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      ‘My story resonates’: India Walton details the life experience that put her on a mayoral path

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      The ObserverNew York‘My story resonates’: India Walton details the life experience that put her on a mayoral path A candidate for Buffalo’s mayor seat, Walton attributes her success to ‘really experiencing so many tragedies and traumas’Erum SalamSun 11 Jul 2021 03.00 EDTIndia Walton was just 14 when she had her first baby. After leaving a home for young mothers, and quitting high school at 19 when her twins were born, she went on to get her GED (the general educational development test for those who did not complete their schooling), have a fourth child and become a nurse.Now she’s firmly on the path to becoming the mayor of Buffalo, New York – the first socialist mayor elected to a US city since 1960, when mayor Frank Zeidler of Milwaukee, Wisconsin left office.Once seen as a long shot in the race for the Democratic party mayoral nomination against Byron Brown, a 15-year establishment incumbent, Walton may soon make history in more ways than one. Not only would she be the first socialist mayor of a US city in decades, but she would also be Buffalo’s first female mayor.Ex-police captain Eric Adams wins Democratic primary for New York mayorRead moreWalton’s nomination success created headlines and provided a shot in the arm for America’s socialists, who see a chance of wielding real power in a big city.When asked to what she attributed her success, Walton said: “The struggle. The struggle of being a black woman, of being a teenage mother, of growing up poor, and really experiencing so many tragedies and traumas.”Buffalo is the second-largest city in New York state, with a population of just over 250,000. Located on the shores of Lake Erie, it’s next door to Canada.With a population that is 36.5% black and 12.3% Latino, it’s rich in diversity but poor compared with the average US standard of living.According to the US census, the median household income for the city is around $37,300 (about £27,000), just over half that of the national figure. The city, once a centre for railroad commerce, steel manufacturing and shipping, is now struggling, with 30% of residents living below the poverty line.While she lacks a political background, Walton said: “My experience is the Buffalo experience. When I was growing up, we had one of the highest teen-pregnancy rates in the nation. I was a part of those stats. But I overcame. I think it’s a remarkable story that resonates with a lot of people who are average people in Buffalo.”Although Walton beat Brown – a traditional Democrat – in the primary and thus secured the Democratic nomination, he won’t go down without a fight.Brown refused to concede the result and has launched a campaign, asking voters to write in his name on the November ballot.Brown also refused to debate with Walton during the campaign. “He didn’t even acknowledge that there was an election happening. And the fact he now is not cooperating – it just speaks to his character,” she said. Despite her victory and seemingly smooth path to office in the majority Democratic Buffalo, Walton said she still can’t rest until the November election is over. “We won, but it wasn’t a landslide,” she said. Walton is not afraid of her socialist identity. In a video circulated on social media, Walton was asked directly by the press if she considers herself a socialist. Without missing a beat, she replied: “Oh, absolutely.”Her quick response is reflective of a new sentiment felt by a younger, far-left constituency inspired by democratic socialist trailblazers such as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.‘First of many’: socialist India Walton defeats four-term Buffalo mayor in primary upset Read moreThey are unafraid to align themselves with politics branded controversial by establishment Democrats and those on the right. The refusal to shy away from the “s” word many Democrats deem a handicap or even political suicide could be indicative of a new approach on the left that is expanding.“It’s just semantics,” Walton said. “We all want the same thing but we’re allowing the right to use our language against us as a dog whistle and as a way to make people afraid. For me, it’s more about policies. We have to stop coddling the elite and business class and really draw down resources and power into the hands of the people who are doing the work.“To me, [socialism] is about putting workers first – the people who make the wealth but don’t often have access to it.”She added: “Now that I’ve won this mayoral primary, it’s going to crack the seal on a lot of other US cities and we’re going to see similar trends. People are tired of working harder for less. Many of us are still poor, even though we are in one of the richest nations in the world.”Walton knows all about working hard for little reward. The nurse-turned-politician said the combination of her own hardships and the effects of the coronavirus pandemic are what drove her to politics.“Being a mother made me want to do it. I need to leave this place better for my children. And what makes me want to fight so hard is to make sure that other people have opportunities to make better choices and have a decent life. Everyone deserves a decent standard of living,” she said.“I decided to just go for it. Why wait? We can’t wait any more.”TopicsNew YorkThe ObserverUS politicsDemocratsWomenRacenewsReuse this content More

