https://apnews.com/article/eric-adams-wins-nyc-democratic-mayoral-primary-9c564828a29831747f9c2e6f52daf55e

Eric Adams wins Democratic primary in NYC’s mayoral race
By KAREN MATTHEWS

NEW YORK (AP) — Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams 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.

A former police captain, Adams would be the city’s second Black mayor if elected.

He triumphed over a large Democratic field in New York’s first major race to use ranked choice voting. Results from the latest tabulations released Tuesday showed him leading former city sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia by 8,426 votes, or a little more than 1 percentage point.

“While there are still some very small amounts of votes to be counted, the results are clear: an historic, diverse, five-borough coalition led by working-class New Yorkers has led us to victory in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York,” Adams said in a statement.

He said he was running to “deliver on the promise of this great city for those who are struggling, who are underserved, and who are committed to a safe, fair, affordable future for all New Yorkers.”

Adams will be the prohibitive favorite in the general election against Curtis Sliwa, the Republican founder of the Guardian Angels. Democrats outnumber Republicans 7-to-1 in New York City.

Adams’ closest vanquished Democratic rivals included Garcia, who campaigned as a technocrat and proven problem-solver, and former City Hall legal advisor Maya Wiley, who had progressive support including an endorsement from U.S. Rep. 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.

Voting in the primary ended June 22. Early returns showed Adams in the lead, but New Yorkers had to wait for tens of thousands of absentee ballots to be counted and for rounds of tabulations done under the new ranked choice system.

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Under the system, voters ranked up to five candidates for mayor in order of preference. Candidates with too few votes to win were eliminated and ballots cast for them redistributed to the surviving contenders, based on the voter preference, until only two were left.

The city’s first experience with the system in a major election was bumpy. As votes were being tallied on June 29, elections officials bungled the count by inadvertently including 135,000 old test ballots. Erroneous vote tallies were posted for several hours before officials acknowledged the error and took them down.

The mistake had no impact on the final outcome of the race.

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.”

Garcia’s campaign issued no immediate response to Tuesday’s vote tally, but said she would be making a statement Wednesday morning.

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 4-year-old girl 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 the night of the primary.

But Adams is a study in contradictions who at different times has been a defender of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, a registered Republican and a Democratic state senator thriving in a world of backroom deals.

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 was beaten by officers at age 15.

Adams 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.

Adams is a vegan who credits a plant-based diet with reversing his diabetes. He has a 25-year-old son, Jordan Coleman, with a former girlfriend. His current partner is Tracey Collins, an educator who holds an administrative job in the city’s public school system.

Journalists raised questions during the race about where Adams lived. He was born in Brooklyn, walked the beat there as a cop, owns real estate there and represented it in the state Senate. But he slept in his office in Brooklyn Borough Hall for months during the pandemic and opponents noted that he shares a place with his partner in Fort Lee, New Jersey.

Adams gave reporters a tour of a basement apartment in Brooklyn that he said was his primary residence.

Adams can be a charismatic speaker but has also made cringe-worthy utterances, such as his 1993 suggestion that Herman Badillo, a Puerto Rican-born politician, should have married a Latina instead of a white, Jewish woman.

Speaking at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day event last year, Adams complained about gentrifiers moving to the city from elsewhere.

“Go back to Iowa. You go back to Ohio,” Adams said. “New York City belongs to the people that were here and made New York City what it is.”

Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, was barred by the city charter from seeking a third term.

___

Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz contributed to this report.

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"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

Defund the Police candidate appears to have pulled ahead after many rounds.

Crystal Hudson is left but more establishment left.

If anything ranked choice made the race closer than it would've otherwise been.

RCV actually allowed 1 of them to leap frog from 3rd to 2nd over the candidate who had the most support among progressive activists and politicians.

The jury is still out on RCV, but the consensus is that it favors the least polarizing candidates. And for many people, the candidate proposing the least “radical” policies (in their eyes) is the safer bet.

I think RCV will backfire on progressives like many open primaries have, even though progressive activists are the most vehement proponents of both. It’s not because either system is inherently biased against further left leaning candidates. But it’s because progressives think they’re a larger segment of the electorate than they actually are (see the 2020 primary for a stark example). And those systems actually facilitate more consolidation to the mean/middle, where the majority of voters lie.

> progressives think they’re a larger
>segment of the electorate than they actually are (see the 2020
>primary for a stark example).



The Susan Sarandon folks all over the USA will cry they just had to Nader vote and Bernie or bust to get us this Supreme Court that we have now because............they got sooooooo much numbers goin' for them.


yep

that in the absence of RCV, most people would've just voted for their number 1 choice (which may be flawed but I haven't seen anything to indicate otherwise). If so, wouldn't Adams just have won by 10 percent?

