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Jumaane Williams, Eyeing Run for Governor, Wins Full Term as New York City Public Advocate


Jumaane Williams, Considering a Run for Governor, Wins Full Term as Public Advocate

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams (photo: Emil Cohen/City Council)


Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, a Democrat, won reelection Tuesday for his first full term in the role, easily defeating three opponents on the general election ballot. Without many thousands of absentee ballots counted and in-person returns still flowing in, Williams had a very large early lead and the Associated Press called the race for him just after polls closed at 9 p.m.

Williams was first elected to the seat in a special election, then another election in 2019 to serve the remainder of then-Public Advocate Letitia James’ term when she became state Attorney General.

Williams emerged victorious in the nonpartisan special election in February 2019 by a wide margin against 16 other candidates including City Council Member Eric Ulrich, a Queens Republican who came in second, and the City Council speaker at the time, Melissa Mark-Viverito, who was third in the race. That win came on the back of his unsuccessful but strong campaign for lieutenant governor in 2018, where he lost by eight percentage points to incumbent Kathy Hochul, now the governor who Williams is openly considering challenging in next year’s primary.

While he’s drawn some criticism for essentially running for two offices at once, it did not appear to dampen voters’ enthusiasm for Williams. On Tuesday, he came out ahead of Republican nominee Dr. Devi Nampiaparampil, Conservative Party nominee Anthony Herbert, and Libertarian Party nominee Devin Balkind by wide margins.

"This is exciting," Williams told Gotham Gazette at his victory party Tuesday night. "The message has worked each time. We haven’t changed it. I’m so honored that New Yorkers, they took time out of their day every single time and cast a ballot for me. That’s pretty amazing. I’m just so honored that I don’t take it for granted at all. We have a lot of work to do.”

Williams, a longtime tenant organizer before being elected to the City Council from Brooklyn three times, has developed a reputation as an “activist elected official” and has been a vocal critic of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration while also finding some common ground with the fellow Brooklyn Democrat. Unlike his predecessor, who used her legal background to challenge the mayor through lawsuits, Williams has been on the ground protesting the administration, particularly on policing practices, passing legislation, and altering how the office functions, he has said. 

“Since my time in office, we've completely restructured it, we've redefined the scope of what it can do, we've had some tough fights, and we’ve won some tough victories,” Williams said of the office, in his opening statement at the only official televised debate ahead of the general election.

Though Williams has repeatedly insisted that he has his eye on the ball as public advocate, he has at the same time announced his intention to explore a run for governor in next year’s Democratic primary and opened a state-level campaign account. As a progressive with a powerful base in Brooklyn, he would present an ideological alternative to Governor Hochul, a moderate Democrat with upstate roots who succeeded disgraced Governor Andrew Cuomo after his resignation amid sexual harassment and other scandals.

Hochul has already announced that she will seek a full term as governor, and Attorney General James, another Brooklyn Democrat, announced her own bid for governor just last week, while de Blasio appears close to launching his own campaign for the state’s highest office as well.

“I think it'd be dereliction of duty not to say I'm even going to explore a position that actually has more tools than I have now to do the things I'm actually advocating for,” Williams explained of his gubernatorial exploration at the debate. Williams is among the few high-level elected officials in New York with major enthusiasm behind him from the party’s left wing, but James could complicate any intention he has of being the candidate of the left in the primary.

On Tuesday night, Williams told Gotham Gazette that a new announcement would be forthcoming soon after he sealed victory in the public advocate race. “We’re going to close our exploratory committee in the coming days and make an official announcement," he said of running for governor. "But we have experience running a few years ago as lieutenant governor. I fell in love with the state. It’s amazing and we’re getting a warm reception like we did when we had the exploratory committee in 2018. One of the reasons I fell in love with the state so easily is — you know they try to create this upstate-downstate divide, but most of the issues we’re dealing with here, I’ve seen it, especially in the cities across the state. Of course there’s regional differences, there’s cultural differences, but the issues of housing, of transportation, of public safety, of education, of health are very similar. And everybody is looking at Albany for the assistance that they haven’t been getting for a long time. And that’s what the vision that we’ve been pushing forward in the exploratory committee of making sure Albany addresses those issues and the reception has been warm."

