On June 22, Democratic party members chose their candidate for the mayoral sash of New York. Eric Adams, former police captain and current Brooklyn borough mayor, emerged as the winner. The first round of voting was intense with an occasional personal fraternity. Although the actual election, in which Adams will face his Republican opponent, will not take place until November 2 of this year, the de facto delegation of Adams has already decided who will be the next mayor. one-party state…
On June 22, Democratic party members chose their candidate for the mayoral sash of New York. Eric Adams, former police captain and current Brooklyn borough mayor, emerged as the winner. The first round of voting was intense with an occasional personal fraternity. Although the actual election, in which Adams will face his Republican opponent, will not take place until November 2 of this year, Adams’ delegation de facto already decided who will be the next mayor.
one-party state
By 2021, New York will be a one-party state of about eight and a half million inhabitants. The city council consists of forty-six Democrats and only three (!) Republicans. Current Democratic mayor, Bill de Blasio, won his second term in 2017 with some sixty-six percent of the vote compared to twenty-eight percent for his Republican challenger.
The fact that the Republican Party no longer plays a significant role is remarkable when looking at the city’s recent political history. From 1994 to 2014, the mayoral sash was held by a Republican.
‘Broken Windows’
In the early 1990s, the Big Apple dealing with high crime and unemployment rates. Rudy Giuliani, the Republican flag bearer of that year, focused on the importance of firm policing during his campaign. Not only against serious, organized crime, but also – and even above all – against minor crimes.
Giuliani was a supporter of the Broken Windows Theory by criminologists George Kelling and James Wilson. According to this theory, lax action against relatively minor crimes such as vandalism, theft or prostitution signals to potential offenders that the judiciary cannot or will not act against criminal behaviour. A city where vandals, thieves and pimps can do their thing is so fertile ground for the real tough guys.
America’s Mayor
During Giuliani’s stay at City Hall, crime in New York would indeed take a dive. The extent to which the mayor was personally responsible for this evolution, however, remains a matter of debate. Opponents of the Broken Windows Theory in general and Rudy Giuliani in particular point out that the decline already started during the last years of mayor Dinkens. Giuliani invariably portrayed Dinkins as inadequate tough on crime.
Whatever it is: in 1997, the year of Giuliani’s re-election, the mayor was wildly popular. After expelling Democrat David Dinkins in 1993, City Hall By a modest margin of just under three percent, he won a second term four years later by a margin of more than seventeen percent. And when on September 11, 2001, during the final months of Giuliani’s mayorship, Al Qaeda terrorists crashed into the WTC Towers two passenger planes, Giuliani was nicknamed “America’s Mayor.” He was popular for his decisive actions in the weeks and months following the attack. Time Magazine honored him as Person of the Year.
Liberal Republicans
It would take until 2014 for the mayor’s sash to be tied around the waist of a Democrat again. After Giuliani, Michael Bloomberg was elected mayor three times. The last time, in 2009, it didn’t officially happen “as a Republican” as he had resigned from the GOP the year before. The New York Republican Party did formally support his campaign. They had not delegated their own candidate.
It should be clear that the ‘right Republican’ at the ‘right time’ has a shot at running for mayor of one of the most progressive cities in the United States. The ‘correct’ Republican is then a member of the ‘liberal wing’ of the party. ‘Wing’ is perhaps a strong word, as this trend has lost a lot of support and influence over the past two decades. But in the progressive Northeast of the US, the so-called. New England, including New York, these Republicans are still the strongest.
Bill de Blasio
The ‘liberal’ refers to the relatively progressive view of these Republicans on ‘social’ and ‘cultural’ issues. For example, Rudy Giuliani supports the right to abortion and the right for same-sex individuals to enter into a state-recognized civil union. Bloomberg was known as a green kid during his mayoralty. As a result, he regularly made the news with themes that hardly concerned the national Republican Party.
Current mayor Bill de Blasio is a radical leftist, not very charismatic woke-warrior under whose rule New York must deal with a new wave of crime. A Republican campaigning with a focus on ‘security’, ‘economy’ and ‘good governance’ may well have a real chance. And the loss of New York, by far the largest city in the United States, would be an unlikely blow to the party the mayor provides in every metropolis in the country.
Eric Adams
Unfortunately for the Big Apple Republicans do not send Democrats with Eric Adams a new Bill de Blasio. Adams is a relatively conservative ex-cop who seems to have little patience for the Starbucks-drinking twenty-somethings who see climate change and transgender rights as the main topics of conversation of the day. Adams is the proud owner of a firearm that he says he will keep on hand as mayor.
During his campaign, he stated several times that the main task of the new mayor is to ‘get the violence under control’. “Nobody comes to New York, to our multi-billion dollar tourism industry when three-year-old kids get shot in Times Square,” Adams said. He added: “If we want to restore our economy, we have to make this city a safe city.”
Also, according to Adams, an African American, the Democratic Party should pay more attention to urban violence that is not police brutality. That is a clear criticism of the excesses of the Black Lives Mattermovement. BLM is a movement that likes to brush under the carpet the intra-racial gang violence, which annually claims many more black lives than confrontations with the police. According to Adams, it doesn’t matter whether an (African) American is shot by a cop or a gang banger, people want to feel that they can walk safely on the street. Punt.
Achilles’ heel
For the sake of completeness, we point out that Adams is not yet one hundred percent sure of a profit. After all, New York works with a Ranked Choice Votingsystem (RCV), in which voters are allowed to put together a ‘top five’ from all candidates. As long as a candidate does not reach fifty percent, the lowest scoring candidate is eliminated time and again. Their votes then go to the next on the list. With about thirty-one percent of the votes in the ‘first round’, Adams does take an option on the nomination. While we’ll have to wait until mid-July for final results, few think Adams’ Democratic opponents have a realistic shot at the nomination.
That means Eric Adams will be the new mayor of New York. Not in spite of, but thanks to his relatively ‘right-wing’ positions on security and the economy. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have an Achilles heel. There are allegations of corruption. But it is impossible for the Republican opponent to associate Adams with the most racially-left elements of his party. In a city that seems to crave a renewed focus on jobs and law and order seems to him that will earn the mayor’s sash.
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