began airing negative advertisements on television against Mr. Adams, according to the ad tracking firm AdImpact — a move that could open the floodgates to a barrage of broader negative advertising.Ms. Garcia on Monday suggested she intended to stay above the fray onstage, but she has also signaled she is increasingly willing to draw contrasts with Mr. Adams on questions of experience and ethics.She is performing well in Manhattan, according to a new Marist poll and interviews with voters in neighborhoods like the vote-rich Upper West Side. But she must also diversify her coalition in the final stretch. And given her rise in the polls, she may find herself a target of criticism in the debate in a way that she has not previously experienced in the race, setting up an important test under public pressure.Reflecting Ms. Garcia’s standing, Mr. Adams held an event this week focused on her record, in a possible preview of clashes to come..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;}But even the strongest — or weakest — debate performance may ultimately have limited impact: Early voting is already underway, and a crowded stage will make it more challenging for any one candidate to dominate.Still, the candidates who are trailing in polls see chances to stand out.In a recent Marist College poll, Kathryn Garcia, right, was in second place behind Mr. Adams.Seth Wenig/Associated PressMr. Stringer once appeared poised to be the left-wing standard-bearer himself, but he has struggled amid two accusations this spring that he made unwanted sexual advances decades ago. He has denied wrongdoing. Mr. Stringer, a well-funded candidate and sharp debater, is “going to continue to make the case that he’s the best progressive candidate who can govern well and be ready on Day 1,” said Tyrone Stevens, a Stringer spokesman.Ms. Morales will be back in the spotlight after a campaign implosion where dozens of workers were fired amid a unionization attempt.And Mr. McGuire and Mr. Donovan, despite being aided by outside spending, have demonstrated little traction in polls. The debate is one last chance to stand out.The Marist poll found Mr. Adams at 24 percent among likely Democratic voters, when including voters who leaned toward him. Ms. Garcia followed at 17 percent; Ms. Wiley was at 15 percent and Mr. Yang, who had consistently led sparse polling for much of the race, landed 13 percent.Voters may rank up to five candidates in order of preference, and when several rounds of ranked-choice voting played out in the poll, Mr. Adams came out ahead of Ms. Garcia. But other surveys found different results, and polling is never predictive, much less in a relatively untested ranked-choice scenario.Gale Brewer, the Manhattan borough president, said voters are still navigating how to order their ballots. She described New Yorkers sitting in Central Park for long conversations with neighbors, trying to reach conclusions.“They know who their first is, and then they have no clue after that,” she said. “A debate can help with that.”In theory, ranked-choice voting was supposed to mitigate attacks, because candidates are hoping to have broad appeal and would not want to alienate voters by trashing their first-choice candidates.Yet the race has seen its share of negative campaigning. Lee M. Miringoff, the director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, reached for an old saying — “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” — to explain how candidates make determinations about which candidates to attack and where to make overtures.“They have to sort of demonstrate, ‘If you’re with me, stay with me,’” he said. “‘If you’re not with me, here’s why you should join my campaign. If you’re not going to do that, at least put me into the running so I can get into a later round.’”Emma G. Fitzsimmons and Michael Gold contributed reporting. More

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      Garcia and Wiley Try to Shift Momentum From Adams as Primary Draws Near

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      A week before the primary and a day before the final debate, Kathryn Garcia and Maya Wiley vied to be seen as the strongest alternative to the race’s front-runner, Eric Adams.One week until the end of a bitterly contested mayoral primary, and a day before the race’s final debate, Kathryn Garcia and Maya D. Wiley both tried on Tuesday to establish themselves as voters’ best alternative to the race’s apparent leader, Eric Adams.“I’ve been a public servant, and that means that I have been serving the people of New York City,” Ms. Garcia, a former sanitation commissioner, said in an interview at noon at her campaign office in Brooklyn. “And that’s what we need right now, not a politician who has curried favors.”“New York wants a different kind of leadership,” Ms. Wiley, a former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio, said in front of the Brooklyn Public Library’s central location an hour later. “No tinkering around the edges of problems that we have failed to solve, but actually stepping up and being bold and transformational.”The messages echoed the pitches the two candidates, both seeking to be the first woman elected mayor of New York, have been making to voters for months. But they have taken on a new urgency as time to court supporters is running out and polls show more city residents coalescing around Mr. Adams, the Brooklyn borough president.A poll released on Monday by the Marist Institute for Public Opinion found that Mr. Adams had the support of 24 percent of likely primary voters. Behind him, nearly neck and neck, were Ms. Garcia, at 17 percent, and Ms. Wiley, at 15 percent. (The poll had a margin of error of 3.8 percent.)At a campaign event, Mr. Adams exhibited the confidence of a front-runner heading into the final stretch.“The more New Yorkers hear my story and my vision, they just seem to like me,” he said, speaking at a rally with Mexican American leaders in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood.But that same survey that showed strength for Mr. Adams also reflected gains for Ms. Garcia, whose campaign has surged after major newspaper endorsements, and for Ms. Wiley, who has endeavored to consolidate support from left-leaning voters as other candidates have stumbled.It also showed some overlap in their bases: Among the voters who ranked Ms. Garcia as their first choice, Ms. Wiley was the most common second-choice pick. For Ms. Wiley’s supporters, the most popular No. 2 was Ms. Garcia.Yet for weeks, as both candidates have tried to chip away at their rivals’ bases, they have largely stayed away from attacking — or even mentioning — each other.They have also refrained from making statements of outright support for each other, even in an election using a ranked-choice system where being a voter’s second choice could theoretically help a candidate win.Maya D. Wiley, who has shown signs of strength after a string of endorsements from progressive leaders, framed the coming election as a chance for New Yorkers to make history.Mary Altaffer/Associated PressAs the campaign enters its final stretch, Ms. Garcia, one of the more moderate candidates in the primary field, has sought to woo voters across the broad political spectrum of New York’s Democrats.At times, she has seemed to try to thread the needle between progressive voters and centrist ones on a range of