Yang, Andrew (1975- )

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      5 Takeaways From the N.Y.C. Mayor’s Race

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      As Andrew Yang appears to be solidifying his role as the front-runner in the contest, his Democratic rivals have begun to focus their lines of attack on him.Since even before he officially entered the New York City mayoral contest, Andrew Yang has attracted more criticism from his rivals than any other contender in the sprawling field, a reflection of both missteps he has made and, as the race has unfolded, his standing as the leading candidate.Last week, the criticisms became even sharper, signaling the beginning of a more intense phase of the campaign.Here are the race’s latest developments:The candidates take direct aim at YangPart of Mr. Yang’s appeal to his supporters is his willingness to shed the conventions of political caution and speak frankly — a trait that sometimes gets him in trouble.The most recent example came last week, when Mr. Yang, in an interview with Politico, criticized the United Federation of Teachers, suggesting that the union was “a significant reason why our schools have been slow” to open amid the pandemic.The remarks drew pointed criticism from Scott M. Stringer, the city comptroller, and Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, as well as more muted criticism from other candidates, as they defended the work teachers have done under challenging circumstances. They are all also aware that the union’s coveted endorsement is still up for grabs.Mr. Stringer — who trails Mr. Yang and Mr. Adams in the little public polling available — laced into Mr. Yang in perhaps his most direct and sustained attack to date, seeking to cast his rival as an unserious candidate at a moment of significant challenges for the city — and appearing to make a barely veiled comparison to former President Donald J. Trump.“Whether it’s an illegal casino on Governors Island, housing for TikTok stars or being baffled by parents who live and work in two-bedroom apartments, kids in virtual school, we don’t need another leader who tweets first and thinks later,” he said in a Friday morning speech. He also noted that Mr. Yang had spent much of the pandemic outside the city before deciding to run for mayor.Mr. Stringer, Mr. Adams and Raymond J. McGuire, a former Citi executive, have also been critical of the details around Mr. Yang’s proposal for basic income — and on Twitter, exchanges between strategists for Mr. Yang and Mr. Stringer in particular have become even more contentious.“Andrew Yang is going to keep talking to New Yorkers about his plans to get the city safely reopen and people back to work as fast as we can,” said Chris Coffey, Mr. Yang’s co-campaign manager, about the mounting attacks. “We’ll leave the tired, 1990s negative campaigning to others.”Candidates reluctant to decriminalize all drugsThis year, Oregon became the first state in the nation to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of all drugs. If the next mayor of New York City has his or her way, the city may finally open sites to allow for the safer injection of drugs. But based on responses at a recent forum, mayoral candidates do not favor following Oregon’s lead on full-scale decriminalization.“I do have concerns about the devastation I’ve seen with highly, highly addictive and deadly drugs, where even small amounts can have life-altering consequences and even cause death,” said Shaun Donovan, a former cabinet member in the Obama administration, citing fentanyl as an example.Kathryn Garcia, the city’s former sanitation commissioner, echoed Mr. Donovan’s concerns and expressed particular unease with cocaine, saying, “Back in the day, when it was super- popular in the ’80s, we had young basketball players who died of heart attacks after their first use.”Maya Wiley, the former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio, avoided directly addressing the issue. Mr. Adams was forthright in his opposition, though he said he supports legalizing marijuana.“You guys know I’m ex-po-po,” said Mr. Adams, the former head of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, using an expression to describe a police officer.The candidates’ responses seemed to elicit some frustration from one of the moderators, Alyssa Aguilera, co-executive director of VOCAL-NY, which hosted the forum.“Drugs have always been illegal, and the devastation and the overdoses are continuing to happen,” she said. “Clearly 40 years of that hasn’t worked, and we’re hopeful that the next mayor will take a different approach.”The only candidates to offer more support for the idea were Mr. Yang — who favors the legalization of psilocybin mushrooms — and Dianne Morales, a former nonprofit executive running to the far left in the Democratic primary.“We need to move towards that, in response to the war on drugs,” Ms. Morales said, referring to the decriminalization of all personal drug possession.Friends with moneyNorman Lear, the creator of the television show “All in the Family,” was among a few Hollywood-related donors to Maya Wiley’s campaign. David Dee Delgado/Getty ImagesThe latest campaign filing revealed that Ms. Wiley has many friends in Hollywood.The former MSNBC analyst received donations recently from the director Steven Spielberg; Norman Lear, the creator of the television show “All in the Family”; Alan Horn, the former head of Walt Disney Studios; and Christopher Guest, the director of beloved mockumentaries like “Best in Show.”Mr. Yang received a $2,000 donation from Jessica Seinfeld, wife of the comedian Jerry Seinfeld, and had support from two snack magnates: Siggi Hilmarsson, the founder of Siggi’s yogurt, and Daniel Lubetzky, the founder of KIND bars.Mr. Adams has the most money on hand — more than $7.5 million — but Ms. Morales has the most individual donors in New York City. Ms. Morales has received smaller donations from more than 9,000 New Yorkers, and said she expects to qualify for public matching funds — a major boost for her campaign.Several candidates in the Democratic field have pledged not to take money from the real estate industry, but Mr. Adams is not one of them. He received donations from Brett Herschenfeld and Harrison Sitomer, two leaders of SL Green, the powerful commercial real estate company. A PAC affiliated with Madison Square Garden also donated $2,000 to his campaign.In the Republican field, Sara Tirschwell, a former Wall Street executive, has raised about $320,000, while Fernando Mateo, a restaurant operator, raised nearly $200,000. They are far behind the Democratic candidates.Donovan vs. The Wall Street JournalEvery election cycle, candidates perform the campaign ritual of visiting prominent newspapers’ editorial boards to discuss their ideas. The meetings are normally closed-door affairs, but Mr. Donovan has made his interview with The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board a public part of his campaign.Mr. Donovan’s campaign distributed a news release and video of his remarks to The Journal, criticizing the editorial board for “turning a blind eye to the racist and un-American” remarks by Mr. Trump that he suggested may have contributed to the shootings in Atlanta where eight people, including six women of Asian descent, were killed.The board, Mr. Donovan said, had shown a “willful disregard” for Mr. Trump’s “racist and hateful remarks about immigrants, about Asian-Americans, calling this virus the ‘Kung Flu,’ and the contribution that has to the hate crimes we have seen, even yesterday in Atlanta.”Mr. Donovan, speaking out against violence against Asian-Americans at the headquarters of the National Action Network in Harlem last week, mentioned his visit to The Journal’s editorial board and his criticism of how the board had normalized Mr. Trump’s racist remarks.