On the City Council, Williams – along with Council Member Brad Lander, another Brooklyn Democrat who won the city comptroller race on Tuesday – spearheaded an effort to increase oversight of the NYPD and to end discriminatory police practices under the Community Safety Act. He has continued his advocacy in that vein as public advocate, which has brought his views in some conflict with Eric Adams, the next mayor and yet another Brooklyn Democrat, who ran a tough-on-crime campaign.

“I have worked with Eric on a whole host of issues, including gun violence,” Williams said in an appearance on the Max Politics podcast after the June primary. “I know he believes very much in a holistic approach. So, my hope is that the Eric Adams that shows up is the one that I’ve worked with on all these issues and the one who was talking about the holistic approach, and not the one that I heard some things said that I’m hoping was said in the moment of a campaign and now when we get ready to govern we’ll go back to the things that I worked with him on for a number of years.”

Williams’ top priorities during the campaign have been criminal justice reform, tackling gun violence, and housing affordability. But he has also called for strengthening the office of public advocate, with subpoena power and the right to vote on legislation before the City Council – currently, the public advocate can only introduce legislation.

As a Council Member, Williams sponsored dozens of pieces of legislation, which he has touted on the campaign trail. He’s continued that trend as public advocate, and now has a proposed bill requiring racial impact studies before city rezonings, an attempt to blunt the forces of gentrification and displacement in communities of color. He has also proposed legislation to mandate that private employers provide paid personal leave to their workers. It would impact up to 3.4 million New Yorkers, his office estimates.

As he heads into his new term, Williams has said he’s focused on the city’s recovery from the pandemic, particularly ensuring that it does not bounce back to where it was but rather does better.

“As we’re reopening, it really is about making sure that we don’t go back to normal because normal simply didn’t work for most New Yorkers,” he said on the Max Politics podcast. “We have an opportunity now. We lost tens of thousands of New Yorkers. It’s horrific. We have an opportunity to remember them by not going back to normal, by actually going back to a new normal to deal with some of the issues that we were talking about pre-pandemic.”

***
by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

Ethan Geringer-Sameth contributed to this story. This article has been updated several times since publication.

Democrat Eric Adams Elected Next Mayor of New York City


Eric Adams Elected Next Mayor of New York City

Eric Adams voting for himself for Mayor (photo: @ericadamsfornyc)


Eric Adams, a moderate Democrat and former NYPD captain, was declared victorious on Tuesday in the 2021 mayoral election, making him set to become only the second Black mayor of New York City after David Dinkins won in 1989. Adams, the two-term Brooklyn borough president and former state senator, was projected by the Associated Press to win not long after polls closed at 9 p.m., with early returns showing him well ahead of Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, the Guardian Angels founder and radio host.

Tuesday’s election wrapped up a marathon campaign that Adams had been plotting for decades but officially launched almost exactly a year ago, when the pandemic was still raging through the city. Adams leaned on his background in law enforcement and as an outspoken police reformer to run on a platform focused on crime and public safety, concerns that were shared by New Yorkers in poll after poll.

“Every little boy or little girl who was ever told they’ll never amount to anything. Every child with a learning disability. Every inmate sitting in Rikers. Every dishwasher. Every child in a homeless shelter. This is for all of you,” Adams said amid tears after casting his ballot on Tuesday morning, holding a framed photo of his mother, Dorothy, who passed away in March. “I only have three words. I am you,” Adams said.

Adams’ first big victory came in the Democratic primary in June, when he defeated 12 other candidates for the nomination with ranked-choice voting implemented citywide for the first time. When all the votes were counted in the instant runoff tabulations, Adams bested former city sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia, another centrist Democrat, by just 7,197 votes.

Progressive standard-bearer Maya Wiley, the former counsel to the mayor and civil rights attorney, finished third in the primary while former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang ran a spirited campaign that ultimately landed him in fourth place, and Comptroller Scott Stringer, whose campaign was beset by allegations of sexual misconduct from decades ago, came in fifth.

Much of the primary campaign was debated over zoom given concerns about the pandemic, though the final months included more in-person activities as the covid vaccine became available and infection rates dropped. Given Democrats’ overwhelming voter enrollment advantage, the winner of the June primary was seen as all but certain to prevail in the general election, particularly against a Republican without the resources of former mayor Michael Bloomberg (who is now a Democrat and endorsed Adams in the general election).

[Read: How Eric Adams Brought It Home]

Still, it will be the first transfer of power from one Democratic mayor to another in New York City since Dinkins took the helm from Mayor Ed Koch in 1990, 32 years before Adams is set to be sworn in on January 1, 2022 after two terms of Bill de Blasio's mayoralty.