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      Ex-police captain Eric Adams wins Democratic primary for New York mayor

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      New YorkEx-police captain Eric Adams wins Democratic primary for New York mayorAdams, who tacked to center in large field of candidates, is expected to win in general election Adam Gabbatt in New York and Maanvi Singh in San Francisco and agenciesTue 6 Jul 2021 21.54 EDTFirst published on Tue 6 Jul 2021 20.03 EDTEric Adams, a former police captain, has won the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City after appealing to the political center and promising to strike the right balance between fighting crime and ending racial injustice in policing.Adams would be the city’s second Black mayor if elected. He triumphed over a large field in New York’s first major race to use ranked-choice voting.As of Tuesday evening, Adams had a lead of one point over his closest rival, Kathryn Garcia, according to the latest count of ballots. The Associated Press declared Adams the winner of the race shortly after a new round of vote totals was released.New York City’s tumultuous mayor’s race closes as voters struggle to chooseRead more“I grew up poor in Brooklyn and Queens. I wore a bulletproof vest to keep my neighbors safe. I served my community as a state senator and Brooklyn borough president,” Adams said in a statement shared on Twitter. “And I’m honored to be the Democratic nominee to be the mayor of the city I’ve always called home.”Tuesday’s updated vote count included some 125,000 absentee ballots. In-person and early votes were previously published on 29 June, when Adams had the lead.The winner of the Democratic primary is likely to win the mayoral election proper in November, given the left-leaning politics of the city and an unheralded Republican opponent. Curtis Sliwa, a talk radio host and founder of the Guardian Angels volunteer crime prevention group, won the Republican primary.Adams’ closest vanquished rivals included Garcia, the former city sanitation commissioner who campaigned as a technocrat and proven problem-solver, and the former city hall legal adviser Maya Wiley, who had progressive support including an endorsement from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.Andrew Yang, the 2020 presidential candidate known for his proposed universal basic income, was an early favorite but faded in the race.Adams, 60, is a moderate Democrat who opposed the “defund the police” movement. “We’re not going to recover as a city if we turn back time and see an increase in violence, particularly gun violence,” Adams said after three people, including a four-year-old, were shot and wounded in Times Square in May.“If Black lives really matter, it can’t only be against police abuse. It has to be against the violence that’s ripping apart our communities,” he told supporters on the night of the primary.Adams speaks frequently of his dual identity as a 22-year police veteran and a Black man who endured police brutality himself as a teenager. He said he had been beaten by officers at age 15. He became a police officer in 1984 and rose to the rank of captain before leaving to run for the state Senate in 2006.While in the police department, he co-founded 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, a group that campaigned for criminal justice reform and against racial profiling. After winning a state senate seat from Brooklyn in 2006, Adams made an impression with an impassioned speech favoring same-sex marriage rights in 2009, two years before New York’s state legislators passed a marriage equality bill.Adams also weathered a few controversies, including a 2010 report from the state inspector general that faulted his oversight of the bidding process to bring casino gambling to the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens. Adams had accepted campaign contributions from a politically connected group bidding for the gambling franchise.Adams was elected in 2013 as Brooklyn borough president, his current job.The city’s first experience with ranked-choice voting in a major election was bumpy. The New York City board of elections invited fresh criticism on Tuesday when it published the results after 7pm local time, having earlier pledged to reveal the totals at “brunch hours”.The delay came after the board managed to plunge the Democratic primary race into chaos last week, when it mistakenly included 135,000 “test ballots” in its vote tally.The mistake showed Kathryn Garcia, New York’s former sanitation commissioner, narrowing the gap on Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, to less than two points.Hours later, however, the board of elections said it had become aware of a “discrepancy” in its report. The elections board said its calculations had included “both test and election night results, producing approximately 135,000 additional records”.The error sowed confusion around the system of ranked choice voting, which was used for the first time in a New York City mayoral election this year.Adams, Garcia and Wiley all filed lawsuits last week seeking the right to review the ranked choice tally.Wiley said in a statement Tuesday that the board “must be completely remade following what can only be described as a debacle”. As for herself, she said her campaign would have more to say soon about “next steps.”On Tuesday morning, as voters speculated as to when the second batch of results would be released, the board of elections had adopted a glib tone on its Twitter feed.“We promise today’s release is more brunch special vs club hours,” the BoE tweeted. That tweet was sent at 8.48am, but it was well past most people’s definition of brunch hours by the time the results finally arrived.TopicsNew YorkUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      New York mayor’s race in chaos after elections board publishes incorrect tally