“We need to stop explaining away the hate behind these crimes, these crimes that we’re living with because of what we’ve seen in the White House and across the country these last four years, and call them what they really are, acts of terror,” Mr. Donovan said.Paul Gigot, the editorial page editor and vice president of The Wall Street Journal, strongly disagreed with Mr. Donovan’s remarks. The board had been critical of Mr. Trump around immigration and his response to a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 where Heather D. Heyer, 32, was killed after a car plowed into a crowd of counterprotesters, he said.“I can point you to any number of pieces where we took his falsehoods on, and I can point you to any number of pieces where Donald Trump, tweets and everything else, was most unhappy with our coverage,” Mr. Gigot said before moving the conversation back to the topic at hand.The story behind Yang’s omnipresent scarfMr. McGuire is a proud self-described “sneakerhead” who can sometimes be spotted in red-soled Air Jordans — the 11 Retro (Bred) edition that can retail for a few hundred dollars.Ms. Wiley often favors the color purple.But few candidates seem as attached to any item of clothing as Mr. Yang is to his scarves — a gift from his wife, Evelyn.The three identical orange and blue Paul Smith scarves, which she bought on sale for $95 each from countryattire.us (a store she found via Google), evoke the colors of both the New York Mets and New York City’s flag.“She said, ‘Hey, this is going to be your new scarf,’ and I said, ‘Fantastic,’” Mr. Yang recalled.The scarf has fast become Mr. Yang’s signature fashion accessory, along with a black mask emblazoned with “Yang for New York” in white letters across the mouth.Ms. Yang wanted Mr. Yang to have a “splash of color,” he said, one that was “going to be identifiable and preferably somewhat New York-related.” More

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      The A Train and the Macarena: 5 Highlights From the Mayor’s Race

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }N.Y.C. Mayoral RaceWho’s Running?5 TakeawaysCandidates’ N.Y.C. MomentsAn Overview of the RaceAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyThe A Train and the Macarena: 5 Highlights From the Mayor’s RaceCandidates sparred over their subway smarts and did some virtual dancing, while the former sanitation commissioner got support from influential women.When Andrew Yang wrote on Twitter that he was “Bronx bound” while on the A train, the criticism was immediate.Credit…Brendan Mcdermid/ReutersJeffery C. Mays, Dana Rubinstein and March 8, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ETWhile Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s troubles dominated the headlines, the bevy of candidates running for New York City mayor trudged onward, dutifully showing up for yet more online forums and occasionally taking swings at their opponents’ foibles.The city’s new ranked-choice voting scheme is supposed to make the mayoral race nicer, since candidates are vying not only for first place, but also for second, third, fourth and fifth place, too. In such a scenario, it doesn’t pay to alienate a competitor’s supporters.That friendliness was on display after the Hotel Trades Council, a powerful union, endorsed Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president.Andrew Yang’s co-campaign managers made a point of saying nice things on Twitter. But the bonhomie didn’t last long.Adams and Yang spar over subwaysWhen Mr. Yang wrote on Twitter that he was “Bronx bound” while on the A train — a line that ends in Upper Manhattan — he gave new life to criticism that he lacked expertise about the city he hopes to govern.“Someone get Andrew Yang a subway map,” the New York Daily News wrote.The ribbing didn’t end there. The next day, Mr. Adams, who has placed second behind Mr. Yang in most polls, posted a photo of himself on Twitter suggesting that he knew how to get to the Bronx by subway.Chris Coffey, Mr. Yang’s co-campaign manager, quickly responded: “Did your car and driver meet you in the Bronx?”Mr. Coffey pointed out that Mr. Yang had switched from the A train to the D train at 125th Street and traveled to 167th Street in the Bronx to tour small businesses with Vanessa L. Gibson, a councilwoman from the borough who is running for borough president.It wasn’t the first time last week that Mr. Adams had targeted Mr. Yang for criticism. The two men are also sparring over universal basic income, Mr. Yang’s signature proposal from his run for the Democratic nomination for president.Mr. Yang introduced a version of the plan for New York City that calls for providing 500,000 of the city’s poorest residents with an average of $2,000 per year, and would cost about $1 billion.Speaking Friday at a virtual event hosted by the Association for a Better New York, Mr. Adams touted his plan to boost the city’s earned-income tax credit to provide 900,000 New Yorkers with up to $4,000 per year.Mr. Adams never mentioned Mr. Yang’s name but his language was caustic: He referred to his opponent’s proposal as “UBLie” and “snake oil,” and said the city did not need “empty promises” from “hollow salesmen.”Mr. Adams’s criticisms are a sign that he’s worried, Mr. Coffey suggested.“Hitting Andrew Yang, who is widely credited with making cash relief mainstream, at the same time as stimulus is starting to go out defies logic,” he said. “It’s almost as silly as trying to mock a lifetime subway rider when you have had a car and driver for seven years.”Truth, dare or dance?The high school students at the Teens Take Charge mayoral forum on Thursday grilled the candidates on tough issues such as summer jobs, funding for the City University of New York and the specialized high school entrance exam. They were ruthless moderators, holding the candidates to the allotted time to answer questions and even cutting them off when necessary.But that doesn’t mean they didn’t have fun at an event that many participants called the best mayoral forum so far.During the first “truth, dare or dance” round of the 2021 mayoral election season, the candidates could choose a truth, a dare or a 15-second dance to a song that the students had randomly chosen.No candidates chose to dance, but as the segment was ending, Shaun Donovan, a former federal housing secretary, was apparently dismayed that he had not gotten a chance to bust a move.“Can we dance now?” Mr. Donovan asked. One of the hosts, Carmen Lopez Villamil, offered 15 seconds to allow all the candidates to dance at once.“For real, we’re going to dance?” Dianne Morales, a nonprofit executive, said with a shocked look.As the song “Macarena” began to play, Mr. Yang was the first one out of his seat, followed closely by Mr. Donovan and Maya Wiley, the former legal counsel for Mayor Bill de Blasio.“You’ve got to turn it up a little bit,” said Ms. Wiley.Ms. Morales swayed to the beat with verve and rhythm. Mr. Donovan did a spin. Mr. Yang looked like he was doing a bit of salsa dancing, while Scott Stringer, the New York City comptroller, stuck to a quick two-step while wiggling a bit. Ms. Wiley also looked like she was grooving, but she was too close to the camera for the audience to check out her moves.