issues, particularly public safety.On Monday in Lower Manhattan, she told progressive voters — one of whom complained that she “comes across as a defender of the police” — that she would rein in police brutality and, if necessary, fire defiant police officials.That afternoon, in southern Brooklyn, she took a slightly different tone with small-business owners clamoring for more police officers on patrol. “I’ve been very clear,” she said “Everyone needs to be safe and secure, regardless of where they live or the color of their skin. I lived through the ’70s and ’80s in New York, and I don’t want to go back.”On Tuesday, Ms. Garcia sought to frame her pragmatic approach to city government — one that focuses on day-to-day operations over ideology — as a left-leaning stance. When asked about her stance on climate change, she said that “there is literally nothing more progressive than getting it done, the really hard work.”She has frequently made personal appeals to voters through canvassing or small events. On Tuesday, she held a round-table discussion with young people about how to improve the city’s foster care system.The issue is far from the center of the mayoral campaign, but it gave Ms. Garcia — who was adopted and whose sister was in foster care for seven years — a chance to connect with voters on an emotional level while highlighting her desire to cut through entrenched bureaucratic tangles.“This is a very personal issue,” Ms. Garcia said. “But also, this is the type of thing where we know it’s not working. And there’s another way of thinking about it that works so much better.”Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Ms. Wiley was again trying to unite progressives behind her, announcing a mutual endorsement with Crystal Hudson, a City Council candidate in central Brooklyn who is seeking to be the first out gay Black woman on the council.“There is a real choice for New Yorkers on the ballot,” Ms. Wiley said. “We, in an historic crisis, have historic choices. And one of them is to make history by, in fact, voting for the most qualified to lead, in a historic crisis.”Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, dismissed the city’s new ranked-choice voting system at a rally. Michael M. Santiago/Getty ImagesMs. Wiley focused on affordable housing, which has been a major issue in Ms. Hudson’s race. She reaffirmed her commitment to spending $2 billion to repair and expand public housing and to expanding housing subsidies to cover more New Yorkers.“This isn’t a crisis,” Ms. Wiley said of the city’s housing crunch. “This is an impending catastrophe.”.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;}Ms. Wiley also dismissed earlier comments by Ms. Garcia, who has sought to frame the race as a two-person contest between Mr. Adams and herself.But she did not explicitly criticize either Ms. Garcia or Mr. Adams, saying instead that she was focusing on New Yorkers’ desire for a “different kind of leadership.”Though Ms. Wiley and Ms. Garcia have both cast their ballots, neither has divulged her rankings.Of the top five mayoral candidates, only Andrew Yang, whose support has slipped in recent weeks, has been willing to name his second choice: Ms. Garcia.On Tuesday, Mr. Yang, who came in fourth in the Marist poll, reiterated that support, responding to a question about whether he would serve in a Garcia administration by saying, “I’d be excited to work with Kathryn in any capacity.”Mr. Yang sounded upbeat while speaking to voters in Kew Gardens in Queens. He said he was looking forward to Wednesday’s debate, where he planned to focus on public safety, an issue that has dominated the last month of the race.Mr. Adams, for his part, appeared to dismiss the value of the ranked-choice voting system, calling the process “complicated” and asserting that the city’s Board of Elections had failed to properly inform residents about it.“You go to the average inner-city New Yorker, and you say, ‘What is ranked-choice voting?’ And they have no idea,” Mr. Adams said at his rally. “I’m concerned about that, but I want people to rank their candidates based on their choice, but the first thing I want them to rank is Eric Adams as their No. 1.”Supporters of ranked-choice voting say that it gives voters more sway in a race’s overall outcome by allowing them to back a top pick but still voice their opinions on other candidates in the race.Lurie Daniel Favors, the interim executive director of the Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College, criticized Mr. Adams’s comments, likening them to efforts around the country to question the integrity of elections.“Ranked-choice voting has the potential to give Black voters more power at the ballot box by allowing them to select and rank candidates that address their concerns in order of preference,” Ms. Favors said. “Any attempts to frame ranked-choice voting as too complicated or to discourage voters from fully exercising their rights to vote are wrong and harmful to our community.”Jeffery C. Mays and Emma G. Fitzsimmons contributed reporting. More

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      Battle for Black Voters in N.Y.C. Mayor’s Race Centers on Policing

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      As New York’s Democratic primary nears, Black voters appear torn between Eric Adams and Maya Wiley and their divergent views on balancing public safety and civil rights.With concerns rising over violent crime in New York City, the Rev. Al Sharpton posed a sensitive question to several mayoral candidates at a recent forum in Harlem: Would they consider embracing the stop-and-frisk policing tactic as part of their public safety strategy?“Is that a serious question, Rev.?” said Maya Wiley, a civil rights lawyer. “We are not going backward to what beat us, what broke our ankles, busted our jaws and put our kids in jail for poverty.”But Eric Adams, a former police officer who, like Ms. Wiley, is Black, saw the issue differently.“It’s a constitutional policy given to law enforcement officers,” he said, while quickly acknowledging that the police had been allowed to abuse it by stopping people without probable cause.The sharp increase in shootings and homicides in New York has made crime the No. 1 issue for voters this year, polls show, but that concern is being felt even more deeply in predominantly Black neighborhoods that have struggled with both gun violence and the effects of overly aggressive policing.Black voters, who make up more than a quarter of the city’s electorate, are a valuable constituency: Their support played an instrumental role in the 1989 election of David N. Dinkins, the city’s first Black mayor, and in the 2013 win by Bill de Blasio, who is finishing up his second and final term.All 13 Democratic candidates for mayor have courted votes in Black neighborhoods and churches. But according to polls and interviews across the city, Black voters seem to be zeroing in on two of the seven Black candidates: Mr. Adams, who has led recent polls, and, to a lesser extent, Ms. Wiley.Their very different approaches to public safety and criminal justice concerns have become central to their attempts to win over Black voters, roughly a year after national protests against police brutality erupted after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.