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WATCH: Democratic Mayoral Candidates Outline Their Albany Agendas


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 l-r (top): Kathryn Garcia, Scott Stringer, Maya Wiley, Carlos Menchaca; bottom: Shaun Donovan, Dianne Morales, Loree Sutton, Eric Adams


Eight leading Democratic mayoral candidates appeared in two sessions at the "Albany Agenda" forum hosted by Empire State Indivisible and moderated by Gotham Gazette editor Ben Max. The candidates — Kathryn Garcia, Scott Stringer, Maya Wiley, Carlos Menchaca, Shaun Donovan, Eric Adams, Dianne Morales, and Loree Sutton — discussed their state policy agendas and how they would navigate the processes, politics, and personalities of Albany to accomplish their goals. They also weighed in on issues from tax policy to mayoral control of city schools, MTA governance, and more. Watch:

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by Ben Max, Gotham Gazette
     

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Democratic Mayoral Candidates Offer Albany Agendas, Strategies for Accomplishing Them


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The Governor & Legislative leaders (photo: Darren McGee/Governor's Office)


Eight of the top Democratic mayoral candidates appeared at a virtual forum on Monday to outline their legislative and budget priorities at the state level, and their strategies for achieving those goals. To varying degrees, they laid out tactics for partnering with, even opposing, Governor Andrew Cuomo and corralling the state Legislature to their side. But there were clear differences among the candidates, informed by their own background and experiences, and some seemed to take the candidate privilege of overestimating the heft they would have as the next mayor of New York City. 

Monday’s forum was hosted by Empire State Indivisible, a progressive advocacy group, and moderated by Gotham Gazette executive editor Ben Max. Empire State Indivisible is part of a coalition that has been urging the passage of the Invest in Our New York Act, a package of six bills to raise taxes on wealthy New Yorkers, corporations, and Wall Street activity to fill the state’s massive revenue shortfall, prevent cuts to public services and local aid, and provide additional revenue to achieve progressive priorities. Among many other topics, the candidates were asked to weigh in on that proposal.

The forum featured two 90-minute panels with four candidates each. The first panel included City Comptroller Scott Stringer, former counsel to the mayor Maya Wiley, Brooklyn City Council Member Carlos Menchaca, and former city sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia. On the second panel were Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, former federal housing secretary Shaun Donovan, former city veterans services commissioner Loree Sutton, and former nonprofit executive Dianne Morales. Ray McGuire’s campaign did not respond to invitations to the forum and Andrew Yang had been set to participate until he was diagnosed with COVID-19 and experiencing symptoms.

A great deal of what happens in New York City is determined by state law and state government, where power resides on a host of issues from tax policy to education aid and much more. A mayor’s ability to navigate the intricacies of Albany can make or break their overall agenda and have major impacts on the lives of New Yorkers.

New York’s governor and New York City’s mayor have historically had a frosty relationship even when they hail from the same party. That holds particularly true for third-term Governor Cuomo and two-term Mayor Bill de Blasio, both of whom are Democrats. Over the last seven years, the two have feuded over matters existential and inconsequential to New Yorkers, though most of the slings and arrows tend to fly from the governor’s hands. Cuomo has sought to dominate and undermine de Blasio while showing frustration with the mayor’s often stumbling efforts to manage city government and forge strong intergovernmental relationships -- de Blasio has also struggled to work well with the State Legislature.

With Cuomo expected to run for a fourth term in 2022 and de Blasio term-limited this year, the next mayor of New York City, almost certainly a Democrat because of the party’s heavy enrollment advantage, should have a clear idea of what awaits them in Albany. De Blasio’s dreams often died at the steps of the Capitol, where for years Republicans and moderate Democrats in the State Senate and Cuomo, a Democrat who often takes moderate stances, invariably stood in the way. Cuomo has also repeatedly sought to offload costs onto the city during the state budget process.

There are now allies in both houses of the Democratically-controlled state Legislature that have been friendlier to the city and the mayor. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie represents a district in the Bronx and has a keen interest in ensuring that New York City is protected, and he has been de Blasio’s long-standing top ally among the leaders in Albany. The new-as-of-2019 State Senate Democratic majority includes a number of New York City-based legislators with significant influence and a city-focused agenda.

Even with legislative supermajorities in both houses, Cuomo’s power has far from waned, and it is not always easy for the mayor of New York City to advance priorities in state government. Nevertheless, there is broad agreement that the next mayor has much room to improve upon the approach taken by the current one, making the importance of Monday night’s discussion paramount. 

Articulating an agenda
Most candidates offered specifics about their agenda in Albany while some offered generalities and buzzwords. 