“I love to dance but hoped for the Black Eyed Peas,” Ms. Wiley told The Times. “The Macarena isn’t my flava.”Unfortunately — or maybe fortunately — no one actually did the Macarena.Mr. Donovan admitted to not knowing how to do the dance but said he saw the opportunity as the “antidote” to hours of Zoom conferences. Adams lands the second big union endorsementThe Hotel Trades Council endorsed Eric Adams last week.Credit…Jose A. Alvarado Jr. for The New York TimesMr. Adams has taken to saying that he will be a “blue-collar mayor.” He talks about how his mother cleaned houses to support their family when he was growing up. Last week, the Hotel Trades Council endorsed Mr. Adams, calling him the “candidate of and for working-class New Yorkers.”The well-connected union has 31,000 workers, 22,000 of whom are registered to vote in the city. That can mean crucial votes in a crowded field, more small-dollar donations and campaign workers on the ground.It was the second big union endorsement in the race after Ms. Wiley was recently endorsed by Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union. It came as the pandemic has shut many city hotels and left workers unemployed. The number of visitors to New York City was down 66 percent in 2020 compared with the year before. Even with vaccination numbers on the rise, NYC & Company projects that tourism may not rebound until 2025. Mr. Adams recently endorsed a plan with another mayoral candidate, Carlos Menchaca, a councilman from Brooklyn, to turn underutilized hotels outside of Manhattan into affordable housing. Many of those hotels are nonunion.Mr. Adams is also in favor of a special citywide hotel permit for hotel construction, a policy Mr. de Blasio is trying to push through before his term is out. The Hotel Trades Council is backing the measure.If the city’s hospitality industry is to rebound, it needs tax relief, public safety, real-time reporting on vaccination rates and a “robust marketing effort,” Mr. Adams said.A biking mayor?There is a good chance that the next mayor will be a regular cyclist.The candidates showed off their cycling bona fides at a forum last week: Raymond J. McGuire showed off a sleek bike perched behind him in his elaborate Zoom setup, and Mr. Adams said he goes for a ride when he is feeling stressed.Mr. Yang said he got a bike when his first son was born and rode it from Hell’s Kitchen to the Financial District to take him to school. “It was a game changer for me,” Mr. Yang said. Many of the candidates said they want to continue to add protected bike lanes. Mr. Stringer plans to double bike ridership, move toward a car-free Manhattan and make sure that bike lanes are clearly separated from traffic so that his sons can ride safely.“We have to use our children as the barometer for whether we think a bike lane is safe,” he said at the forum.Mr. Donovan was perhaps the most serious cyclist: He once biked through the South to retrace the 1961 Freedom Rides.“I’m pretty sure no other candidate in this race has cycled 1,000 miles retracing the route of the Freedom Rides,” he said.Executive women support GarciaKathryn Garcia’s reform of the commercial garbage collection system has drawn admirers.Credit…Brendan Mcdermid/ReutersLet one thing be clear: Kathryn S. Wylde, the executive of the Wall Street-backed Partnership for New York City, is not endorsing Kathryn Garcia for mayor. She said she does not endorse because she will have to work with whoever gets elected.But she does think that Ms. Garcia, along with a couple of other candidates, would make for a very good mayor. That’s why she co-hosted a fund-raiser for Ms. Garcia, the former Sanitation Department commissioner, last week.So, too, did another business executive — Alicia Glen, a former deputy mayor in the de Blasio administration and one of the few de Blasio officials to earn plaudits from New York’s business class.Ms. Garcia said she interpreted Ms. Glen’s support as an endorsement, but deferred to Ms. Glen, who didn’t respond to requests for comment.Ms. Wylde said that she encouraged Ms. Garcia to run, much as she encouraged Mr. Donovan and Mr. McGuire, because she thinks Ms. Garcia would run the city well. She was particularly impressed by Ms. Garcia’s reform of the notoriously dangerous and inefficient commercial garbage collection system.“She’s somebody that brings people together to solve problems, and I’d like to see our next mayor be that kind of person,” Ms. Wylde said.Ms. Wylde has been working in politics since the late 1960s, when there were virtually no women in elected government. No woman has ever been mayor of New York. Ms. Wylde deflected when asked if she thought a woman could win this time around.“Historically, in any profession in New York City, women have a tough time getting ahead,” she said.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Face Time With Eight Mayoral Candidates

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }N.Y.C. Mayoral RaceWho’s Running?11 Candidates’ N.Y.C. MomentsAn Overview of the Race5 TakeawaysAdvertisementContinue reading the main storyOpinionSupported byContinue reading the main storyFace Time With Eight Mayoral CandidatesHere’s what you need to know.Ms. Gay is a member of the editorial board.March 7, 2021, 11:12 a.m. ETCredit…Illustration by The New York Times; photography by James Estrin/The New York Times, Benjamin Norman for The New York Times, and Bebeto Matthews, via Associated PressRunning for mayor of New York City once involved, well, some running — from shaking hands on the Staten Island Ferry to schmoozing with donors at fund-raisers and awkwardly dancing in parades across the five boroughs. This year, the candidates have spent a lot of their time on Zoom. It’s been weird.But the internet — in this case, Skype — is how I last talked with Kathryn Garcia, a wry, thoughtful former sanitation commissioner and candidate for mayor who deserves more attention than she has so far received in the race.“Is it OK if I record this?” I asked. “I’ve never met a reporter who didn’t record me, so I’m fine with it,” she shot back with a smile. (It’s nice to see that at least some things remain unchanged.) What followed was a conversation that had me hoping more New Yorkers will come to know her name — and fearing that the limits of campaigning during a pandemic may be leaving voters ill-informed about the people who are vying to run their city.Ms. Garcia isn’t the only candidate worthy of a closer look. With the pandemic still raging, public attention is focused on schools; masks; and, above all, the hope of a jab in the arm. For weary New Yorkers, the race for mayor can seem like an afterthought.It isn’t only the pandemic that makes this year’s mayor’s race different. This year’s primaries are in June instead of September, as in years past. This will also be the first mayoral election in which New Yorkers use ranked choice voting to cast their ballots. Paying attention now is all the more important since Primary Day is just a few months away, on June 22. Because Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly seven to one in the city, the winner of the primary is almost certain to become the city’s next mayor. Time is ticking.The wide open field has been called lackluster. That’s not quite right. What the field lacks in star power it makes up for in formidable résumés and deeply experienced public servants.Some of the top candidates are women. That’s exciting, since New York has never had a female mayor.There’s Maya Wiley, a civil rights lawyer who served as counsel under Mayor Bill de Blasio, then led the city’s police oversight agency. Ms. Wiley, who until recently was a political analyst at MSNBC, is a deep policy thinker.There’s Dianne Morales, a former nonprofit leader and former teacher who is wary of development and speaks passionately about the experiences and needs of working-class New Yorkers.And there’s Ms. Garcia, who earned a reputation as a deft manager at the Sanitation Department and a bringer of accountability to the city’s troubled public housing authority.Another experienced public servant in the race is Scott Stringer, the city’s comptroller, who has offered a series of clear, real plans for how to get New York back on its feet. In a city facing budget cuts and hard decisions, Mr. Stringer’s seasoned understanding of how to use government to help New Yorkers is an asset. He has a plan for nearly every problem and wouldn’t have to learn on the job.Eric Adams, Brooklyn’s sometimes quirky borough