In one of the most surprising results of Tuesday’s primary election, Yusef Salaam, a former prisoner who was later exonerated of charges in the famous case known as the ‘Central Park Five’, is leading the way. in the race to be the Democratic nominee for city council in Harlem’s 9th District.
Salaam declared himself the winner, although as of Tuesday midnight the AP had not declared him the winner (Salamm had 50.1% of the vote).
If the victory were confirmed, Salaam, 49, would have defeated two veteran figures of the Democratic party, both currently state assemblymen, Inez E. Dickens, 73, and Al Taylor, 65.
The 9th District is a clear Democratic majority, and a victory in the primary almost certainly guarantees a victory in the general election in November.
Democratic socialist and current incumbent, Kristin Richard Jordan, dropped out of the primary in May after a shaky first term.
The Central Park Five refers to the five Black and Latino teens, ages 14 to 16, wrongly accused, convicted, and imprisoned for raping and beating a white woman jogging in Central Park on April 19, 1989.
Now known by some as the “Exonerated Five,” Salaam and the other four (Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise) served between five and 12 years in prison for the 1989 rape before a reexamination of the case. led to their convictions being overturned in 2002.
DNA evidence linked another man, a serial rapist, to the attack. The city ultimately agreed in a legal settlement to pay the exonerated men $41 million.
Salaam, who was arrested at age 15, served nearly seven years behind bars.
“When people look at me and know my story, they resonate with it,” said Salaam, a father of 10 children, a few days ago in an interview with AP. “But now here we are 34 years later, and I can use that platform that I have and repurpose the pain, help people as we come out of despair.”
Those pain points are many in a district that has the most entrenched poverty in the city and the highest rent charges.
Poverty in Central Harlem is about 10 points higher than the 18% rate citywide, according to data compiled by New York University’s Furman Center. More than a quarter of Harlem residents pay more than half of their income for rent. And the district has some of the highest rates of homeless children in the city.
Salaam said he is looking forward to addressing those crises and more.
In other election results, the Associated Press projects current city councilman Christopher Marte to be the winner in the Democratic primary race for Council District 1.
The borough includes most of Lower Manhattan, such as SoHo, Chinatown, the Lower East Side, and the Financial District.
Marte was challenged by Ursila Jung, an education advocate, and Susan Lee, a grant writer with experience in the nonprofit sector.
According to the Associated Press, with just over 90% of the reported expected vote, Mars has 63.5% of the vote. Lee has 30.2% and Jung 5.2%.
In other results as well, the incumbents easily withstood the main challenges in the Democratic primaries for District Attorney in Queens, Melinda Katz and The Bronx, Darcel Clark.
Every seat on the City Council is up for re-election, but less than half of the 51 Council seats were contested in the primary, and of those, 13 contests featured more than two candidates, using ranked-choice voting, where voters can rank up to five candidates in order of preference.
2023-06-28 02:21:00
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