Six on History: NYC Elections
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"There is an adage that men are judged on their potential and women on their accomplishments.
A 2019 study in Frontiers in Psychology showed how this can work in the business world. Participants were asked to weigh four candidates, two men and two women, for a job at a fictitious company. One man and one woman had résumés and recommendations emphasizing their past achievements. The other man and woman had résumés and testimonials foregrounding their abilities and leadership potential.
In two different experiments, groups of participants were asked whom they’d hire. In each, the perception of potential was an advantage for men, but not for women. The experiments didn’t show pure sexism: In one, the participants thought the women would be better hires overall. But they did show that women were judged on what they’d already done, while men were judged on what people thought they could do in the future.
Other research shows that men are more likely than women to be viewed as inspired. In 2017, The Harvard Business Review reported on a study revealing that men, but not women, gain leadership status at work for promoting ideas seen as helping the group. A 2015 study found that “a man is ascribed more creativity than a woman when they produce identical output.” Women can be workhorses, but rarely wunderkinds.
This helps explain why there could never be a female Andrew Yang.
In the latest round of polling for New York’s Democratic mayoral primary, Yang continues to lead. A Spectrum News NY1/Ipsos poll shows him with 22 percent of likely Democratic voters, followed by the Brooklyn borough president, Eric Adams, with 13 percent. The progressive polling firm Data for Progress shows Yang with 26 percent, double Adams’s 13 percent. A survey by the Siena College Research Institute and AARP has Yang leading with voters over 50, getting 24 percent of the vote, followed by Adams and the city comptroller, Scott Stringer, who each get 13 percent ... "
"The Working Families Party voted to endorse Scott Stringer for mayor on Tuesday, an endorsement that could mean a boost of credibility for the city comptroller among the Democratic party’s significant left wing.
With New York City under a ranked-choice voting system for the first time in a mayoral race this year, the WFP also elected to make endorsements beyond a first-place choice. Dianne Morales was ranked second by the party, and Maya Wiley was ranked third.
In a statement, Working Families Party State Director Sochie Nnaemrka said the party is encouraging voters to rank candidates to avoid the likelihood of an instant runoff in the mayor’s race.
“We urge every New Yorker to rank Scott as first choice, Dianne as second, and Maya as third to avoid a corporate-backed candidate from seizing power in City Hall,” Nnaemrka said. “We are confident Scott Stringer has both a path to victory and can lead New York out of this public health and economic crisis, centering the needs of Black, brown, and immigrant New Yorkers, and ensuring our communities do not just survive, but thrive in the years to come,” she added.
Stringer has establishment support from a group of progressive women of color in the state legislature. He has also been endorsed by NY Communities for Change, a member of the Working Families Party Regional Council.
Morales is a political newcomer whose campaign has been embraced by young progressives, including a handful of new lawmakers. Emerald Snipes, the daughter of the late Eric Garner, also recently joined her campaign.
Wiley, who formerly served as Mayor Bill de Blasio's chief counsel, has the backing of the labor union SEIU 1199.
The Working Families Party recently secured major wins, most recently with the passage of the state budget, which included a provision to tax the wealthy. They also survived several attempts from Governor Andrew Cuomo to kill their party line. Now they will try to play a major role in the race to succeed Bill de Blasio, a one-time progressive favorite who has had an up-and-down relationship with the left-wing of his party since taking office.
Prior to the announcement of the endorsement, the party was engaged for months in what they said was a deliberative and inclusive process. Surveys were sent to members to determine criteria, and interviews with candidates began earlier this month."
" ... An “agrarian” future for New York City? A “people’s bank” to redistribute wealth? Our mayoral hopefuls have harnessed the old liberal battle cry, “Never let a crisis go to waste,” to saddle up a jolly Trojan horse of far-left wish lists masquerading as remedies to the worst economic and social crisis the city has ever seen.
Instead of legitimately debating how City Hall should tackle genuine issues once COVID-19 abates — like reining in mentally-ill pushers on the subway — our mayoral wannabes prefer to toss around the Marxist-Leninist lingo of “the people,” “revolution” and “redistribution.”
Comptroller Scott Stringer says the “pandemic has heightened our hunger crisis” and wants to spend $25 million on “food security” for “undocumented New Yorkers” — i.e., illegal immigrants. But that’s not all. He wants “a holistic approach to dismantle systemic racism in food policy that shapes how people grow, sell, and eat food.” A lofty goal indeed for a city that can’t install public toilets or keep outdoor restaurants safe from rats. ... "
"Last week, the Working Families Party endorsed three candidates for mayor. The first choice for the proudly left-wing third party was Scott Stringer, the city comptroller. The second choice was Dianne Morales, a former nonprofit executive who has excited left activists and built an enthusiastic online following. Coming in third was Maya Wiley, a former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio who perhaps would’ve won the endorsement outright if she had gained more traction with the electorate.
Perhaps no endorsement decision, in media and political circles, was more anticipated. The WFP’s profile has only grown in recent years, with many celebrated progressive politicians, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman, embracing the party. Media attention has only increased for WFP, and in November 2020 more New Yorkers voted on the WFP ballot line than ever before.
WFP-endorsed candidates, in downballot races in New York and across America, keep winning. The state legislature and City Council is filled with WFP-approved candidates and many feel a real loyalty to the organization. The brand, at the minimum, has never been more appealing, and Democrats competing in primaries usually seek their endorsement.
Given all of this, what does the WFP’s decision to endorse three candidates mean for the mayoral race? Can they stop Andrew Yang, who is increasingly reviled by the professional left, and Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president? Can this popular, seemingly ascendant third party work their magic again?