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      New York City’s mayoral election has been thrown into chaos after the board of elections mistakenly included 135,000 “test ballots” in its vote tally.The board of elections had published updated vote totals for the Democratic primary earlier on Tuesday, which showed Kathryn Garcia, New York’s former sanitation commissioner, narrowing the gap on Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, to less than two points.Hours later, however, the board of elections said it had become aware of a “discrepancy” in its report. The elections board said its calculations had included “both test and election night results, producing approximately 135,000 additional records”.The error is likely to sow unfortunate confusion around the system of ranked choice voting, which was used for the first time in a New York City mayoral election this year.Ranked choice voting allowed voters to rank up to five candidates for mayor, and Tuesday night’s vote tally was supposed to give New Yorkers an early glimpse at how the race was shaping up after rankings from early and in-person votes had been calculated.Instead, the city has provided fuel to election conspiracy theorists nationwide, with millions still convinced the presidential election was fraudulent. There is no evidence of mass fraud in either the New York City mayoral election or the presidential election.“Board staff has removed all test ballot images from the system and will upload election night results, cross-referencing against election night reporting software for verification,” the elections board said on Twitter at 10.34pm on Tuesday night.“The cast vote record will be re-generated and the RCV rounds will be re-tabulated.”Garcia had been the main beneficiary, with the erroneous results showing her on 48.9% after ranked choice votes were counted. Results from the first vote count, published a week ago, showed she had received 19.5% of first choice votes. Like other candidates, Garcia criticized the board of elections overnight.“The BOE’s release of incorrect ranked choice votes is deeply troubling and requires a much more transparent and complete explanation,” Garcia said.“Every ranked choice and absentee vote must be counted accurately so that all New Yorkers have faith in our democracy and our government.”There was no trace of any results, erroneous or otherwise, on the board of elections website on Wednesday morning.Even if Tuesday’s total had not included 135,000 test ballots, it still would have created confusion: the tally would not have included the 124,000 absentee ballots which are yet to be counted. Those votes are set to be added to the total and published next week.“Today’s mistake by the board of elections was unfortunate. It is critical that New Yorkers are confident in their electoral system, especially as we rank votes in a citywide election for the first time,” Adams said in a statement.“We appreciate the board’s transparency and acknowledgment of their error. We look forward to the release of an accurate, updated simulation, and the timely conclusion of this critical process.” More

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      Trump in financial and political danger as company faces possible criminal charges