On the campaign trail, Adams spoke of growing up in Southeast Queens, poor and on the verge of homelessness, raised by a single mother who was a union worker. He recounted his personal experience with police brutality, having been arrested and beaten in police custody as a teen, which, along with encouragement from a local pastor, inspired him to become a police officer and reform the department from within. He spent 22 years in the NYPD, during which time he criticized the department regularly and sought to hold it accountable, including by co-founding the advocacy group 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care. 

Even as he has described himself as “conservative on crime” through this year’s campaign and denounced the movement to “Defund the NYPD,” he has also emphasized the need for better policing and has vowed to kick errant officers off the force. He has said he supports the use of stop-and-frisk policing if done properly and without racial bias. And he wants to reinstate a version of a plainclothes police unit disbanded last year because of a history of abuse, insisting he will retask it to tackle gun violence and better vet the officers who are placed in it. He has also promised that he will appoint the first woman commissioner of the NYPD.

Adams came into the race with several strengths and few perceived weaknesses. He was one of only two sitting elected officials in the race, along with Stringer. As a former four-term state Senator with two borough-wide wins under his belt, he had broad name recognition, particularly in vote-rich neighborhoods in Central Brooklyn where Black and Orthodox Jewish voters make up strong voting blocs. He also had deep ties in Southeast Queens, another vote-rich, predominantly Black area, and won the backing of both many prominent Latino officials with no high-profile Latino candidate in the race, and several major labor unions, including some that spent significantly on his behalf.

And, he had a very strong fundraising infrastructure, bringing in $9.3 million in private donations and receiving another $10.1 million in public matching funds. He ended up spending more than $15.3 million on his campaign by October 18, the latest disclosure deadline, while millions more were spent boosting him through several independent expenditures. He was supported by both a large cross-section of organized labor and many upper-income individuals who liked what he had to say about being more business-friendly than Mayor Bill de Blasio, who reportedly backed Adams in the primary.

[Read: Eric Adams' Strengths and Weaknesses as He Runs for Mayor]

Adams said he wanted to become the first “blue-collar mayor” of the city. “The policies that I ran on, they were clear,” he said Tuesday. “It's about being safe. It's about working on behalf of blue-collar people. That is the party. If we abandon blue-collar Americans, we're going to lose our party.”

But his campaign included some contradictions that may set the stage for challenges and tough decisions when he takes over city government on January 1.

He was elevated by several of the city’s strongest unions and prominent federal, state and local elected officials as he pledged to represent working New Yorkers, but he also cozied up to wealthier interests, raising funds from billionaires and the powerful real estate industry, and regularly appearing at hotspots frequented by the rich. He says he is a big-tent candidate who will not demonize the city’s top earners but will stay true to his working class roots, and that approach will soon be put to the test.

The Democratic primary was also Adams’ first real competitive race and brought with it a level of scrutiny that he has not faced before. It highlighted his tendencies for exaggerating his experiences, speaking off the cuff, misspeaking, and changing positions. It brought renewed attention to several ethics investigations during his political career and even raised questions about whether the Brooklyn borough president actually resides in Brooklyn or in an apartment in New Jersey that he co-owns with his longtime partner. Repeatedly through the campaign, news outlets reported on Adams' failure to file accurate tax returns, which he then amended more than once and blamed on an accountant going through hard times.

A limited number of voters appeared to care as Adams prevailed in the primary and coasted in the general. Like many New Yorkers, he has repeatedly said, “I am perfectly imperfect.”

"The campaign was never, never, never about me," Adams said Tuesday night during his victory speech. "This campaign was about the city and the people in it, from every corner and every background in this city.”

“This campaign was for the underserved and marginalized and abandoned," he continued. "This campaign was for those who have been betrayed by their government.”

“Tonight I have accomplished my dream and with all my heart I’m going to remove the barriers that are preventing you from accomplishing yours,” Adams told New Yorkers.

And Governor Kathy Hochul made an appearance at Adams' victory party, speaking briefly to congratulate him and promise a new era of collaboration between the city and state, which will unfold as Adams takes power in January and Hochul both sets out her State of the State agenda and runs to win a full term.