Garcia presented a six-point agenda that included immediate investment in the city’s recovery, expanding healthcare access, passing elements of NYCHA’s “Blueprint for Change” proposal, investing in mass transportation, education, and combating climate change. She said she would push for expanding Medicaid eligibility and greater mental health services, restoring 24/7 subway service, funding for the MTA’s Fast Forward plan, among other items.

“[W]e need to create a strong foundation for the long term so that New Yorkers have the essentials – quality health care, affordable housing, a world class transportation system, a thriving economy, and an education system we can really be proud of,” she said. 

Menchaca said his Albany agenda was three-pronged: “political,” climate change, and equity in the city’s recovery. “I think we have to understand that the political dynamics are shifting,” he said. “The City of New York helped create a supermajority in the Senate. I think we need to continue to support our state legislators to keep that super majority. That's going to continue to shift the way that the governor works.” 

Besides pushing for more climate action at the state level, he said he would advocate for an equitable recovery by through taxes on the wealthy, ‘cancelling rent’ and ensuring that essential workers, particularly undocumented immigrants, receive direct emergency aid. He specifically spoke of a bill sponsored by State Senator Jessica Ramos that would create an excluded worker fund for those purposes.   

“Our recovery will run through Albany, and we've got to fundamentally reset the Albany relationship,” said Stringer, who cited his own Albany experiences as an Assemblymember for 13 years. “New Yorkers cannot afford to have a mayor walk flat-footed in the capital, especially not now,” he added, in a clear shot at Mayor de Blasio. 

Stringer said he would enlist the help of a slew of progressive legislators, including Ramos, who have backed him to create the largest childcare program across the country, to repeal the 421-a tax credit for building affordable housing, and to raise taxes on the rich. 

Wiley was the only candidate who released a detailed Albany agenda in the hours before the forum, announcing her support for the Invest in Our New York Act along with a large slate of other bills related to housing, worker and tenant protections, education, jobs and small businesses, criminal justice reform, electoral reforms, and climate change policies. 

At the forum, Wiley honed in on issues of affordability, specifically housing, child care, and health care. “Those things were already deeply broken, and deeply broken before covid, for communities of color in particular and for the middle class. And so to solve them, yes, we need to have a partnership with Albany,” she said. 

Adams’ focus was somewhat narrower than the other candidates as he repeatedly said it is essential to push state government to adequately fund education in New York City. He pointed to the State Court of Appeals’ 2006 decision in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case, which has become something of a quagmire. Advocates say the state should provide billions more in foundation aid to struggling schools to live up to the ruling, while Governor Cuomo has largely rejected that argument while attempting to change the formula for foundation aid.

“It is imperative that we get our fair share, and we are not,” Adams said. He said he would establish greater coordination between city and state agencies, which currently “operate in silos,” push for greater city representation on the MTA board with a new member for each borough, and pursue for a real-time monitoring system for affordable housing stock. He also said he wants to see reform at the State Liquor Authority so that it stops targeting Black-owned businesses and changes to how private health insurance is taxed.

Donovan has his own six-point agenda that covers building affordable and supportive housing and tackling homelessness, creating jobs by restructuring tax programs, fair funding for education, a public option for health care that includes undocumented immigrants, investing funds in the MTA in exchange for more seats on the board, and his “equity bonds” proposal to give every child $1,000 when they’re born and $2,000 every year after.

“I think I'm a unique candidate in this race given that I've worked at all levels of government to lead through crisis,” he said. “No one else in this race has that deep experience in working not only with the state, but with the federal government and with the local government as well.”

Morales offered few specific policy ideas but outlined some of her planned tactics for dealing with Albany. “My agenda for Albany aligns with my agenda for New York City. It's centered on the interest of everyday New Yorkers,” she said. “Everything that we do and everything that we need is connected to Albany. Our schools, our housing, our health care, our transportation. Everything needs Albany approval.”

She did say she would work with Assemblymember Richard Gottfried to pursue passage of the New York Health Act, which would establish a single-payer health-care system in the state, along with increased taxes on the wealthy to pay for it. “I think that there is increasing political will towards doing both of these things,” she said. 

Sutton stressed the need to ensure New York’s economic recovery, preventing an exodus of residents, bringing back tourism, repairing the fiscal hole, reopening businesses, and keeping the streets and subways safe. She is among the more centrist candidates and has repeatedly raised concerns about New York’s business friendliness, issued warnings about going too far with new taxes, and pointed to issues with public safety. 

But, while Sutton spoke mostly of what was at stake, she did not offer any concrete solutions or specific policies when asked for her Albany agenda. “[I]f we cannot work together, the city and Albany with our electeds, with the myriad private sector leaders, our philanthropy leaders, our state and federal partners, and treat them truly as respected partners, bringing together community input and community needs, the rest of what we're talking about, it really won't matter, because New York City will not come back,” she said. 