president, has also served as a state senator and a captain in the Police Department. Mr. Adams, who is Black and has spoken openly about having experienced abuse at the hands of the police, would undoubtedly bring a potent mix of life experiences to City Hall. “The Police Department is not going to play games with me,” Mr. Adams told me.Shaun Donovan, the housing secretary and then a budget director in the Obama White House who had also served as a housing commissioner in the Bloomberg administration. He has a rich understanding of budgeting and how to build affordable housing, something this city desperately needs.Also in the mix of New Yorkers is Ray McGuire, a former head of investment banking at Citigroup. He has impressive management experience and has promised to use his Wall Street acumen to expand the city’s economy, create 500,000 jobs and build more housing. In candidate forums and interviews, Mr. McGuire displays a sober intensity, the kind it often takes to succeed at the highest levels if you are a Black man in America.Then, of course, there is Andrew Yang, the enigmatic former presidential candidate and tech veteran who once served as chief executive of a test-prep company. Mr. Yang has sucked up an enormous amount of oxygen in the race so far. If he is elected, he would be the city’s first Asian-American mayor.The lack of attention on the race might be one reason early polls have Mr. Yang, who came into the race with high name recognition after his presidential bid, far ahead of his rivals.It isn’t always clear what this front-runner has in store for New York or how well he knows the city — including where the A train begins and ends. But all the candidates have solid ideas that would make the city a better place to live.Ms. Garcia wants to create “green belts,” expanding tree canopies, getting waste-spewing trucks off the road and making sidewalks safer, healthier, more relaxing places to spend time. Mr. Donovan wants to create a city of “15-minute neighborhoods,” in which every resident is within a 15-minute walk of public transit and parks, good schools, fresh food and health care.Ms. Wiley has proposed a $10 billion capital plan she calls “New Deal New York,” with the goal of creating 100,000 new jobs. Mr. Adams wants to overhaul the food the city serves in schools, homeless shelters and jails.Mr. Stringer wants to make child care free for the lowest-income New Yorkers and subsidize it for thousands of others. Mr. Yang’s idea to give cash relief to low-income New Yorkers is attractive, though it isn’t likely the city could afford to give enough to make a significant difference.Ms. Morales’s intense focus on the needs and aspirations of working-class and low-income New Yorkers makes her an important voice in the race. Mr. McGuire’s steady confidence that he can bring hundreds of thousands of jobs back to New York sooner than any of the other candidates is reason enough for voters to give him a close look.For all their good ideas, there are bad ideas, too. A suggestion to build a casino on Governors Island is silly, for instance. An even worse idea floating around is to ease up on enforcement of a group of ultra-Orthodox yeshivas suspected of failing to give students a basic education as required by state law.Serious candidates in this race are laser-focused on how to create good jobs and improve schools, build affordable housing and better transportation, and give New Yorkers cleaner air and safer streets. There’s a lot at stake and a lot to consider, if voters would only take a look.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.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      How 8 Mayoral Hopefuls Plan to Fix the Economy

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      How 8 Mayoral Candidates Plan to Fix New York’s EconomyNew York is facing a financial crisis, mainly because of the pandemic. The next mayor will have to guide the city out of a $5 billion budget gap while helping people and businesses recover from the devastation of Covid-19.Here’s how eight mayoral candidates say they would fund their priorities → More

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      Cuomo in Crisis, Republicans Emerging: Updates From New York’s Mayoral Race

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }Harassment Claims Against CuomoWhat We KnowCuomo’s ApologySecond AccusationFirst AccusationMayoral Candidates ReactAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyCuomo in Crisis, Republicans Emerging: Updates From New York’s Mayoral RaceSeveral major candidates called for an investigation into Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, as two Republicans vied for key endorsements.At least two Democratic mayoral candidates have called on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to resign if a series of sex harassment allegations are substantiated.Credit…Gabby Jones for The New York TimesEmma G. Fitzsimmons, Jeffery C. Mays and March 1, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ETThe big political story in New York City is the growing crisis surrounding Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who faced new allegations of sexual harassment over the weekend.Several Democratic mayoral candidates responded with calls for an independent investigation, and some said Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, should resign if the allegations are substantiated.And as the Republican field begins to take shape, and many candidates are holding more in-person events, the contest — with the primaries now just four months away — is starting to feel a lot like a normal election, even with the coronavirus still a concern.Here’s what you need to know about the race:A rebuke for CuomoMaya Wiley was among a slew of mayoral candidates who expressed disgust over the allegations against the governor, saying that she believed the accuser’s account.Credit…Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York TimesMany candidates responded to a New York Times article disclosing that a second woman had accused Mr. Cuomo of sexual harassment by calling for an independent investigation, expressing disgust and demanding his resignation if the allegations were further substantiated.Charlotte Bennett, 25, a former executive assistant and health policy adviser for the governor, said he asked questions about her sex life, including whether she had ever had sex with older men. The charges come after Lindsey Boylan, a former state economic development official, accused Mr. Cuomo of giving her an unwanted kiss.Mr. Cuomo called Ms. Boylan’s allegations untrue and said he was sorry that some of the things he had said to Ms. Bennett “have been misinterpreted as an unwanted flirtation.” The governor is also facing questions over how he handled the state’s nursing homes during the pandemic and over charges of bullying behavior.Among the candidates, Scott M. Stringer and Raymond J. McGuire went the furthest, calling for Mr. Cuomo to resign if an independent investigation substantiated the sexual harassment allegations.Mr. McGuire called the allegations “deeply disturbing” and said the accused conduct was “abhorrent.” He said the governor “should resign” if they were further substantiated.Mr. Stringer said the governor “must resign” if an investigation “supports these serious and credible allegations.”Dianne Morales had already called for impeachment proceedings to begin against Mr. Cuomo because of allegations of bullying and the way he had handled nursing homes.