"I'm here to declare that there is a new day dawning and a whole new era of cooperation where the only thing the city of New York and the state of New York are fighting about is fighting to make your lives better," Hochul said. "We will fight for you, not fight each other anymore. So I am so excited to have a tremendous partner in Eric Adams as the mayor of the greatest city on this planet. I will be your ally. We'll fight for you and we'll get the job done."

Along with public safety, Adams’ top priorities of the campaign were education, public health, and, broadly speaking, the way city government is run. “[I] ran for mayor because I wanted to turn pain into purpose," Adams said Tuesday night. "This city betrays New Yorkers every day, especially the ones who rely on it the most,” but that will stop when he's mayor, he pledged.

Adams has blamed vast socioeconomic inequities in the city on the many inefficiencies in and ineffectiveness of city government, which he plans to eliminate as mayor.

“We’re too bureaucratic, too expensive and too difficult to do business in,” Adams said during the first of two official mayoral debates against Sliwa. “We can turn around this economy by number one, looking after the families, getting them employed. And number two, have a more efficient government.”

Adams has pledged “real-time governance,” using data to monitor and report on city agency performance and a centralized online portal to access city services. He will inherit a roughly $100 billion budget with projected multi-billion-dollar annual deficits, which he has insisted he will reign in and close by instituting a Program to Eliminate the Gap (PEG), mandating cuts at agencies without sacrificing services.

[Read: Eric Adams Vows to Overhaul How City Government Works; Experts Point to Several Essentials to Following Through]

He has also promised to make it easier to do business in the city, for small and large businesses alike, pledged to transform public health and education, to build affordable housing, bike and bus lanes, and more. In classic Adams fashion, he has even promised to “remind the world that NYC is still the center of the universe.”

[Read: Eric Adams’ Biggest Promises If He’s Elected Mayor]

Adams’ opponent, Sliwa, stood little chance of defeating him considering Democrats enjoy a seven-to-one enrollment advantage over Republicans in the city. In both general election debates, key differences emerged between the two. Sliwa sought to repeatedly attack Adams and paint him as a key partner of de Blasio, attempting to link him to the city’s many ongoing woes. But Adams remained on message and largely deflected Sliwa’s critiques.

He has, however, vowed not to shy away from criticism. In a show of unity, Democratic nominees rallied outside Brooklyn Borough Hall last month and Adams appeared with Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Council Member Brad Lander, the Democratic comptroller nominee, calling on them to hold him accountable as both were expected to win their races as well.

“I'm asking Jumaane Williams as the public advocate to find every policy that we fail on and hold our feet to the fire if we are the mayor,” Adams said at the rally.

“I sat down with Brad Lander and had breakfast, and I said, ‘Audit the hell out of my agencies. Audit them, look at them, find the problems,’ because I know we are dysfunctional,” Adams said. “I know we are blocking progress. I know we are failing and betraying New Yorkers. I know we can deliver services better.”

“I welcome these two soldiers in the battle for justice,” he added.

***
by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

Ben Max contributed to this story.

Rundown: 2021 New York City Election Results


The Next Mayor, Comptroller, Borough Presidents & More: 2021 New York City Election Results

2021 election results (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


Even with many thousands of absentee ballots to be counted in the coming weeks, in heavily Democratic New York City, most general election races for city offices could be called not long after polls closed at 9 p.m. on Election Day. All of city government was on the ballot this year, along with a few state-level positions, and five proposals for amendments to the state constitution.

There are a few races yet to be called, but it is clear, as was expected, that Democrats will continue to dominate city government when the new class of officials takes office January 1. Still, some of the results show strength for Republicans in certain areas of the city, with the GOP likely to pick up at least a couple of City Council seats and hold onto positions that were thought to be possibly vulnerable.

Democrats from Brooklyn have won all three citywide positions, with Borough President Eric Adams elected to be the next Mayor, and only the city’s second Black mayor ever; Jumaane Williams re-elected Public Advocate; and City Council Member Brad Lander elected Comptroller.

In the borough-wide races, Democrats won four of the five borough president seats and the two district attorney offices on this year’s ballot:

Donovan Richards has been reelected Queens Borough President. City Council Member Antonio Reynoso has been elected Brooklyn Borough President. City Council Member Vanessa Gibson has been elected Bronx Borough President, and will be the first Black woman ever to hold the post. City Council Member Mark Levine has been elected Manhattan Borough President.

Alvin Bragg has been elected Manhattan District Attorney, the first Black person ever to win the powerful and prestigious office. Eric Gonzalez has been reelected Brooklyn District Attorney (he was unopposed in the general election).