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      Donald Trump is facing a potentially crippling financial and political blow as state prosecutors consider filing criminal charges against his family business this week.Prosecutors in New York could soon bring an indictment against the Trump Organization related to the taxation of lucrative perks that it gave to top executives, such as use of apartments, cars and school tuition.The 45th president is not expected to be personally charged but the legal drama could bankrupt his company by damaging its relationships with banks and other business partners, as well as clouding his political comeback.Ron Fischetti, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, held a virtual meeting with prosecutors last Thursday for about 90 minutes in an effort to dissuade them from pursuing criminal charges against the company.“The charges are absolutely outrageous and unprecedented, if indeed the charges are filed,” Fischetti told the Associated Press (AP) on Friday. “This is just to get back at Donald Trump. We’re going to plead not guilty and we’ll make a motion to dismiss.”Fischetti and his colleagues had until Monday to make their final arguments against charges being brought, according to a report in the Washington Post.The long-running investigation by Cyrus Vance, the Manhattan district attorney, began after Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, paid hush money ahead of the 2016 presidential election to two women who alleged that they had sexual encounters with Trump; Trump denies the claims.There is now a particular focus on Allen Weisselberg, 73, the longtime chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, the private real estate conglomerate. Prosecutors are examining his son Barry’s use of a Trump apartment at little or no cost, cars leased for the family, and tuition payments made to a school attended by Weisselberg’s grandchildren.Such gifts and perks are worth tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. If the Weisselbergs failed to account properly for that money on tax returns and other financial filings, they could be in legal jeopardy. But Fischetti insists that any criminal charges based on fringe benefits would represent a speculative break from precedent.“We looked back 100 years of cases and we haven’t found one in which an employee has been indicted for fringe benefits and certainly not a corporation,” he told the AP. “[To be a crime] it would have to be for the benefit of the corporation with the knowledge of the corporation. They don’t have the evidence at all.”Even so, a point of intrigue is whether Weisselberg will remain loyal to the former president or turn informant, potentially testifying against Trump – the company’s owner – his son Don Jr and Eric, who are executive vice-presidents, and his daughter, Ivanka.Trump, beaten by Joe Biden in last November’s election, has long sought to dismiss the investigation as a “witch-hunt” and remains politically active. He returned to campaign rallies on Saturday, intends to be heavily involved in the 2022 midterm elections and could run for president again in 2024. But there are signs that the walls are closing in.Vance, investigating “possibly extensive and protracted criminal conduct”, has been scrutinising Trump’s tax records, subpoenaing documents and interviewing witnesses, including Trump insiders and company executives. A grand jury was recently empaneled to look at the evidence.Meanwhile Letitia James, the New York state attorney general, said she was assigning two lawyers to work with Vance on the criminal investigation while she continues her own civil investigation of Trump’s business.James’s office has been examining whether the Trump Organization inflated the values of some properties to obtain better terms on loans, and lowered their values to obtain property tax breaks.Court records show some overlap between Vance’s and James’ separate investigations, including their interest in Seven Springs, a 212-acre estate outside Manhattan that Trump purchased in 1995. James is examining a $21.1m tax deduction taken when Trump agreed not to develop the property, after local opposition thwarted his plan to build a golf course, and a separate plan to build luxury homes was shelved.Trump has angrily denounced both investigations. In a statement released on Monday, he claimed the case was an extension of the Democrats’ “witch hunt” against him. “They will do anything to stop the MAGA movement (and me),” he said, referring to the Make America Great Again campaign slogan and insisting that the Trump Organization had merely done “things that are standard practice throughout the US business community, and in no way a crime”.The ex-president added: “Having politically motivated prosecutors, people who actually got elected because they will ‘get Donald Trump’, is a very dangerous thing for our Country. In the end, people will not stand for it. Remember, if they can do this to me, they can do it to anyone!”Trump’s loss of power in Washington now deprives him, his family and his company of legal protections he enjoyed while in the White House.The District of Columbia attorney general’s office, for example, is suing the Trump Organization and presidential inaugural committee over the alleged misuse of more than $1m for use of event space at the Trump hotel in Washington during Trump’s inauguration in January 2017.Ivanka, who was a senior adviser at the White House, sat for a deposition with investigators last December, but is in no imminent danger of criminal charges. More