“Parallel with our concern about police violence is our concern about gun violence,” Mr. Sharpton said. “You have Black people that live in neighborhoods where we are afraid of the cops and the robbers.”At an early polling site at the Bronx County Courthouse, Zuri Washington, 30, said she ranked Ms. Wiley first and left Mr. Adams off her ballot because of their stances on policing and public safety.“I know that crime is up in the city, I understand that. But that doesn’t mean we need more police,” Ms. Washington, an actress, said after casting her ballot on Saturday. “There needs to be different strategies for moving forward, and Eric Adams is not that person.”But other early voters cited the rising crime numbers: As of June 6, shootings in New York City had risen by 68 percent from last year; homicides had risen by 12 percent over the same period.Fears of violent crime have led some leaders in predominantly Black neighborhoods to reject efforts to defund the police, highlighting a divide that cuts across racial, ideological and generational lines. “I would like to feel safe walking down the street,” said Barbara Mack, a retired guidance counselor who voted for Mr. Adams on Saturday in South Jamaica, Queens.“He’s been a police officer,” Ms. Mack said. “He’s supervised police. He’s tough. I don’t think he’ll accept garbage.”In the 2013 mayoral campaign, Mr. de Blasio seized on the Police Department’s overreliance on stop-and-frisk tactics, where officers stopped and questioned thousands of mostly Black and Latino men, the overwhelming majority of whom were found to have done nothing wrong.Mr. de Blasio aggressively opposed the police tactic, and was able to defeat a handful of more established Democratic rivals, including William C. Thompson, the former city comptroller who was the lone Black candidate that year.This year, four of the eight main candidates in the Democratic primary are Black: Mr. Adams; Ms. Wiley; Dianne Morales, a former nonprofit executive; and Raymond J. McGuire, a former vice chairman at Citi.Their positions on policing and public safety offer some clear distinctions, with Ms. Wiley and Ms. Morales on the left and Mr. Adams and Mr. McGuire toward the political center.Ms. Morales, who identifies as Afro-Latina, has embraced the defund the police movement by promising to cut $3 billion from the police budget and put the money toward social services.Mr. McGuire formerly served on the New York City Police Foundation, a nonprofit that supports the Police Department, and has come out firmly against the defund movement but said he will not increase the use of stop and frisk.Neither has made an impact in the limited public polling available, including among Black voters. In a poll released on Monday by the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, 43 percent of likely Black primary voters said they planned to rank Mr. Adams first; Ms. Wiley was a distant second with 11 percent.But Ms. Wiley has gained momentum, winning endorsements in recent weeks from influential left-leaning politicians like Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Jumaane Williams, the city’s public advocate.She has pledged to cut $1 billion from the police budget, cancel two classes of incoming police cadets and end the use of taxpayer money to defend officers in “egregious” instances of misconduct.“Stop and frisk is not coming back in a Maya Wiley administration, nor is the anti-crime unit,” Ms. Wiley said recently after greeting voters outside Yankee Stadium, referencing plainclothes units of officers that were focused on violent crime and were involved in a high number of shootings. They were disbanded last year but Mr. Adams has proposed bringing them back.Earlier this month, Ms. Wiley released an ad criticizing the Police Department’s response to the protests over the murder of Mr. Floyd. “They rammed into peaceful protesters, beat others to the ground and New York’s leaders defended it,” Ms. Wiley said in the ad.That same day, Mr. Adams also released an ad, titled “Safer,” which focused on how he plans to help New Yorkers “feel safe and secure” so that children could play “without getting hit by a stray bullet.”Maya Wiley, who has recently won endorsements from influential left-leaning politicians, argues that increasing policing is not the way to improve safety.Andrew Seng for The New York TimesFurther contrasts were clear after the shooting death of Justin Wallace, 10, in Queens. Ms. Wiley noted on Twitter that the “N.Y.P.D. couldn’t protect” the child, but it could “march through a park in riot gear, terrorizing people to enforce an arbitrary curfew,” referring to tactics employed at Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village.Mr. Adams said: “You can’t have a city where 10-year-old babies are shot.”Throughout the campaign, Mr. Adams has highlighted his background as a transit officer and as a Police Department captain who spoke out against discriminatory policies from within the agency. Mr. Adams’s testimony in 2013 helped a federal judge rule that the way the Police Department was using stop and frisk was unconstitutional..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;}After a shooting in Times Square last month that injured several tourists, Mr. Adams held two crime-related news conferences within 24 hours, and renewed calls to reinstitute the plainclothes anti-crime unit to focus on guns and gangs. He proposed a 511 hotline for gun tips following a weekend in May when the police said more than two dozen people were shot across the city, and he has denounced graffiti, ATVs and dirt bikes as signs of lawlessness.And after several instances of violence on the subway, Mr. Adams rode the train to Brooklyn from Manhattan with members of the Transport Workers Union Local 100 to call for more police officers to patrol the system.“It’s really wild out here,” said Cassandra Solomon, 55, a legal administrative assistant from Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, who spoke with Mr. Adams on the subway platform at West 4th Street. “I know the whole climate with the police and our young Black men, but we still need some kind of protection.”Mr. Adams has tried to moderate his message on policing by saying that he would improve police training and speed up the disciplinary process to remove abusive officers.Early voters in Southeast Queens over the weekend cited Mr. Adams’s familiarity with how both crime and police brutality can affect a neighborhood. Gail Whiteman, a fraud investigator with the city, and Karen DeGannes, a retired city police officer, said they both voted for Mr. Adams because of “the police situation,” as Ms. Whiteman called it.The two Black women said they believed Mr. Adams, as a former officer, was best suited to change police culture and reduce police brutality.Criminal justice reform advocates, however, say that Mr. Adams’s positions do not track with how the defund movement has shifted the conversation away from policing as the main source of public safety.