My gut says no. This doesn’t mean I’ll be right on June 22nd, when these votes are counted. But I do want to explain why I think the WFP won’t be able to build a popular, progressive front against both Yang and Adams and what it means, in the most material of terms, to be a WFP candidate.
First, allow me a disclosure, since members of WFP have been irked by my reporting in the past.. In 2018, I ran for State Senate as a Democrat in Brooklyn. As a candidate trying to win, I sought the backing of at least two dozen labor unions and progressive organizations. One of them was WFP. A vast majority of these groups, including WFP, endorsed my opponent. DSA, which I courted far more aggressively than WFP—my campaign manager, now a state assemblyman, was an active DSA member, as well as his deputies—refused to support me. That’s politics. No labor union, save one, endorsed my campaign. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did. None of these decisions have impacted my journalism and writing since. I’ve written, at times, critically of Ocasio-Cortez and I have not altered my critique that organized labor can still have a tremendous impact on local political races. I learned this firsthand when the state teachers’ union went against me, calling and mailing the many public school teachers in my district. C’est la vie. Similarly, I have not turned into a furious DSA scold because they did not understand the glory of Ross Barkan, State Senate contender.
My view of WFP, which has remained consistent since at least 2016, is that it functions more as a political consultant and political action committee than an actual political party. If you’re interested in a deeper dive into the party, I suggest you read this piece on WFP I wrote in 2019. My argument there, which I will summarize, is that WFP fundamentally changed once the majority of the major labor unions left the party. It became, instead of a hybrid of influential organized labor and progressive activists, a constellation of nonprofits with relatively limited constituencies. In this form, it has plenty of value, with an ability to pay smart political operatives who can help oversee campaigns, like they did for the Queens District Attorney’s race two years ago. WFP zealously protects its status as a political party with a ballot line so it can spend virtually unlimited amounts of campaign cash in coordination with endorsed candidates, not because fusion voting helps the cause of the progressive left in New York, as they’ve repeatedly argued. (A current counterpoint to fusion’s value for the left is DSA, which succeeds without any kind of ballot line.) ... "
"Maya Wiley told NY1 Tuesday that the key to a New York City comeback is to spend money on getting people back to work while solving issues that ailed the city prior to the pandemic.
As part of her “New Deal New York” plan, the Democratic candidate wants to spend $10 billion to help create 100,000 new jobs, invest in child care and affordable housing, among other things.
“I’m a changemaker and that’s the change I’ll bring,” Wiley said in an interview on “Mornings On 1.”
She said the city is facing both an affordability crisis and a crisis of structural racism. But Wiley said the pandemic presents the city with an unprecedented opportunity to make long overdue changes.
“We now have an historic opportunity at the same time, which is not just to recover from COVID, which we will, but actually reimagine the city so that we can all afford to live here with dignity," she said. "We all can know we will live here with dignity, because what makes New York great is that we have everyone in it.”
Wiley said the city's economic picture is better than predicted due to the stimulus package from the federal government.
“We’re going to cut fat and not bones,” said Wiley, explaining how she will navigate cuts and spending.
Wiley, who previously served as counsel to Mayor de Blasio, said the job of the mayor is to both think big picture as well as focus on making sure the city runs smoothly and that basic services are taken care of.
“The job of the mayor, and the job of city government, has always been to walk and chew gum,” said the candidate.
In addition to serving in the de Blasio administration, Wiley worked at the New School and also served as the chair of the city’s Civilian Complaint Review Board, which deals with complaints against members of the NYPD."
"Three special elections, 20,983 total ballots and 25 total rounds of tabulation that were conducted by hand.
- Four City Council special elections have used ranked-choice voting this year
- Three have required counting that goes into rounds because no candidate surpassed 50% at first
- Elections workers counted ballots by hand in two recent Bronx races
- Candidates call for more outreach, education on new voting system before June
The labor-intensive counting is done in the races serving as tests of ranked-choice voting before New Yorkers use it citywide in the June primaries.
After six rounds, Eric Dinowitz declared victory as the next City Council member representing District 11 in the Bronx.
“Number one, I want to make sure our community gets the vaccines, particularly for older adults who didn’t have the access to booking their appointments and for communities of color and immigrant communities," he told NY1, adding that his longer-term priorities are to revive small businesses and reopen schools safely.
After 10 rounds, Oswald Feliz declared victory in the race to lead City Council District 15, also in the Bronx.
He listed his priorities: “Housing, education, on top of that, public safety. We have some public safety issues in the Bronx that we have to work on. And last but not least, health. We have an asthma crisis. And that perfectly explains why communities like the Bronx were affected more than other communities by the coronavirus."
Dinowitz and Feliz’s elections were held March 23.
They and Selvena Brooks-Powers — who won the Feb. 23 election for City Council District 31 in Queens after nine rounds — all led their respective races on Election Night.
All three emerged as the ultimate victors after voters’ first-, second- and subsequent-choices were considered.
The city Board of Elections isn’t expected to count ballots by hand come June in the high-stakes, higher-turnout races like that for mayor.
Its state counterpart is set to approve tabulation software before then.
But both Feliz and Dinowitz told NY1 more outreach about ranked-choice voting is crucial before June and cited confused special election voters.
“On Election Day, they had never, ever heard about the system before. So, we absolutely should have done more work on that, and hopefully the city does more work on that, educating the public," Feliz said.
“A lot of people knew what it was. They had heard of ranked-choice voting. But there was a lot of confusion about how it worked," Dinowitz said."