“It’s time to address the complete abuses of power that Cuomo has exercised for far too long,” Ms. Morales said in a statement.Kathryn Garcia, Andrew Yang and Shaun Donovan called for independent investigations into the allegations.Mr. Yang said that victims of sexual harassment should “feel empowered” to share their stories “without fear or retaliation” and that “Albany must show they take all allegations seriously through action.”Ms. Wiley registered her disgust in a statement on Saturday, saying, “I believe Charlotte Bennett.” She followed up with a statement on Sunday that had at least 20 or so questions about the situation.Republicans jockey for endorsementsCurtis Sliwa, best known as the founder of the Guardian Angels, has entered the Republican mayoral primary race.Credit…Peter Foley/EPA, via ShutterstockAnother Republican has entered the mayoral race: Curtis Sliwa, the red beret-wearing founder of the Guardian Angels, who is running on a law-and-order message.Mr. Sliwa registered with the city Campaign Finance Board recently and was endorsed by Republican leaders on Staten Island. That prompted Fernando Mateo to announce endorsements from the Republican Party in Manhattan, the Bronx and Queens. The two are expected to be top contenders for the Republican nomination, though either would be an extreme long shot in the general election, given that the vast majority of voters in the city are Democrats.“The reason I’m running for mayor is our city is a ghost town,” Mr. Sliwa said in an interview on Newsmax, criticizing rising crime and homelessness.Mr. Sliwa knocked Mr. Yang, the former presidential candidate, saying he wants to “give out money that we don’t have” — a reference to universal basic income — and he argued that the Democratic field wants to defund the police. (Most of the Democrats have been reluctant to embrace the defund movement, but they do want to change department policies.)Mr. Sliwa said the Police Department had been “neutered” since George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis last year, and he promised to restore police funding and boost morale by visiting every precinct as mayor.“I’ll pat these cops on the back so hard they’ll have to go for a chiropractic adjustment,” he said.Mr. Mateo, who was born in the Dominican Republic, has highlighted his appeal to Hispanic voters. The Bronx Republican Party said in a statement that Republicans had made “significant inroads” in minority communities, especially with Hispanics.“With Mateo at the top of the Republican ticket in 2021, we can replicate that success citywide and continue to expand the Republican coalition,” the group said.Ditching the video campaign, if only for an afternoonAndrew Yang made far more in-person campaign appearances than his rivals, but all of the leading mayoral candidates made campaign stops across the city last week.Credit…Spencer Platt/Getty ImagesThere are walking tours and outdoor lunches, policy rollouts and church visits.As the weather begins to warm and the primary election nears, the Democratic mayoral candidates are slowly getting back out onto the campaign trail, appearing increasingly willing to balance the risks of campaigning in a pandemic with the need to engage and excite more voters beyond Zoom.In the last week, all of the leading mayoral candidates made campaign stops across the city, in some cases several stops in one day. Ms. Wiley spent Friday afternoon in the Bronx; Mr. Stringer offered his housing plan outdoors; Mr. McGuire spent Saturday campaigning in southeast Queens.Mr. Yang, who had to quarantine after testing positive for the coronavirus last month, has from the beginning of his campaign shown more comfort with in-person events, and he was the pacesetter again last week, taking a five-day tour through the five boroughs.The strategy can pay off. Mr. Yang rode the Staten Island Ferry and made positive headlines for helping defend a photographer from an attack.Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, and Carlos Menchaca, a Brooklyn city councilman, even held an unusual joint campaign event in front of the Phoenix Hotel in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, to call for converting empty hotels into affordable housing.Mr. Adams said in an interview that his long days usually start with meditation at 6 a.m., and a recent evening ended with a dinner with South Asian leaders at 9 p.m.“Every second is utilized,” he said. “From the time I wake up to the time I hit my pillow.”A campaign of (stolen) ideasOne candidate accusing another candidate of appropriating their campaign’s ideas: It’s a time-honored complaint on the trail. The Democratic primary for mayor is no different. Several candidates for mayor are proponents of some version of universal basic income, one of Mr. Yang’s campaign platforms from his run for president. Now, some candidates are accusing Mr. Yang of pilfering their campaign ideas.Mr. Adams’s campaign faults Mr. Yang’s campaign for stealing ideas to provide pregnant women with doulas and use shuttered storefronts as vaccine distribution centers.Stu Loeser, an adviser on Mr. McGuire’s campaign, accused the Yang campaign of appropriating their idea to allow small businesses to keep their sales tax receipts for a year to help recover from the pandemic, and to create a teachers’ corps to tutor students.Mr. McGuire’s campaign grew so annoyed that they decided to do a bit of internet trolling: Anyone who heads to yangpolicy.com is automatically redirected to Mr. McGuire’s campaign website. The official registration for the web address is anonymous, but Mr. McGuire’s campaign claimed credit.“Lots of candidates say they will take on wasteful duplication. We set up yangpolicy.com to actually do something about it,” said Lupe Todd-Medina, a spokeswoman for Mr. McGuire.Mr. Yang’s campaign ridiculed the accusations, suggesting that Mr. McGuire’s campaign and others have used ideas they first proposed.“You know what’s not a new idea? Last-place candidate going after first-place candidate to get attention,” said Alyssa Cass, Mr. Yang’s communications director.As for Mr. Adams’s idea about doulas, Ms. Cass said Mr. Yang agreed with Mr. Adams and had spoken with others about the idea.“Eric has had 15-plus years as an elected official and never gotten it done,” Ms. Cass said. “We’ll make it a Year 1 priority.”Who will save Broadway?Kathryn Garcia said that she would serve as the city’s cheerleader as mayor, visiting museums and Broadway shows to get New Yorkers excited about returning to them.Credit…Brendan Mcdermid/ReutersOne central issue in the race is how to bring back Broadway and the city’s struggling cultural institutions.Ms. Garcia, the former sanitation commissioner, released her plan last week called “Reopen to Stay Open,” which calls for removing red tape for small businesses and working with streaming services to broadcast Broadway shows.Ms. Garcia said she will be the city’s cheerleader, visiting museums and Broadway shows to get New Yorkers excited about returning to them. She held a recent Broadway-themed fund-raiser with Will Roland, an actor from the musical “Dear Evan Hansen.”Ms. Wiley, a former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio, has talked about rebuilding the arts and proposed spending $1 billion on a recovery plan for artists and culture workers as part of her “New Deal New York” proposal.Ms. Wiley also said she wants to be a cheerleader for the city and would not run away from the job, referring to Mr. de Blasio’s penchant for spending time outside the city during a failed presidential run in 2019.“You don’t have to worry about me going to Iowa,” Ms. Wiley said at a candidate forum. “I’d much rather be on Broadway celebrating its survival.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      5 Takeaways From the NYC Mayor’s Race: Bagel Orders and Vaccine Appointments