“In the ’90s, the city saw the problems of joblessness and homelessness and the lack of mental health care, and the police were brought in to meet that need,” said Anthonine Pierre, a spokeswoman for the Communities United for Police Reform Action Fund. “That resulted in Black people being railroaded out of communities and into jail.”All four of the leading Black candidates say they would look for ways to move money from the police budget to schools, mental health and social services either through wholesale cuts or by cutting inefficiencies.But Mr. Adams is the only major Democratic candidate who has said that stop-and-frisk tactics should be used, as long as the interactions were analyzed to make sure officers are complying with the law.He has said he would protect officers who follow the rules, “but if you are abusive in my city you are going to be out of the department.” He has pledged to name a woman as police commissioner and said that he would give civilian panels the power to choose their precinct commanders.Yet even some Black legislators who have endorsed Mr. Adams disagree with his stance on stop and frisk.“I’m not a proponent of stop and frisk because it’s a net negative on Black and brown individuals, especially Black and brown youth,” said State Senator Jamaal Bailey, the chairman of the Bronx Democratic Party, even as his party endorsed Mr. Adams earlier this month. “But we can learn from someone who has had actual policing experience.”As the primary season entered its final days, Mr. Adams and Ms. Wiley have focused their attention on traditionally Black areas like Bedford-Stuyvesant, Southeast Queens and Harlem.On a recent Sunday, Mr. Adams held a rally with Black educators in front of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. A few weeks earlier he gathered with a group of mostly Black male supporters at Frederick Douglass Circle.When Ms. Wiley received an endorsement from Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the state’s highest-ranking House Democrat, she did so at Restoration Plaza, a community anchor in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Community Voices Heard Power, a group focused on racial, social and economic justice, half of whose members are Black women, endorsed her at the Harriet Tubman Memorial in Harlem.“I am here to tell you that we will no longer allow the powers that be in this city to talk about us without answering to us,” said Afua Atta-Mensah, the group’s executive director, her voice rising as if she was drawing vitality from the towering 10-foot-tall bronze statue behind her. “It’s our time now.”Sean Piccoli contributed reporting. More

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      In the Manhattan D.A. Race, Arguing for a Fresh Point of View

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      [Want to get New York Today by email? Here’s the sign-up.]It’s Tuesday. Weather: Clearing as the day goes on, but periods of showers or storms. High around 80. Alternate-side parking: In effect until Saturday (Juneteenth). Sarah Blesener for The New York TimesOne of the candidates for Manhattan district attorney, Eliza Orlins, has been a public defender for at least a decade. Another candidate, Tahanie Aboushi (above, center), has been a civil rights lawyer. A third candidate, Dan Quart, is a state assemblyman.None of the three has any experience being a prosecutor. And that, they say, is a good thing.Ms. Orlins, Ms. Aboushi and Mr. Quart have argued that true change in the criminal justice system — making it less punitive, for example, or less racist — can only come from someone who hasn’t been tainted by the establishment.But they are having trouble raising money, and distinguishing themselves from one another and even other candidates with prosecutorial backgrounds.[Over the past 45 years, the two men who have led the Manhattan district attorney’s office have come from the establishment. Some candidates say such experience is a bad thing.]The raceThere are eight Democratic candidates vying to replace Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the district attorney, who is not running for re-election. Aside from Ms. Orlins, Ms. Aboushi and Mr. Quart, they are all former prosecutors.Among the leading candidates, Alvin Bragg has been a prosecutor in the state attorney general’s office, and Tali Farhadian Weinstein has been a federal prosecutor and general counsel for the Brooklyn district attorney’s office.Mr. Bragg has pledged to reform the Manhattan district attorney’s office, saying he will work on reducing the number of people behind bars, create a unit to investigate police misconduct and overhaul the sex crimes unit. While Ms. Weinstein has staked out more moderate positions than other candidates, she has championed changes including forming a specialized unit to address gender-based violence.The outsider candidatesMs. Orlins and Ms. Aboushi have both said they will cut the size of the district attorney’s office in half and decline to prosecute many low-level crimes.Ms. Orlins has also spoken in favor of decriminalizing the buying and selling of sex. (Mr. Vance stopped prosecuting prostitution this spring.)Mr. Quart has taken a more moderate position and recently emphasized his commitment to public safety.From The TimesIs Bill de Blasio Secretly Backing Eric Adams for Mayor?Adams Attacks Garcia as Poll Shows They Lead Mayoral FieldYou Can’t Find a Cab. Uber Prices Are Soaring. Here’s Why.A Brooklyn Landmark Holds Its Head High Again‘C Is for Code Switching’ and Other LessonsWant more news? Check out our full coverage.The Mini Crossword: Here is today’s puzzle.What we’re readingA dead black bear with a large open wound was found in a parking lot on Staten Island, which has no known population of wild bears. [ABC 7]People who had been moved from homeless shelters into hotels during the pandemic are protesting a return to the status quo. [Gothamist]Eight years after Maya Wiley was tapped by Mayor Bill de Blasio to bring broadband to low-income neighborhoods, the program is still struggling. [The City]And finally: A trove of art in a humble apartmentThe Times’s Sandra E. Garcia reports:Observers of the art market have referred to the rising demand for work by contemporary African American artists in recent years as, among other things, a “furor” or “surging,” and the work itself as “a hot commodity.” Ten years ago, it was relatively rare to see a Black artist’s work set a record at auction.Now, such sales are routine, boosted by numerous high-profile lots, perhaps most famously Kerry James Marshall’s 1997 painting “Past Times” (purchased by the rapper and music producer Sean Combs for $21.1 million at a Sotheby’s sale in 2018) and, more recently, Jean Michel-Basquiat’s “In This Case” (1983), which sold at Christie’s in May for $93.1 million — an astronomical price, but still only the second-highest ever paid for a Basquiat.Given the hype surrounding such figures, it’s surprising that one of the more interesting collections of contemporary African American art is housed inside a fairly humble Manhattan two-bedroom apartment on Madison Avenue.It belongs to Alvin Hall, 68, a broadcaster, financial educator and author who, through good timing, taste and a bit of luck began collecting in the 1980s and has been able to buy masterpieces by artists whose work is now worth much more. At a time when art — and Black art in particular — has been inflated and commodified to the point of a quasi bank transaction, Hall is a model of best practices for non-billionaires hoping to amass a world-class collection. His apartment also illustrates some of the realities of how to live with art when you only have a minimal amount of space: He owns 377 works, 342 of which are in storage.It’s Tuesday — stop and look.Metropolitan Diary: Hardware Dear Diary:Walking up University Place toward Union Square, I saw a man coming out of a hardware store.As I walked by, a gray-haired woman holding a dog approached the man and asked whether he worked there.He tapped a cigarette out of a pack and nodded.“If I brought in a machete,” she said, “Could you sharpen it?”— Cindy AugustineNew 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.What would you like to see more (or less) of? Email us: nytoday@nytimes.com More