When asked for something specific, she later said her first priority in Albany would be to sit down with Assemblymember Gottfried to discuss his proposal and to explore measures to improve public health infrastructure, linking public health with public safety, both cornerstones of her platform. She also said she would work to create a coalition with the governor and state lawmakers around the state’s recovery while trying to “disrupt” the way state and local governments work. “Let's figure out what are the things that we need to permanently change. Let's look to improvise, let's have a sort of a skunkworks,” she said. 

Approach to Albany
Along with proposing a firm agenda, any successful mayor will have to use their political capital and skills to move the levers of power in Albany. Between the governor and the two legislative chambers, that task is easier said than done and the candidates offered different approaches. They also sought to define how they would specifically deal with Governor Cuomo, who is known for his heavy-handedness and zero-sum approach to power. 

Garcia said she has a track record of bringing people together on “really thorny issues” over the course of her 14-year career. “[Y]ou have to find those key stakeholders, particularly within the Legislature who are going to be advocates for your program,” she said. Mayor de Blasio’s agenda, she pointed out, was often haphazard and created last-minute, leading it to flounder in Albany. She recalled being enlisted in the administration to make last-minute calls for the extension of mayoral control of city schools. “So my approach is we need to be collaborative, but really also clear and long-term in our thinking,” she said. 

Menchaca emphasized the shifting political balance in Albany, and seemed to set his focus on progressives in the state Legislature asserting their power against the governor. But he also stressed the need for the mayor and City Council to present a united front in Albany along with state legislators and congressional representatives, something he said has been lacking under de Blasio. “I think that can really send a message to the governor. And I think his tone is going to change. It's already changing,” he said, though he did not explain what he was referring to. 

Notably, Menchaca endorsed Cuomo’s primary opponent, Cynthia Nixon, in 2018, which would likely come back to haunt him if he should win the mayoral primary given the governor is known for his exacting grudges. Asked about what he would say to the governor if he wins, he said, “I'm gonna say both looking forward to working with you and watch out,” (which were the two options offered to him by the moderator). 

Having been members of the State Legislature in the past, both Stringer and Adams fell back on their personal Albany connections and experience. 

Stringer noted that, as comptroller, he already has an agenda that he takes to the capital every year and he pointed out his close working relationship with the younger crop of progressives elected to the Legislature in recent years. He repeatedly mentioned his contributions to helping some of them defeat members of the rogue Independent Democratic Conference, which partnered with Senate Republicans, along with the efforts of the host group, Empire State Indivisible.

“But I also have a relationship with this governor and we respect each other,” Stringer added. “And we will work to build the bridge between our progressive legislators in the Assembly, in the Senate, with the governor, because we have one thing in common: the future New York City.” 

He had harsh words for the mayor. “I think time and time again, the mayor's lunch money was stolen even before he walked into the state Capitol,” he said. “He was constantly with a limited Albany agenda because he did not do the groundwork to create a specific legislative agenda and rally people around it.”

Wiley said she would prioritize partnerships with the leaders of the Legislature and create a “shared agenda” with rank-and-file legislators. But she stressed the greater importance of building groundswell support for policies among communities that are affected. “[I]t's fundamentally about partnering with the people who are impacted, who have a voice and should have a voice in Albany, and we should be facilitating that voice,” she said. 

She particularly went out of her way to distance herself from her old boss. “First of all, I have a very different personality from the current mayor,” she said, underscoring that she would not undermine senior leadership in her mayoralty like de Blasio has done. 

Of all the candidates, she seemed most willing to let the governor take center stage. “You have to have a relationship with the governor, you have to have a back channel with the governor,” she said. “You have to recognize there are times when you're going to get what you want done because you'll let the governor take credit. But that's not every time and it's not the only way to work.”

Morales presented the most critical approach, decrying the preferred tactics of politicians. “We've been getting our asses kicked, and it didn't start with Cuomo and it's not going to end with him,” she said. “I don't want to work within this broken system that has repeatedly and consistently failed our people. What we have seen work is exposure and escalation,” she said of how to get the political best of Cuomo. 

She said she would marshal everyday New Yorkers, rather than lobbyists, to advocate for her agenda. “My agenda and more importantly, my approach will not be driven by inside baseball machinations that have gotten us nowhere. I'm not going to focus on bragging about my network or making backroom deals or holding private meetings at the Fort Orange club,” she said. “I'm an organizer on issues, it's what I do best. So that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to bring the fight to Albany if I have to.” But she did concede that her approach would also be “relational” and that, as an organizer, she shares common interests with elected representatives.

Adams took a middle-of-the-road approach, speaking of the need to “mobilize people” as well as forging alliances with legislators, visiting their districts and inviting them across the city. “But have well thought out plans with some clear results in mind that they can look at and see as we move our target forward,” he said. 