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }N.Y.C. Mayoral RaceWho’s Running?11 Candidates’ N.Y.C. MomentsAn Overview of the Race5 TakeawaysAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyBagel Orders and Vaccine Appointments: 5 Takeaways From the Mayor’s RaceA former City Council speaker decides not to run, and a current city comptroller becomes the first leading candidate to get the coronavirus vaccine.A campaign event at City Hall Park for Scott Stringer, who recently received the coronavirus vaccine.Credit…Benjamin Norman for The New York TimesDana Rubinstein, Emma G. Fitzsimmons, Katie Glueck and Feb. 22, 2021Updated 10:06 a.m. ETThe horde of politicians running for mayor of New York City appears to have finally hit a saturation point.More than 30 people are still in the field, making it difficult for a clear front-runner to emerge — and near impossible for a second- or third-tier candidate to break through. With four months before the June 22 primary, one long-rumored candidate has decided not to join the scrum. But not to worry: There are still plenty of opinions to go around on everything from police funding to bagels. After deliberating for months, Christine C. Quinn, a former City Council speaker, has decided not to run for mayor.Credit…Karsten Moran for The New York TimesChristine Quinn will not enter the raceChristine C. Quinn, a former City Council speaker who had been a favorite in the 2013 Democratic mayoral primary, is doing the nearly unthinkable: She is resisting the urge to run for mayor — or any elective office this year.“I’ve been thinking about it a while and it wasn’t an easy decision,” said Ms. Quinn, whose bid in 2013 was partially derailed by an anti-horse carriage super PAC, paving the way for Bill de Blasio to capture the Democratic primary and the mayoralty.Since then, Ms. Quinn has run a homeless services organization for families with children. Had she run for mayor, she would have made the issue central to her campaign.“Jesus in the Bible said the poor will always be amongst us, but this crisis we’re in now — more homeless children in shelter than there are seats in Madison Square Garden — that’s solvable,” she said. “It’s just no one has demonstrated the political will.”Ms. Quinn’s deliberations lasted months — she had been interviewing potential staff and commissioned a poll, according to a friend who was not authorized to speak publicly. But in the end, she recognized that a homelessness-centered platform would be unlikely to carry the day in a city consumed by the pandemic, the friend said.Even so, Ms. Quinn does not plan to fade into the background.“I really believe that I can effect more change by staying on the outside and being a thorn in the side of everyone who is running,” she said.Mr. Stringer, 60, center, lost his mother to the coronavirus in April and wanted to get the vaccine as soon as possible.Credit…Benjamin Norman for The New York TimesHave you gotten the vaccine? Scott Stringer has.With limited doses of the vaccine available, some elected officials have made it a point to take the vaccine in a public way to show it is safe. Others want to wait to show the system is fair.Mr. de Blasio, 59, decided not to take the vaccine yet. His wife, Chirlane McCray, 66, got it this month because she meets the state’s age requirements for people 65 and older.Scott M. Stringer, 60, lost his mother to the coronavirus in April and wanted to get the vaccine as soon as possible. On Friday, Mr. Stringer, the city comptroller, became the first leading mayoral candidate to receive the vaccine, getting it at the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens.Mr. Stringer, 60, has hypertension, or high blood pressure — one of the conditions that make New Yorkers eligible for the vaccine under new rules.“I always said I would get the vaccine when I was qualified,” he said in an interview. “It was not a tough decision for me.”Many New Yorkers have struggled to get a vaccine appointment. Mr. Stringer used the state’s website and did “a lot of refreshing with a friend” early one morning.Several candidates said they had not received the vaccine and were waiting until more New Yorkers had the shot. Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, said he was checking with his doctor to see if he qualifies under new guidelines. Tread carefully when picking a favorite bagelUnder normal circumstances, the path to New York political power is paved with dining pitfalls. There is the scrutiny of how officials consume a slice of pizza, the pressure to eat — and eat and eat — across the city’s diverse neighborhoods.And then there is a divisive category all its own: bagel preferences.After The Forward published a survey revealing the choices of eight of the candidates (four preferred everything bagels with lox), a TikTok video from the account brooklynbagelblog ranked the candidates.“The candidate with the best order goes to Kathryn Garcia,” the narrator declared, favoring her choice of an open-faced everything bagel with cream cheese, a slice of tomato, capers, lox and onion. “You can see that she has a vision for this bagel and I assume that means she has a vision for the city.”Bagel preferences arose again on Thursday at a mayoral forum hosted by the New York Jewish Agenda, when candidates were asked about their order at a New York Jewish deli, an institution where rye bread, not a bagel, is often the starch of choice.Still, Raymond J. McGuire, Dianne Morales, Andrew Yang and Loree Sutton opted to share their bagel preferences. Mr. Stringer, who is Jewish and who has a political power base on the West Side — home to several legendary appetizing stores — said he would opt for matzo ball soup and pastrami on rye.“You don’t order a bagel at Katz’s!” Mr. Stringer later tweeted.(On the second panel, Ms. Garcia, Shaun Donovan and the now-vegan Mr. Adams referenced pastrami; Carlos Menchaca mentioned a bagel before saying he sampled pastrami sparingly.)Mayor Bill de Blasio hasn’t decided whether to offer an endorsement, saying that it was too early in the campaign.Credit…Jose A. Alvarado Jr. for The New York TimesBill de Blasio ponders his successorMost of the leading candidates have said they don’t want Mr. de Blasio’s endorsement, but that hasn’t stopped him from weighing in on the qualities he’d like to see in his successor.At a meeting at Gracie Mansion with union leaders that was reported by Politico New York, the mayor expressed a fondness for the life story of Mr. Adams and questioned the lead that Mr. Yang, the former presidential candidate, has registered in initial polls.At a news conference last week, Mr. de Blasio confirmed the meeting, explaining that the participants were not talking about “one candidate or another,” but “the working people of New York City and the future of New York City.”“We know what it’s like when the elites get it their way and working people are an afterthought,” the mayor said. “So, the meeting was really about where are we going.”The mayor hasn’t decided whether to offer an endorsement, adding that it was too early for prognostication.“If you go back to the equivalent time in 2013, I was in either fourth or fifth place before the primary,” Mr. de Blasio said of his surprise victory.The response from the candidates varied. Mr. Adams “appreciates that the mayor recognizes his powerful life’s journey,” said Evan Thies, a spokesman.The campaigns of Mr. Yang and Mr. McGuire responded to Mr. de Blasio’s comments with what seemed like sharp jabs.“Andrew Yang is focused on tangible ways to help New York City bring back jobs, reduce the outbreak in shootings, and recover from the most difficult period in its history,” said Chris Coffey, a spokesman for Mr. Yang. Mr. McGuire said the mayor’s comments were “divisive, old-school political posturing that’s making our city’s comeback harder than it should be.”