Officially, the next mayor of New York will not be elected until November 2. But it is in fact this Tuesday that everything is played out, with the Democratic primary. In the last polls, Big Apple voted overwhelmingly Democrat (Joe Biden won 77% of the vote last year, Mayor Bill De Blasio was elected with 66% of the vote in 2017).
Rarely has a primary been so contested in New York. It must be said that the stakes are crucial. Global epicenter of the pandemic more than a year ago, New York still bears the scars of the crisis. Shops closed, exodus of the population, threatened tax revenues… The next city councilor will have to solve a delicate equation. And the 13 Democratic candidates have wildly different plans to get there.
The current poll favorite is the mayor of Brooklyn, New York’s most populous “borough”. According to the Marist Institute, Eric Adams would collect 24% of the voting intentions. He is followed by Kathryn Garcia, who headed the city’s services (waste collection, recycling, snow removal, etc.) under the current De Blasio administration, briefly looked after the social housing stock and coordinated the actions of the city on access to food during the pandemic. This Hispanic is credited with 17% of intentions. She is followed by Maya Wiley (15%), former advisor to Bill De Blasio supported by the left wing of the Democratic Party, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Elizabeth Warren. Entrepreneur Andrew Yang, ephemeral star of the Democratic presidential primary, brings up the rear of the favorites with 13%.
Progressives vs. moderates
The favorite Eric Adams has concentrated the attacks of his opponents in recent days. He is accused in particular … of not living in New York, but in New Jersey. Owner of several buildings, he chose to respond to the controversy by organizing a visit to his Brooklyn apartment. A “tour” that sparked another controversy when journalists took a picture of his refrigerator, which contained salmon while Adams said he was vegan! Social networks reveled in it and chose to attack his opponent Kathryn Garcia on his record in the city, while the De Blasio administration was widely criticized for its management of the pandemic.
The ballot will serve as a test of the power of the left wing of the Democratic Party, which is particularly active in New York. Progressives are winning more and more seats in local assemblies but are not yet ruling a big city. Maya Wiley, lawyer, daughter of civil rights activists and figure of the MSNBC television channel, focuses their hopes after the disappointments generated by Bill De Blasio, elected on a program very left but whose unpopularity reaches new heights.
A first ?
“If we do not unite, we will have a city built by and for billionaires, and we need a city by and for workers,” said MP Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Maya Wiley wants to transform the city, fight against inequalities, social or racial, reform the police and take away a billion dollars from their budget to reallocate them to neighborhoods. A speech that arouses fears among some voters, while crime has risen during the crisis. Moderates Eric Adams, himself a former police officer, and Kathryn Garcia, for their part, emphasized the need to help traders.
This election could be that of the first. Kathryn Garcia would be the first woman elected to this post, Andrew Yang the first Asian American, Maya Wiley the first African-American woman. Eric Adams would only be the second African-American mayor of New York, after David Dinkins in the 1990s.
A specific voting method
More than elsewhere, the polls are to be put into perspective in New York. A new voting system makes predictions almost impossible. Voters have the opportunity to rank, in order, their five favorite choices. The candidate who arrived last will see his votes transferred to the second choice of his voters in a virtual second round. And so on in the following rounds, until this system gives more than 50% of the votes to a candidate.
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