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      NYC Mayoral Race: Poll Shows Adams in First, Garcia Second

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      With early voting underway, the candidates are making their final cases to voters, and they are attacking their closest rivals.The front-runner in the race for mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, took aim at his rival Kathryn Garcia on Monday as the campaign entered its final week and a new poll showed that the two candidates were the leading contenders.Mr. Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, clearly sees Ms. Garcia as a threat: He held a news conference with sanitation workers on Monday to draw attention to allegations that women and minority workers at the city agency received unequal pay. Ms. Garcia ran the Sanitation Department until last year, when she resigned to run for mayor.Ms. Garcia, for her part, declared the mayoral contest a two-person race and defended her record.“I guess the mudslinging has started,” she said at a senior center in Manhattan. “So I guess he knows that we’re in a two-person race.”She said she had left the Department of Sanitation more equitable than she had found it.“I increased the number of chiefs and leaders in the department who are people of color by 50 percent,” she said.Mr. Adams leads with 24 percent support, according to the latest poll.Karsten Moran for The New York TimesEarly voting began in New York City over the weekend ahead of the primary election on June 22.In the poll, conducted by the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, Mr. Adams had 24 percent support, followed by Ms. Garcia with 17 percent and Maya Wiley, a former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio, with 15 percent. Andrew Yang, a 2020 presidential candidate who had once been considered the front-runner, fell to fourth place with 13 percent.Under the city’s new ranked-choice voting system, Mr. Adams would win with 56 percent after 12 rounds, while Ms. Garcia was second with 44 percent. The poll was conducted between June 3 and June 9 and had a margin of error of 3.8 percent.At Mr. Adams’s news conference, held near a sanitation enforcement facility on Flushing Avenue in Queens, he criticized Ms. Garcia’s management of the city’s sanitation system and stood with employees from the department who criticized her for pay equity issues.“I’m not throwing dirt on anyone,” Mr. Adams said. “We are running to be the chief executive of this city, and the question must be asked of those of us who have previous experience in government, previous experience in other professions, are you going to run the city the way you have actually carried out your actions in your other profession?”Mr. Adams also criticized Ms. Garcia’s leadership of the New York City Housing Authority, the city’s public housing agency.“If you’re a New Yorker that states you are pleased with how NYCHA has been run over the years, then she’s the type of manager you want,” he said. “If you believe you are pleased with the cleanliness of our city, then she’s the type of manager that you want.”Philip Seelig, an attorney for the Sanitation Department enforcement agents, filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in February and plans to file a class-action lawsuit. The agents, who are mostly women and nonwhite, receive less pay and lower pension benefits than the mostly white and male sanitation police, Mr. Seelig said.“She can’t turn a blind eye to what happened in her agency when she was running it, and she can’t expect to be a better mayor than she was a lousy commissioner,” he said.Earlier Monday, Ms. Garcia visited a senior center on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Asked how she would frame the choice for voters between herself and Mr. Adams, Ms. Garcia cast herself as a seasoned public servant rather than a politician and implied that Mr. Adams owed payback for political favors.“This is about experience: When you look at the borough president, he runs a hundred-person shop,” she said. “I run a 10,000-person shop and deliver services every day to New Yorkers.”“He’s been making deals and getting favors,” she added. “You know, I’ve just been serving the city and showing up.”Later in the day, Ms. Garcia, who is vying to become New York City’s first female mayor, commented on the poll as she greeted shop owners on Avenue P in the Midwood section of Brooklyn.“This confirms it,” she said. “We’re in it to win it, and it’s time for a woman.”Ms. Wiley, who has gained momentum after endorsements from progressive groups and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, voted on Monday at Erasmus Hall High School in Flatbush, Brooklyn, with her longtime partner, Harlan Mandel..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;}“This is an extremely emotional moment for me,” Ms. Wiley told reporters afterward, standing in front of a group of campaign supporters who had marched behind her to the polling place.“I’ve never run for public office before,” she added, “and to go in and walk into the high school where my partner’s father went to school and to see my name on the ballot is an experience that is very hard to describe. And it was very moving.”Mr. Yang held an event in front of City Hall on Monday to announce he had been endorsed by the Captains Endowment Association, the union that represents police captains. Mr. Adams is a former police captain, and Mr. Yang said it was significant that those who had worked with Mr. Adams for years chose Mr. Yang instead.“This to me should tell New Yorkers all that they need to know about Eric Adams and his leadership,” Mr. Yang said.Mr. Yang said it was important for the mayor to have a relationship with the police, in contrast to Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has struggled to get along with officers.“This city needs the police,” Mr. Yang said, adding that he would also rebuild trust between the police and communities of color.At the Adams news conference, Ydanis Rodriguez, a city councilman and supporter, emphasized that Mr. Adams would be the city’s second Black mayor and said Mr. Adams would ensure that streets in the “poorest neighborhood are as clean as Park Avenue and 75th Street.”Mr. Rodriguez also said several times — in English and Spanish — that Ms. Garcia was not Latina, in spite of her last name.“Kathryn Garcia no es una Latina,” Mr. Rodriguez said.Ms. Garcia is white and does not claim to be Latina, though her ex-husband is of Puerto Rican descent and she has referenced the fact that her children are half Puerto Rican.After the news conference ended, Mr. Adams returned to clarify to a reporter that he did not say that Ms. Garcia was not Latina.“I want to be clear that it is not my quote that Kathryn is not Latino,” Mr. Adams said.Katie Glueck, Michael Gold and Anne Barnard contributed reporting. More

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      Is Bill de Blasio Secretly Backing Eric Adams for Mayor?