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      ‘First of many’: Socialist India Walton defeats four-term Buffalo mayor in primary upset

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      In her lifetime, India Walton has been a 14-year-old working mother, a nurse, a union representative and a socialist community organizer.On Wednesday, she was on the cusp of yet another career change and a series of “firsts” after defeating a four-term incumbent in the Democratic primary race to become the mayor of Buffalo, New York state’s second largest city.With no Republican challengers in the general election later this year, Walton is all but guaranteed to ascend to the mayoralty in solidly Democratic Buffalo.She would not only become the city’s first female mayor but also the first self-declared socialist to lead a major US city in decades.Walton would be the first socialist mayor of a major American city since 1960, when Frank Zeidler stepped down as Milwaukee’s mayor, the New York Times reported.“This victory is ours. It is the first of many,” Walton said, adding: “If you are in an elected office right now, you are being put on notice: we are coming.”Although the current Buffalo mayor, Byron Brown, did not immediately concede his bid for a fifth term, the Associated Press called the primary race for Walton on Wednesday “after it became clear that there weren’t enough absentee ballots for Brown to overcome Walton’s lead,” the wire service reported.“Mommy, I won!” Walton told her mother over the phone. “Mommy, I’m the mayor of Buffalo – well not ’til January, but yeah!”Walton’s platform outlines plans to tackle a local affordable housing crisis and declare Buffalo a sanctuary city for immigrants, which limits a local jurisdiction’s cooperation with federal enforcement o f immigration law. And also the intention to convert the city’s fleet of public vehicles to electric cars in an effort to address climate change.One of her key proposals foreshadows sweeping reforms to “public safety”, focusing on harm prevention, restorative justice and the root causes of crime instead of punitive action, according to her campaign platform.Under her watch, police will no longer respond to most mental health calls and will stop enforcing low-level drug possession offenses. She also intends to require unpaid leave for officers under investigation for police brutality, among other measures.Last year, Buffalo police sparked outcry when two officers pushed 75-year-old Martin Gugino to the pavement during anti-racism protests, causing a severe head injury.Walton also focus on economic development and food access in Buffalo by prioritizing local, minority and women-owned businesses for contracts, establishing a public bank and supporting community gardens, her website says.More than 30% of the city’s residents live in poverty, and in the local county, employment rates for low-income workers plummeted during the coronavirus pandemic.“My plan is to put our resources into community, into neighborhoods, and govern in a deeply democratic way, that the people who are governed have a say over the decision-making process and how resources are deployed in our community,” Walton said.“We are looking forward to doing things differently, and I am so excited that we are ushering a new era of progressive leadership in Buffalo, NY.”In nearby Rochester, the third largest city in New York state, another incumbent mayor was ousted when city councilman Malik Evans easily overcame mayor Lovely Warren, whose administration has been rocked by scandal for months.Warren was indicted on felony campaign finance charges and has been accused of bungling the Rochester police killing of Daniel Prude, a Black man last year who died after police tackled him to the ground during a mental health episode and put a hood over his head, in part by misleading the public about what she knew. More

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      Andrew Yang drops out of New York mayoral race as Eric Adams leads