I think the larger story here (and unpopular opinion) is that outside of progressive enclaves (and social media), there's still some skepticism of some of the policies and practices of those farther to the left.

and he had a press conference with Gov. Cuomo today.

It's pretty odd both in terms of the optics and practicality to see diBlasio kicked to lame duck status this hard since the recent shootings that's been kicking up in NYC was the impetus for both meetings.

https://twitter.com/Phil_Lewis_/status/1489731546777010185

hes said and done a bunch of dumb shit already. talked about low skilled labor then tried to install his unqualified brother in city govt. and so on.

but we live in a dumb country and he controls the news cycle. whatever information he wants to be seen or heard is gonna be seen or heard.

every battle is gonna be fought on his terms.

he is also going around saying he is a vegan, but he eats fish...
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/02/eric-adams-eats-fish.html

I think "regular" Black People F with him while its the Black Progressive's who get worked up at everything he says.

I think what a lot of progressive miss when they talk he was talking about "low skilled workers" is that he was advocating for people who don't have the luxury to work remotely.



**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

a most of his 'gaffes' arent gonna offend a ton of 'regular' poc.

if dude just makes people feel safe when it comes to crime and nyc rebounds with the rebounding national economy...dude will skate to another term.

theres a reason hes hugging biden tightly. if he already has older poc in his corner...the biden worship is a nod to white working class and moderate voters.

hes gonna need a lot of that after this cracker shit lol.

this is one of the reasons Republicans wipe the floor with Democrats - despite all the demographic advantages being in Democrat favor.

That is: just being yourself; honest - regardless of who might be offended. I don't necessarily agree with Adams on everything - but I appreciate his authenticity.

-->

and authentic?

you really typed that?

the entire republican brand is ivy league educated wealthy white people inventing mechanisms to lie and deceive poor and working class white people to vote for the most extreme oligarchical agenda in the western democratic world.

trump is a silver spoon ivy league educated coastal elite billionaire who inherited hundreds of millions of dollars from his father and stiffed workers his entire life. but white folks felt he 'told it like it is' because he lied in the ways they wanted to hear. while he felt to them like a 'populist' champion for the forgotten/working man...he cut taxes for wealthy people so sharply that...for the 1st time in american history...the wealthiest 400 americans paid a tax rate lower than every other income group.

like even the most racist/nativist right wing parties in europe dont make it their trademark to destroy public education, defund the social safety net programs, espouse trickle down economics, eliminate campaign finance laws, give corporations the same rights as private citizens, etc.

but those are all successful republican mantras with working class whites because they have perfected the art of lying about them.

Eric Adams has appeal precisely because he isn't afraid to speak his mind openly - and has conviction in what he believes and doesn't filter it through overly priced Democratic consultants before he gives a press briefing.

All that other shit you typed is preaching to the choir.

-->

did you actually watch his campaign?

his *entire* schtick was that he was a 'new democrat' who was basically an old school democrat who wasnt progressive and 'woke' like the democrats *you* support. he ran on a platform of saying progressive types have lost touch with everyday people in cities all across the country. he literally called progressives unrealistic lol.

and thats *exactly* how he beat 3 progressive-preferred candidates in the primary.

youre wishcasting a narrative that doesnt exist and youre ignoring reality to do it.

youre trying to make him the antithesis of the stereotypical establishment democrat...meanwhile back in reality he literally calls *himself* the biden of brooklyn!
https://twitter.com/lbarronlopez/status/1489312696277385219

hes a biden disciple who *embraces* the exact type of democrat you demonize. he wants democrats across the nation to be exactly like sleepy joe biden lmao. and voters elected him largely *because* of that.

since you cherish his honesty and youre all about democrats replicating the eric adams formula...youre now in the awkward position of agreeing with him or having to admit you were dead wrong.

its your move.

First of all - that mayoral race was as tight as it gets in the primary. The progressive vote was split - and there were a myriad of interesting candidates in the mix. Would've liked to see Wiley do better but it was a spirited primary with healthy competition. That's what you want.

But it's disingenuous to act like this was some resounding, overwhelming wave of Biden centrism -- when in actuality it was a razor-thin victory in a splintered progressive field that allowed Adams to monopolize moderate voters.

Also - regardless of the term "progressive" or "establishment" or whatever charged te we want to ascribe to people, at the end of the day most people aren't politico junkies. Adams resonated with NYers in a way the other candidates didn't. Many of his votes probably came from those who are ideologically left of him - but they dug his authenticity and NY grit. He resonated as homer with a lot of NYers moreso than the other candidates for sure - and he's also NYPD? And he speaks mind like NYers like?