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      The mayor is not making a public endorsement in the primary race, but he is believed to favor Mr. Adams, the Brooklyn borough president.It was one of the more memorable moments in the New York City mayor’s race: Eight Democratic candidates were asked at a debate earlier this month if they would accept an endorsement from Mayor Bill de Blasio.Only one, Andrew Yang, raised his hand.When the candidates each gave the mayor a letter grade, their consensus was that Mr. de Blasio had failed on a variety of subjects, including solving the city’s homelessness crisis and his handling of protests against police brutality last year.After eight tumultuous years in office, Mr. de Blasio is indeed loathed in many corners of the city. But some of his policies like universal prekindergarten are popular, and he has maintained support among Black voters — a critical constituency that helped him capture the mayoralty in 2013.With a week before the June 22 primary, Mr. de Blasio has not made an endorsement and has no apparent plans to do so.But several people close to the mayor say that he favors Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, and has worked behind the scenes to persuade others to endorse him.In February, Mr. de Blasio held a meeting at Gracie Mansion with leaders of three unions to discuss the mayor’s race and told them that he preferred Mr. Adams, according to two people who were familiar with the conversations.All the unions at the meeting — the Hotel Trades Council, District Council 37 and 32BJ SEIU — endorsed Mr. Adams a short time later in March.An official from one of those unions who asked for anonymity to protect his relationship with the mayor said that Mr. de Blasio had not only later lobbied his union to support Mr. Adams, but that he had witnessed the mayor try to persuade others to back him. The Gracie Mansion gathering was reported by Politico New York.“We’ve had many conversations. He is supporting Eric, and he’s pushing for Eric,” the union official said.The mayor and Mr. Adams have been allies over their long political careers, rose in the same Brooklyn political circles and share many of the same supporters. People close to the mayor said that Mr. de Blasio also believes that Mr. Adams shares his passion for reducing poverty and is best positioned to protect his progressive legacy.When Mr. Adams was criticized for his support of the Police Department’s limited use of the stop-and-frisk tactic, and questioned whether he was being truthful about where he lived, Mr. de Blasio defended him.“Here’s a guy who, you know, born and raised in New York City,” the mayor said last week. “We know his personal story. He overcame adversity, became a police officer, served for 20-plus years, became an elected official, has served Brooklyn for a long time. I just don’t see an issue here. Clearly a New Yorker, clearly a Brooklynite.”The mayor also asserted last month that Mr. Adams had been “a strong voice for police reform and against police brutality for decades.”Bill Neidhardt, the mayor’s press secretary, insisted that Mr. de Blasio has not made a final choice for mayor.“The mayor has spoken favorably about multiple candidates to unions and political leaders across the city,” Mr. Neidhardt said on Monday. “The mayor views this as an incredibly fluid race, and has not decided who he will rank first on his ballot, let alone whether he will endorse in the race.”Mr. de Blasio has been sparing in his praise of Maya Wiley, his former counsel, and Kathryn Garcia, his former sanitation commissioner.Ms. Wiley, in particular, would seem more philosophically aligned with Mr. de Blasio than Mr. Adams or Ms. Garcia, who are more moderate in many of their stances. But Ms. Wiley and Ms. Garcia have tried to distance themselves from Mr. de Blasio, criticizing his tenure at almost every opportunity.“He gets an F when it comes to what happened this past summer with police accountability,” Ms. Wiley, who also led the Civilian Complaint Review Board, which reviews police misconduct, said of the mayor at a recent debate.Maya Wiley has served Mr. de Blasio as his legal counsel and as the head of the Civilian Complaint Review Board.Nicole Bengiveno/The New York TimesThose close to the mayor said he could live with Ms. Wiley or Ms. Garcia as mayor, even though he has been annoyed by a few of the attacks, including criticism from Ms. Garcia over the ThriveNYC program, the mental health initiative that Mr. de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, has overseen.Stacy R. Lynch, a City Council candidate in West Harlem and the mayor’s former deputy director of intergovernmental affairs, said she suspected that Mr. de Blasio was hurt by criticism from the candidates.“He loves being mayor, but he may love politics more than being mayor,” Ms. Lynch said. “When you are the kid on the bench that nobody wants to select to be on their team, that has to be painful.”.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;}To be sure, Mr. de Blasio is accustomed to criticism. He watched the second Democratic debate — where the candidates rejected his endorsement — at Gracie Mansion with Ms. McCray, over a meal of chicken parmigiana and ziti with red wine. He sent observations to friends, comparing the event to a student government debate, according to an aide.Mr. de Blasio recently told an aide that other incumbents were unpopular after years in office, including Ed Koch, who ran for a fourth term in 1989 and lost in the Democratic primary to David N. Dinkins; Rudolph W. Giuliani, whose approval rating sagged before the Sept. 11 attacks; and Michael R. Bloomberg, whose record Mr. de Blasio ran against in 2013.Given his unpopularity, Mr. de Blasio might understandably be somewhat reluctant to issue a hearty endorsement, for fear it could backfire.Even Mr. Adams would not necessarily rank Mr. de Blasio very highly. When he was asked about the best mayor in his lifetime, he named Mr. Dinkins and Mr. Bloomberg. Mr. Adams said in an interview that he liked Mr. Bloomberg’s practical approach of using technology in policing, but criticized his abuse of stop and frisk.He insisted that he was indifferent to whether he had the mayor’s support.