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      Andrew Yang, who led the polls in the New York mayoral election in the early months of the race, conceded defeat on Tuesday night, after results from the first vote count showed him slumping and former police officer Eric Adams in the lead.The concession capped a disappointing performance for Yang, a former tech entrepreneur and long-shot presidential candidate, with early tallies showing him in fourth place for the race to lead the largest city in the US.While Adams led on Tuesday, however, he is a long way from being confirmed as the Democratic candidate for mayor – a nomination almost certain to guarantee a win in the election proper this November in the overwhelmingly Democratic-voting city.Tens of thousands of mail-in ballots are yet to be counted, and with ranked choice voting being used in a New York mayoral election for the first time, counting will continue for weeks, and it could be 12 July before the victor is declared.On Wednesday morning Adams was at 31.7% with 84% of early and on-the-day votes counted, with Maya Wiley, a progressive civil rights lawyer, trailing on 22.3%. Kathryn Garcia, a former New York sanitation commissioner, was third with 19.5% of the vote.“I am not going to be the mayor of New York City based upon the numbers that have come in tonight,” Yang said in a speech on Tuesday night.By Wednesday he had 11.7% of the vote.“I am conceding this race. Though we’re not sure who’s the next mayor is going to be, but whoever that person is, I will be very happy to work with them to improve the lives of the 8.3 million people who live in our great city, and I encourage everyone here to do the same.”Under the ranked-choice system, a candidate must receive 50% of the vote to win the primary, which gives hope to Wiley and Garcia for the coming weeks. Voters’ second-, third-, fourth- and fifth-choice candidates will be added to the totals in the coming weeks until a winner emerges.“This is going to be about not only the ones. But also about the twos and threes – and to be honest, we’re not going to know more tonight than we know now,” Garcia said on Tuesday night.Speaking to supporters, Adams acknowledged the fragility of his early lead but also struck a victorious tone.“We know that there’s going to be twos and threes and fours,” Adams said.“But there’s something else we know. We know that New York City said: ‘Our first choice is Eric Adams.’” More

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      A leaked S&M video won’t keep Zack Weiner out of politics – and nor should it | Arwa Mahdawi

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      You have to be something of a masochist to want to get into politics – and Zack Weiner is an unapologetic masochist. Last week, the 26-year-old, who is running for a place on the city council in New York, was something of a nonentity: he had zero name recognition and his campaign had raised just over $10,000 (£7,200), most of which he had donated himself.Perhaps the most notable thing about Weiner was the fact his dad is the co-creator of the kids’ TV show Dora the Explorer. But that changed when a video of a man engaged in consensual sadomasochism was posted on Twitter by an anonymous account that claimed the man was Weiner. On Saturday, the New York Post ran a story about the video, complete with salacious screengrab. Pretty soon it made international headlines.Why would anyone care about the sex life of an unknown twentysomething running for local office? Well, because a lot of people are pervs, for one thing. But the main reason the story has become so popular is because of how Weiner responded. Instead of going on the defensive, he owned it. His own campaign manager was the one who tipped off the New York Post about the video and Weiner told the paper that he is a “proud BDSMer”, who has nothing to be ashamed of.“Whoops. I didn’t want anyone to see that, but here we are,” Weiner later wrote on Twitter. “Like many young people, I have grown into a world where some of our most private moments have been documented online. While a few loud voices on Twitter might chastise me for the video, most people see the video for what it is: a distraction.”Weiner’s response to the video is almost identical to a plotline from the TV show BillionsThe frank and dignified way in which Weiner handled this episode has, quite rightly, earned him a lot of praise. It is, in many ways, a masterclass in how to respond to revenge porn.There was some speculation that the video was a publicity stunt. Releasing a sex tape of yourself in order to kickstart a political career might once have been unthinkable, but in today’s attention economy it is all too plausible. Donald Trump taught the world that any idiot can get into politics as long as you find a way to keep your name in the headlines.Then there’s the fact that Weiner’s response to the video is almost identical to a plotline from the TV show Billions. “I’m a masochist,” the character Chuck Rhoades announces in a press conference after a political rival threatens to leak pictures of him enjoying sadomasochistic sex in an attempt to derail his campaign for state attorney general for New York. Rhoades’s speech is a huge success: he goes on to win the election.So is it possible that Weiner’s campaign, inspired by Billions, might have leaked the video itself? Absolutely not, Joseph Gallagher, Weiner’s campaign manager, told me. He added, for good measure, that neither he nor Weiner, who is also an actor and screenwriter, had ever watched the TV show. The reason he flagged the video to the Post, he clarified, was in order to control the narrative and get ahead of the story. Which makes sense.Ultimately, what’s important is the fact that, as Weiner pointed out, a generation of young people who have documented every part of their lives are starting to enter politics. Revenge porn, which has already helped derail the political career of the former congresswoman Katie Hill, is going to become a common political weapon. And I suspect female politicians will have a far harder time surviving the weaponisation of their personal lives than men. More