His appeal had far more to do with his manner than some kind of exhaustive calculus of how centrist/progressive he is.

But now we'll see how he governs. He was great on the campaign trail -- but governing is a diff. beast.

>hes a biden disciple who *embraces* the exact type of democrat
>you demonize. he wants democrats across the nation to be
>exactly like sleepy joe biden lmao. and voters elected him
>largely *because* of that.

lol - I don't demonize Biden - I just speak out when he's wrong and/or I disagree with his policies. I leave the demonization and character assasination to you. Let us know when your Bernie smear-piece gets published fam.

I don't think Adams really gives AF about DNC strategy or Democratic labels. He's out there doing his thing regardless of what anyone thinks.


-->

when you consider NYC had rank voting.

I think Adams won because (1) he was the establishment candidate (and had establishment funding) and (2) he talked tough on crime.

In my mind he is a progressive but that's by my standards, but most of OKP and self described progressives would probably considered me a centrist establishment type.


I think Biden is into him because they want to be the prototype for the type of democrats they want to run in 2022. I think they want more candidates to talk about crime like he does.



>First of all - that mayoral race was as tight as it gets in
>the primary. The progressive vote was split - and there were
>a myriad of interesting candidates in the mix. Would've liked
>to see Wiley do better but it was a spirited primary with
>healthy competition. That's what you want.
>
>But it's disingenuous to act like this was some resounding,
>overwhelming wave of Biden centrism -- when in actuality it
>was a razor-thin victory in a splintered progressive field
>that allowed Adams to monopolize moderate voters.
>
>Also - regardless of the term "progressive" or "establishment"
>or whatever charged te we want to ascribe to people, at the
>end of the day most people aren't politico junkies. Adams
>resonated with NYers in a way the other candidates didn't.
>Many of his votes probably came from those who are
>ideologically left of him - but they dug his authenticity and
>NY grit. He resonated as homer with a lot of NYers moreso
>than the other candidates for sure - and he's also NYPD? And
>he speaks mind like NYers like?
>
>His appeal had far more to do with his manner than some kind
>of exhaustive calculus of how centrist/progressive he is.
>
>But now we'll see how he governs. He was great on the
>campaign trail -- but governing is a diff. beast.
>
>>hes a biden disciple who *embraces* the exact type of
>democrat
>>you demonize. he wants democrats across the nation to be
>>exactly like sleepy joe biden lmao. and voters elected him
>>largely *because* of that.
>
>lol - I don't demonize Biden - I just speak out when he's
>wrong and/or I disagree with his policies. I leave the
>demonization and character assasination to you. Let us know
>when your Bernie smear-piece gets published fam.
>
>I don't think Adams really gives AF about DNC strategy or
>Democratic labels. He's out there doing his thing regardless
>of what anyone thinks.
>
>
>-->


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

that caused chaos - cited by the election board:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/29/nyregion/adams-garcia-wiley-mayor-ranked-choice.html

Ultimately - Adams defeated Garcia by a razor thin margin (50.4% to 49.6%) in a hotly contested race after the dust settled. To try and draw some huge conclusion from this and say that voters categorically rejected progressivism is silly. Had some votes gone the other way - would it be the case that Nyers categorically rejected Adams? No.

My point is: regardless of ideology and even policy - Adams resonated well with voters and was a perfect candidate for NYC in the moment (particularly with crime on the rise). Him coming out wearing NYPD garb flanked by cops played with a ton of voters - who cared more about that than any substantive policy prescription.

>In my mind he is a progressive but that's by my standards, but
>most of OKP and self described progressives would probably
>considered me a centrist establishment type.
>
>I think Biden is into him because they want to be the
>prototype for the type of democrats they want to run in 2022.
>I think they want more candidates to talk about crime like he
>does.

Voters like no non-sense politicians - in general. Adams fits the bill there - but I think there are voters across the board who are unsatisfied with "tough on crime" rhetoric that doesn't acknowledge the need for meaningful police reform.

>https://twitter.com/Phil_Lewis_/status/1489731546777010185
>
>hes said and done a bunch of dumb shit already. talked about
>low skilled labor then tried to install his unqualified
>brother in city govt. and so on.
>
>but we live in a dumb country and he controls the news cycle.
>whatever information he wants to be seen or heard is gonna be
>seen or heard.
>
>every battle is gonna be fought on his terms.
>
>

I am not sure who this clip hurts him with but he sounds authentic.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"