“I have not sought his endorsement,” Mr. Adams said at a campaign stop last week, distancing himself from the mayor when asked about their relationship. “I speak with him about issues that impact the city: public safety, education, housing.”Still, some people argue that Mr. Adams should be viewed as a natural successor to Mr. de Blasio.Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, a state assemblywoman and the chairwoman of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, was one of two elected officials in the city to endorse Mr. de Blasio when he ran for president in 2019. She endorsed Mr. Adams for mayor and sees many similarities between the two men.“He’s the natural successor,” she said of Mr. Adams. “Both of them fought for Black people. Both of them fought for Latino people. They are both fighting for people who are suffering in New York.”Of the leading contenders in the race, the mayor is perhaps most opposed to Mr. Yang, even though he was the only candidate who said he would welcome Mr. de Blasio’s endorsement. The union official who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the mayor was “clearly and strictly against Yang.”Mr. de Blasio has emphasized that the next mayor should have experience in government.The day after the recent debate, Mr. Yang, a 2020 presidential candidate, tried to criticize the mayor outside of the Y.M.C.A. in Park Slope, Brooklyn, where Mr. de Blasio has held his late-morning workouts to great ridicule. But Mr. Yang, a centrist whose campaign is led by veterans of the Bloomberg administration, was furiously heckled and had to abandon the stunt.Kathryn Garcia, the former sanitation commissioner under Mr. de Blasio, also filled a variety of roles in the administration.Todd Heisler/The New York Times“That’s just a politician being a politician,” Mr. de Blasio said when asked about Mr. Yang’s failed attempt at trolling him. “I’d much rather people talk about what they’re going to do for New Yorkers and show they actually have some knowledge of this city and how it works.”Mr. Yang’s campaign has argued that Mr. de Blasio is working behind the scenes to help Mr. Adams, who is considered the race’s front-runner. The mayor has denied the accusation.Mr. de Blasio has discussed the race with the Rev. Al Sharpton, who considered whether to back one of three leading Black candidates — Mr. Adams, Ms. Wiley or Raymond J. McGuire, a Wall Street executive — and ultimately decided not to make an endorsement and to focus instead on voter turnout. Mr. Sharpton said he and Mr. de Blasio had talked about the importance of the city electing its second Black mayor.“We’ve discussed that and we both share that view, particularly since he worked for David Dinkins,” Mr. Sharpton said in an interview.Sean Piccoli contributed reporting. More

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      Garcia Rakes in Donations: 5 Takeaways From the N.Y.C. Mayor’s Race

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      Eric Adams takes heat for a comment on schools, while Curtis Sliwa gets Rudy Giuliani’s endorsement for the Republican nomination.Early voting in the mayoral primary began Saturday, but given how few New Yorkers have so far shown up at their polling sites, it looks like the candidates still have time to get their messages out before 9 p.m. on June 22.For all of those invested in a healthy turnout, the early numbers do not bode particularly well. Just 16,867 voters showed up on Saturday, according to the Board of Election’s unofficial tally.Every New Yorker who has yet to cast a vote is still theoretically persuadable. And the candidates are sparing no expense in trying to reach them.Garcia out-raises field, and Adams outspends itIn the final weeks of the mayor’s race, donations have poured in to the campaign of Kathryn Garcia, a former sanitation commissioner who has risen from long shot to viable leading candidate.In the three weeks ending June 7, Ms. Garcia raised $703,000, more than in the prior two months combined. She narrowly edged out Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, who raised $618,000, and far surpassed the former presidential candidate Andrew Yang’s haul of $437,000. Her donors included the cookbook author Jessica Seinfeld and the real estate developer Hal Fetner, who worked with Ms. Garcia when she was the interim chair of the New York City Housing Authority.“It means that we will have the resources we need in this final push to the end to make sure we’re getting our message out,” said Ms. Garcia, when reached by phone on Sunday.She said much of the money would go toward ads on TV, a medium now saturated with political messaging.Since January, politicians and their affiliated super PACs have spent more than $49 million on TV, radio and digital advertising, according to Ad Impact, an advertising analytics firm.After the super PAC supporting the former federal housing secretary Shaun Donovan, which is largely funded by his father, the highest spenders on advertising have been the campaigns of Mr. Adams and Scott M. Stringer, the city comptroller. In the filing period that concluded last week, the biggest spender for all things, advertising included, was the Adams campaign, which spent $5.9 million over three weeks. Next was the Yang campaign, which spent $3.4 million.Evan Thies, a spokesman the Adams campaign, said that Mr. Adams had already raised as much as he could under city campaign finance limits, and there was no reason to hold back.“He no longer needs to keep raising money,” Mr. Thies said.Giuliani backs SliwaFormer Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani waded into the Republican mayoral primary last week, endorsing Curtis Sliwa in a race that has divided the party’s leaders and voters.In a robocall, the former mayor called Mr. Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, my “great friend” going back to the 1990s.