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      New York votes in mayoral primary as ex-police officer Eric Adams tops polls

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      After months of campaigning, election day finally came to New York on Tuesday, with a Democratic party primary vote likely to decide the city’s next mayor.Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to vote in the contest, with Eric Adams, a former police officer, leading the polls.But with ranked choice voting being used for the first time in a New York mayoral election, there is still plenty of hope for the other candidates, and with the official result not expected to be announced until July, plenty of time until New Yorkers learn the name of their next leader.Voting was slow at Dutch Kills high school, in Long Island City, on Tuesday morning, as a trickle of Queens residents arrived to cast their ballots, although with polls open until 9pm, and early voting having been in progress since 12 June, a large turnout was still expected.Min Kwon, 26, voted for Maya Wiley, a civil rights lawyer who has emerged as the leading progressive candidate in recent weeks.“Her stance on the police department, defunding it significantly, is one thing I really like about her,” Kwon said, adding that he supported Wiley’s positions on LGBTQ+ rights, housing rights and racial justice.Dianne Morales, a progressive former non-profit leader and fellow police critic, but whose campaign has been derailed by infighting, was his second choice.An election season that began with calls for at least partially defunding the New York’s police department has pivoted in recent weeks, as a spike in shootings swung the debate in the opposite direction and helped to propel Adams, a centrist who has criticized the “defund the police” movement, and supports the widely loathed stop-and-frisk policing tactic, to the top of the polls.Wiley has avoided using the term “defund the police”, but would cut at least $1bn from the NYPD’s budget – which was $5.8bn last year, its highest ever – and shift the money to social programs and mental health workers.Most candidates have pitched policies to attempt to curb police brutality, although they differ on how that would be achieved.“I don’t think the police force here in New York has to be as big as it is right now. Especially for the homeless situation, mental illness, or other things like that, there are other resources that we can divert police funds to to help that,” Kwon said.Kwon said when choosing his candidate he asked himself: “When do I actually feel safe when police are nearby? And I don’t feel safe when police are nearby, especially as a person of color.”About 800,000 people are expected to vote in the Democratic primary, according to the New York Times, which would be an increase from the last competitive mayoral primary in 2013. Given the leftward political leanings of the city, the winner of the primary will almost certainly win the election proper in November.Cali Howitt, 39, voted for Kathryn Garcia, a former sanitation commissioner for New York who has risen in the polls after being endorsed by the New York Times and the New York Daily News.“I like her experience,” Howitt said.“I feel like we need someone who is experienced even though we need a change from what we currently have, I want somebody in there that has experience in the government and knows how it runs, and isn’t coming out of nowhere basically.”Howitt selected Sean Donovan, a secretary of housing and urban development in the Obama administration, as her second choice – “for essentially the same reasons”, she said – and was pleased with the introduction of ranked choice voting.“I really like it because your vote counts even when your first person has been knocked out of the race,” she said.Andrew Yang, a tech entrepreneur and 2020 long-shot candidate for president, led the polls for weeks before Adams emerged as the top contender in May. The final polling suggest Adams has opened up a gap on his rivals, with Wiley, Garcia and Yang running close behind.Given the introduction of ranked choice, however, coupled with the use of mail-in ballots, it is likely to be some time before a victor is declared.On Tuesday night, the winner of the early voting and on-the-day ballots should be revealed, before mail-in vote counting, and then second-choice and potentially third, fourth and fifth-choice voting, continues.By 12 July, after months of electioneering, and weeks after primary day, New York City residents should finally know the identity of their next mayor. More