“Can’t we just, for once, bring people together to solve problems, instead of seeking out ways to divide us all into narrow buckets of power?” Mr. McGuire said. “I do not see why we somehow are prioritizing secular over faith-based learning,” Andrew Yang recently said.Credit…Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesYang on yeshivasIn 2019, the de Blasio administration released a report — delayed for years for politically motivated reasons, according to city investigators — that found that the vast majority of yeshivas visited by city officials were not meeting state standards on secular education.The report gave momentum to critics of yeshiva education, many of them Jews, who argue that the lack of quality education in subjects like English deprives students of the ability to thrive in the job market after graduation, and have asked city and state education officials to intercede.Some mayoral candidates have said they would take steps to ensure every New York City child received a sound secular education, in accordance with state law.Mr. Yang, however, said he is waiting for more data.“I do not think we should be prescribing a curriculum, unless the curriculum can be demonstrated to have improved impact on people’s career trajectories and prospects afterward,” Mr. Yang said at the mayoral forum on Thursday hosted by the New York Jewish Agenda.Then he pivoted to a discussion about his own experience in high school, during which he spent a month reading the Bible as literature.“If it was good enough for my public school, I do not see why we somehow are prioritizing secular over faith-based learning,” Mr. Yang said.His response startled many education leaders in New York, including Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, who moderated the forum. She is Jewish and married to a rabbi.“Andrew Yang is better than this,” Ms. Weingarten said in an interview.“Regardless of who the child is,” she added, “they have a right to dream their dreams and achieve them and that means they have to have in New York State a sound basic education.”Naftuli Moster, the executive director of Yaffed, which advocates for stricter enforcement of state education standards, was sharper in his criticism.“I don’t know if he understands the magnitude of educational neglect happening in the city he hopes to represent and he’s still choosing to pander to Haredi leaders, or he simply hasn’t done his homework,” he said.In a subsequent email, Mr. Yang’s spokesman said the candidate was familiar with the 2019 city report finding inadequate secular education in dozens of yeshivas and would “work constructively with the community to improve outcomes in those schools.”But, the spokesman said, Mr. Yang is awaiting “fresh data regarding the roughly 90 percent of yeshivas that were left out” of the report.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Mitch McConnell Is So Over Trump That He Voted to Absolve Him

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storyOpinionSupported byContinue reading the main storyThe conversationMitch McConnell Is So Over Trump That He Voted to Absolve HimOn the impeachment front, it was an exciting — if sometimes perplexing — weekend.Gail Collins and Ms. Collins and Mr. Stephens are opinion columnists. They converse every week.Feb. 15, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ETCredit…Alexander Drago/ReutersBret Stephens: What a wild week, Gail. Should we feel pleased that seven Republican Senators voted to convict Donald Trump of incitement — six more than in the last impeachment — or appalled that the other 43 didn’t?Another way of putting the question is whether the G.O.P.’s cup is 14 percent full or 86 percent empty.Gail Collins: It was certainly an interesting show. It’ll be a long time before I forget Mitch McConnell’s speech about the “outgoing president who seemed determined to either overturn the voters’ decision or else torch our institutions on the way out.”It was, by McConnell standards, very passionate. Of course it’d have been a heck of a lot more moving if he hadn’t just voted against any punishment.Bret: The other day I listened to a Malcolm Gladwell podcast on the Yiddish word “chutzpah.” The word has two distinct connotations. In its American usage, it suggests audacity, as in, “It took a lot of chutzpah for her to walk into her boss’s office back in 1962 and demand a raise, but — guess what? — she got it!” In the Israeli sense, it usually means gall and shamelessness, as in, “First the boy murders his parents. Then he pleads for mercy in court because he’s an orphan.”Anyway, McConnell’s speech was chutzpah in the Israeli sense. He wanted to have his outrage and eat it, too. He wanted to ease whatever conscience he has left by denouncing Trump in a way that had no consequences, while using a legal dodge to advance his political interests in the way that really matters. Just pathetic.Gail: Maybe we can call it the McConnell Two-Step.Bret: Or maybe the “Mitch Macarena.” Where is Ted Sorensen when you need him to ghostwrite “Profiles of Invertebrates?” It’s the story of today’s Republican Party and conservative establishment, minus Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Lisa Murkowski and the other brave ones.Gail: But about the G.O.P’s cup — I ought to ask you. Where do you see your party going from here? Engineering a post-Trump turnaround or just sticking to the same brain-dead script that’ll probably force you to vote Democratic again in 2024?Bret: Gail, it isn’t my party any longer, and you’re obviously delighting in the thought of my being forced to vote for Democratic presidential candidates for three election cycles in a row. It might suggest a pattern.Right now I’m working on a longish piece making the case that America needs a Liberal Party, albeit in the European sense of the term. I mean parties that are for free markets, civil liberties and small government, without being hostile to immigration and cultural change.Gail: If that means a three-party system, we’re going to have a lot to fight about.Bret: We should fight more. As for the G.O.P., it’s probably a lost cause. My guess is that Trump’s luster will fade in the party because a lot of Republicans know he’s crazy and are ashamed of what happened on Jan. 6. But Trumpism as the politics of nativism, rage and conspiracy theory is going to be a dominant strain in the G.O.P., especially if Josh Hawley or Tom Cotton or one of the Trump kids is the next nominee.Gail: Eric for president!Credit…Jessica Mcgowan/Getty ImagesBret: To return to Yiddish: Oy vey. Of course there’s Nikki Haley. But after reading Tim Alberta’s long profile of her in Politico, I can’t decide whether she’s crazy like a fox or too clever by half.Gail: What do you think her slogan would be: Served the Trump administration loyally except secretly she always hated him?Bret: From a political standpoint, she’s played her cards pretty astutely. She might be the only potential G.O.P. candidate who can unite the party. She’s smart, charismatic, has a great personal story, did the right thing as governor of South Carolina by getting rid of the Confederate flag from the State House soon after the Charleston church slaughter, and was effective as U.N. ambassador. If she wins the nomination she’d be a formidable challenger to the Democratic nominee, whoever that winds up being.Gail: Wow, Kamala vs. Nikki.Bret: Interesting that Kamala ’24 already seems like a foregone conclusion. Shades of Hillary ’08?Back to Haley. Her dodges and maneuvers are a bit too transparent. And her brand of mainstream Republican conservatism is just out of step for a party that is increasingly out of its mind.Gail: Still, you’ve got me obsessing about an all-female presidential race.Bret: About time.Gail: But back for a minute to the Senate. Do you think they should have called witnesses so the country could have listened to a description of Trump ignoring the real physical danger to Mike Pence and other top Republicans, and defending the rioters when he was begged to call them off?Bret: Not really, no. What more does the country need to know than the evidence the House managers presented? Calling witnesses would have dragged out the trial for weeks