“When I ran for mayor,” Mr. Giuliani said, “Curtis and the Guardian Angels were there to help me win, and then they were there to help me reduce crime and make our city livable again.”Curtis Sliwa was endorsed by Rudolph W. Giuliani.Andrew Seng for The New York TimesMr. Sliwa is running in a bitterly fought primary against Fernando Mateo, an entrepreneur who was recently endorsed by Michael T. Flynn, a former national security adviser to President Donald J. Trump.The race appears to be close. Mr. Sliwa had 33 percent support and Mr. Mateo had 27 percent, while 40 percent were undecided, according to a recent poll by Pix 11 and Emerson College.Party leaders are split as well. Republican leaders in Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx endorsed Mr. Mateo. The Staten Island and Brooklyn parties backed Mr. Sliwa.There are 13 candidates on the Democratic ballot, but Republican voters only have two choices, and Mr. Sliwa jokingly offered a simple guide: He told voters to mark the dot next to the name Sliwa, not “Mr. Irrelevant.”Old Adams video causes kerfuffleIn February, Mr. Adams said something that would come back to haunt him four months later.During an interview with the Citizens Budget Commission, Mr. Adams was talking about some of his spending proposals, like year-around school, and how he might find efficiencies in government to help pay for them, when he turned to the potential of remote learning.“If you do a full-year school year by using the new technology of remote learning, you don’t need children to be in a school building with a number of teachers,” he said, echoing comments he also made to Bloomberg. “It’s just the opposite. You could have one great teacher that’s in one of our specialized high schools to teach three to four hundred students who are struggling in math, with the skillful way that they’re able to teach.”Eric Adams drew criticism for comments he made four months ago.Jordan Gale for The New York TimesMr. Adams appeared to be just spitballing. But on Friday, an ardent Yang supporter who goes by @ZachandMattShow on Twitter posted a cut of the video and a paraphrasing of Mr. Adam’s comments that did not mention elite high schools or particularly skillful teachers.The tweet went viral, sparking condemnation from the Yang campaign, as well as from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is backing Maya Wiley, a former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio, and suggested that Mr. Adams wanted to defund schools.Ms. Wiley chimed in, too.“All I can say is, Eric Adams, what did we not understand before Covid about our digital divide?” asked Ms. Wiley, during a campaign appearance. “We’ve been talking about it for decades.”Asked for comment, Mr. Thies, the Adams spokesman, said the Brooklyn borough president’s quotes were taken out of context and improperly transcribed on Twitter.“All of this is a massive distraction from the truth, which is that Eric has never supported requiring students to attend 100-plus person classes online, and would never require that as mayor,” Mr. Thies said. “Nor would he require teachers to teach large classes.”.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;}Rather, he added, “He has said that high school students could have the option to learn in larger online seminars taught by the city’s best teachers if they so choose, and, if those teachers are willing to teach those courses.”Second to someRepresentatives Hakeem Jeffries, Gregory W. Meeks and Ritchie Torres all chose people other than Mr. Adams as their top pick for mayor, but he gladly accepted second-choice rankings last week from the three important New York congressmen.For the first time, New York City voters can rank up to five choices for mayor in the June 22 primary. Mr. Torres picked Mr. Yang as his first choice, while Mr. Jeffries went with Ms. Wiley. Mr. Meeks backed Raymond J. McGuire, a former Citi executive.“In a ranked-choice election, twos can be as valuable as ones,” Mr. Thies said.Other members of Congress who have ranked candidates for mayor include Adriano Espaillat, who chose Mr. Adams as his first choice and Ms. Wiley as his second; Grace Meng, who ranked Mr. Yang first and Ms. Garcia second; and Nydia M. Velázquez; who selected Ms. Wiley as her first choice and Ms. Garcia as her second.Last year, a group of Black elected officials filed an unsuccessful lawsuit to stop ranked-choice voting from being implemented in this election, citing what they called a lack of voter education and a fear that Black voters would be disenfranchised. Mr. Adams and Mr. McGuire both voiced support for the suit.On Twitter, Mr. Torres said he wanted to send a “united message” about the importance of ranking more than one candidate, and Mr. Jeffries encouraged voters of color to rank more than one candidate.“If voters of color don’t rank multiple candidates then voters of color are effectively staying home,” Mr. Jeffries wrote.One member of Congress who has yet to announce a second choice for mayor is Ms. Ocasio-Cortez.“T.B.A.” — to be announced — said Lauren Hitt, a spokeswoman for Ms. Ocasio-Cortez.A missing topic: ClimateAt least five mayoral candidates — Ms. Garcia, Mr. Stringer, Ms. Wiley, Mr. Donovan and Dianne Morales, a former nonprofit director — have pitched plans to tackle the rising water levels, extreme temperatures and intensifying storms that the climate crisis is bringing to New York.It is an existential problem for the city, and an animating issue for many voters, especially younger ones. Yet in three debates, the candidates have not been asked a single question that would force them to compare and defend their positions on climate.Voters have taken to social media to complain.On Friday, Mr. Stringer — the first to unveil a comprehensive climate plan, one that echoes many demands of key climate groups — demanded a debate dedicated to the issue.Mr. Stringer is seeking to refocus the campaign on one of his strengths after losing several key progressive endorsements over allegations of sexual misconduct, which he denies. Ms. Wiley has also said the issue needs more attention.Both candidates support versions of the Green New Deal concept, which calls for New Deal-level public spending to address the climate crisis, create jobs and redress economic and racial inequalities. More