Republican Vito Fossella, a former member of Congress, is victorious in the Staten Island Borough President race.

Voters across the state appear mixed on the five ballot measures to alter the state constitution around redistricting, voting rights, environmental rights, and more. The question to enshrine a right to clean air and water and a healthful environment appears likely to pass, while proposals around redistricting reform and expanded voting rights appear likey to fail. [Read more about the proposals here.]

As for the City Council, the unofficial results show the following, with a few races that may come down to the thousands of absentee ballots yet to be counted:

MANHATTAN
In District 1, Democrat Christopher Marte has won.

In District 2, Democratic City Council Member Carlina Rivera has won another term.

In District 3, Democrat Erik Bottcher has won.

In District 4, Democratic City Council Member Keith Powers has won another term.

In District 5, Democrat Julie Menin has won.

In District 6, Democratic Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer has won a return to the City Council.

In District 7, Democrat Shaun Abreu has won.

In District 8, including parts of Manhattan and the Bronx, City Council Member Diana Ayala has won another term.

In District 9, Democrat Kristin Richardson Jordan has won.

In District 10, Democratic Assembly Member Carmen De La Rosa has won.

THE BRONX
In District 11, Democratic CIty Council Member Eric Dinowitz, who recently won a special election, won reelection.

In District 12, Democratic City Council Member Kevin Riley, who recently won a special election, won reelection.

In District 13, Democrat Marjorie Velazquez has won.

In District 14, Democrat Pierina Sanchez has won.

In District 15, Democrat City Council Member Oswald Feliz, who recently won a special election, has won reelection.

In District 16, Democrat Althea Stevens has won.

In District 17, Democratic City Council Member Rafael Salamanca Jr. has won reelection.

In District 18, Democrat Amanda Farias has won.

QUEENS
In District 19, Democrat Tony Avella and Republican Vickie Paladino are in a too-close-to-call race.

In District 20, Democrat Sandra Ung has won.

In District 21, Democratic City Council Member Francisco Moya has won reelection.

In District 22, Democrat Tiffany Cabán has won.

In District 23, Democrat Linda Lee has won.

In District 24, Democratic City Council Member James Gennaro has won reelection.

In District 25, Democrat Shekar Krishnan has won.

In District 26, Democrat Julie Won has won.

In District 27, Democrat Nantasha Williams has won.

In District 28, Democratic City Council Member Adrienne Adams has won reelection.

In District 29, Democrat Lynn Schulman has won.

In District 30, Democratic City Council Member Robert Holden has won reelection.

In District 31, Democratic City Council Member Selvena Brooks-Powers, who recently won a special election, has won reelection.

In District 32, Republican Joann Ariola has won.

BROOKLYN
In District 33, Democrat Lincoln Restler has won.

In District 34, which includes parts of Brooklyn and Queens, Democrat Jennifer Gutierrez has won.

In District 35, Democrat Crystal Hudson has won.

In District 36, Democrat Chi Osse has won.

In District 37, Democrat Sandy Nurse has won.

In District 38, Democrat Alexa Aviles has won.

In District 39, Democrat Shahana Hanif has won.

In District 40, Democrat Rita Joseph has won.

In District 41, Democrat Darlene Mealy has won a return to the City Council.

In District 42, Democrat Charles Barron has won a return to the City Council.

In District 43, Democratic City Council Member Justin Brannan is in a too-close-to-call race with Republican challenger Brian Fox.

In District 44, Democratic City Council Member Kalman Yeger has won reelection.

In District 45, Democratic City Council Member Farah Louis has won reelection.

In District 46, Democrat Mercedes Narcisse has won.

In District 47, Democrat Ari Kagan has a too-close-to-call lead over Republican Mark Szuszkiewicz.

In District 48, Republican Inna Vernikov has won.

STATEN ISLAND
In District 49, Democrat Kamillah Hanks has won.

In District 50, Republican David Carr has won.

In District 51, Republican City Council Member Joseph Borelli has won reelection.

ALSO
Also, Democrat Cordell Cleare has won the special election for State Senate District 30 in Manhattan, the seat vacated by Brian Benjamin when he was appointed Lieutenant Governor by Governor Kathy Hochul.

And, Democrat Yudelka Tapia has won the special election for State Assembly in District 86 in the Bronx, the seat vacated by Victor Pichardo, who resigned earlier this year.

***
by Ben Max, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.



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