on end, forcing us all to watch those despicable Trump lawyers. And we both know it wouldn’t have changed the result.Gail: Yeah, and we really need to get on to Biden’s agenda. There’s a rumor about some kind of pandemic …Bret: Also, the trial introduced the country to some new Democratic stars. Stacey Plaskett deserves an immediate promotion to a big administration job. And Jamie Raskin should be a future contender for attorney general. That he was able to perform with so much grace under pressure, after a terrible family tragedy, made him that much more admirable.Gail: Agreed.Bret: So it’s time for the country to move on. Since I’m grooving on Jewish tropes today, let’s just say, “Trump Came, He Tried to Destroy Us, We Won, Let’s Eat.”Let me switch subjects on you this time. Should Andrew Cuomo be impeached for being, er, highly parsimonious with the truth about the nursing home Covid deaths?Gail: This is Andrew Cuomo. Punishment would be not letting him run for a fourth term in 2022. But New York definitely needs a new crop of executives. Try mentioning Bill de Blasio to a socially distanced friend and watch eyes glaze over from six feet away.Bret: Or, in my case, head exploding. De Blasio is to managerial competence what Yogi Berra was to the syllogism. He’s the guy who redeems the memory of Abe Beame. He makes Trump’s handling of the coronavirus situation seem relatively competent. He’s the nation’s unintentional uniter, bringing everyone from Cuomo to Ted Cruz together into shared contempt.Gail: I thought I was good at complaining about de Blasio, but you win the medal.Bret: I’m keeping fingers crossed that Andrew Yang or some other reasonably competent character can bring the city back from moving further toward 1970s-style insolvency, disorder, crime and decay.Gail: Here’s my last question, Bret. In a couple of weeks it’ll be March. Which won’t change much, pandemic-wise. But as it starts to get warmer, do you think we’ll all start to feel more optimistic? Walking through parks, picnics on the terrace? Our last Trumpian chapter over?Bret: I’m enjoying this continual blanket of snow and wouldn’t mind if it stretched into April. Maybe it will help everyone chill out and calm down. And it’s an excellent excuse for doing as little exercise as possible and binge-watching this French spy thriller, “The Bureau,” that an old friend of mine just got me into.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.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      NYC Mayoral Campaign: Yang Hires Woman Who Once Disparaged Him

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }N.Y.C. Mayoral RaceWho’s Running?11 Candidates’ N.Y.C. MomentsA Look at the Race5 Takeaways From the DebateAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyIn Campaign Team Shake-up, Yang Hires a Woman Who Once Disparaged HimThe new campaign co-manager, Sasha Neha Ahuja, criticized the candidate in 2019 after he was accused of gender discrimination, writing, “Wish I could say it was unbelievable.”Andrew Yang, a newcomer to New York City politics, has lurched toward the front of the city’s mayoral race.Credit…Jose A. Alvarado Jr. for The New York TimesDana Rubinstein and Feb. 12, 2021Updated 6:01 p.m. ETIn 2019, a story about gender discrimination centering on a presidential candidate was making the rounds, and a New York City progressive activist, Sasha Neha Ahuja, found it to be credible.The candidate was Andrew Yang, and Kimberly Watkins, one of his former employees at the test-prep company he once ran, had publicly accused Mr. Yang of firing her after she got married, allegedly because he thought she would not want to work as hard.“Wish I could say it was unbelievable,” Ms. Ahuja wrote on Twitter, sharing an article from HuffPost about Ms. Watkins’s allegations, which Mr. Yang has long denied.Last month, Mr. Yang named Ms. Ahuja as the co-manager of his campaign for New York City mayor, selecting an operative who may be able to help him connect with progressives skeptical of Mr. Yang’s campaign. Yet a review of her activity on Twitter suggests that on multiple issues, involving politics and personnel, her instincts have been at odds with the leading candidate she is now assisting.Her elevation to the role, running the campaign alongside Chris Coffey, a Tusk Strategies executive, came as a result of an apparent leadership shake-up within the campaign in the weeks leading up to Mr. Yang’s entry into the race.The developments offer among the clearest signs yet of some of the turbulence that Mr. Yang, a leading mayoral candidate but a newcomer to city politics, has encountered as he works to get his campaign off the ground.Ms. Ahuja said in a statement released on Friday that “when I heard the testimony in 2019, I was taken aback. It’s incredibly important for us to listen to the experiences of all people in the workplace, especially those who tend to experience discrimination most frequently.”“It is also important to make sure all sides are heard and promote a workplace culture that is inclusive and committed to equity,” said Ms. Ahuja, who is the current chair of New York City’s Equal Employment Practices Commission. “That’s why when I had the chance to work for Andrew and build that type of culture on a mayoral campaign, I jumped at the chance and am so excited to be here.”Her tweets also suggest that she has been far more progressive on matters including criminal justice than Mr. Yang is in his current bid. And during a recent special City Council election in Queens, Ms. Ahuja tweeted encouragingly about a deeply progressive candidate who was embraced by leading liberal figures but was vigorously opposed by some members of the Orthodox Jewish community, a constituency Mr. Yang is now aggressively courting.Mr. Yang did not engage in that election, his campaign said, and Ms. Ahuja noted that “there are so few South Asian women who run for office in New York City and I support many of them, independent from any professional work.”In a statement, Mr. Yang defended Ms. Ahuja’s tweets about him.“The rest of the field can focus on my staffer’s tweets from years ago, but we’re focused on the big ideas like cash relief,” responding to Covid-19 and managing the economic recovery, he said. “I wanted my team to represent a diverse array of backgrounds, experiences, and views, and I’m proud to have all these folks fighting with me for New Yorkers.”Ms. Watkins, who is now running for Manhattan borough president, said she was “shocked” after being shown Ms. Ahuja’s tweet on Friday.“If she’s working now for Andrew Yang, having declared that she believed that to be true, it tells me that she is under the influence of someone who does not tell the truth about their history with women in the workplace,” Ms. Watkins added.Ms. Ahuja’s appointment was not the only personnel change on Mr. Yang’s campaign team in recent weeks.Zach Graumann, who was Mr. Yang’s presidential campaign manager, signed multiple fund-raising emails last month indicating that he was Mr. Yang’s mayoral campaign manager. Mr. Graumann, who came under scrutiny in a recent Business Insider article about how Mr. Yang’s 2020 campaign was mired in “bro culture,” is now listed as a senior adviser to Mr. Yang. They continue to host a podcast together.Mr. Yang’s team has said that Mr. Graumann helped the campaign get started but that it wanted to put New York political experts in charge of the team.At a recent candidates’ forum, Mr. Yang mentioned Ms. Ahuja in response to a question from Maya D. Wiley, another mayoral candidate, about the Business Insider article.“One of my co-campaign managers is a woman of color, Sasha Ahuja,” he said. “I could not agree more with the fact that you need, you need to have women in positions of leadership in order to actually operate at the highest levels.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More