Adams noted that passing legislation through Albany would require aligning the interests of legislators from diverse parts of the state, particularly in the state Senate where moderate Democrats tend to be wary of progressive legislation. 

He also insisted he would never feud with the governor. “Leadership is not only substantive, it’s symbolic,”he said. “I am not going to have public disputes with the governor. We'll have our disagreements behind closed doors, but we will have a united front.”

Though Donovan has experience working with elected officials on policy, he said his approach would also start with the people. “A wise person once told me politics is felt need, and unless you feel the need, unless it is organized and relentless, you are not going to get things done to build those coalitions,” he said. He also took a shot at the mayor for always planning during crises rather than having comprehensive plans ready proactively. “If you believe that you can plan in crisis and get things done, you will fail. You need to have those plans ready before the crisis hits,” he said. 

Donovan noted in particular that he has worked with the governor in the past. “When Sandy hit, and President Obama asked me to lead the recovery efforts, I worked very effectively with Andrew, to get stuff done,” he said of Governor Cuomo. “We didn't agree on everything. But we were able to work out those differences, and get the biggest, most important things we needed to get done, done.”

Sutton didn’t shy away from criticizing de Blasio’s relationship with Cuomo, which she witnessed firsthand in the mayor’s administration and described as “a dysfunctional relationship that was grounded in disrespect and disdain even for each other.” “That just has no place in our public life and New Yorkers in the city and the state paid a huge price for it,” she said. 

Invest in Our New York Act
The forum was an opportunity for Empire State Indivisible to gauge the candidates’ support for the Invest in Our New York Act, which could raise as much as $50 billion in revenue for the state at a time when it faces a roughly $60 billion shortfall over four years, according to the coalition pushing the package of six bills. 

There were varied opinions among the candidates on the tax package, though they all agreed on the need for a more progressive tax system. 

Wiley, Morales, and Menchaca all unequivocally expressed support for it in full. Stringer hedged during the forum, but a spokesperson later clarified that he is in full support.

Adams would not commit to supporting the heir’s tax or the billionaires tax, and raised concern about the legality of the corporate tax bill. Instead, he discussed finding ways to cut city agency spending and find savings through attrition. 

Donovan too did not support the full slate of bills. But he, like Adams, focused on the federal government instead. “Fundamentally, the place we need a far more progressive system is in Washington, so that we're not disadvantaged in New York City or New York State compared to other places around the country,” he said. 

Sutton took issue with the Invest in Our New York campaign, saying its rhetoric demonizes the rich rather than including them in the city’s recovery. “I think that New York City doesn't work without all of us working together in an inclusive, respectful process,” she said. Though she said she supports parts of the package, she did not make clear which ones. 

Garcia hedged in her response. “I absolutely think that revenue is going to be essential. I also think growing our economy is going to be essential to get through this fiscal crisis,” she said without directly saying whether she supports the package. She also raised a warning about the exodus of rich New Yorkers during the pandemic, citing a large drop in residential trash pickup from Manhattan. 

Various Other Issues of State Policy
The candidates varied on several other issues as well. 

Stringer, Donovan, and Adams warned against the city taking over control of the subways or a large chunk of what is now the MTA. “That would be a recipe for disaster,” Donovan said, noting that it is part of a regional system. Stringer said, “I've done the numbers, and maybe in a utopian society, we could control the MTA but we can’t. The debt service would crush the city.” 

Garcia and Morales, similarly, said municipal control of parts of the MTA would be ideal but not without the revenue to support it. Sutton was among several candidates, including Donovan, Adams, and Stringer, calling for greater city representation on the MTA board. Adams’ push for five new borough-based appointees would also mean the city would have a plurality and significantly more authority on the board. Donovan said his goal would be for city and state appointees to have equal footing on the board and a clearer power-sharing agreement, with the city contributing more capital funds to the agency through several mechanisms including congestion pricing and value capture funds. 

Menchaca was the only one to unreservedly call for city control of the MTA

Nearly all the candidates supported repealing the Urstadt Law, which gives the state control over rent regulation and prevents the city from establishing its own rent rules. Donovan, however, had concerns about it. “I think there are real issues about the city taking over Urstadt given the rent control and rent stabilization powers that exist outside of the city,’ he said. “I am certainly open to more control. I don't think you would be able legally to give the city full control on it.” 

When asked about the law, Sutton instead said that recent rent regulations passed by the state Legislature went too far, particularly in the burdens they placed on small landlords. 

Most of the candidates extolled the virtues of mayoral control of city schools, with several saying it should be permanent. Only Adams suggested that the regular expiration and renewal of mayoral control was necessary. “I believe we should every two years, go back and see it for review. You should earn the right to have that level of power,” he said. And Morales was again the only candidate who expressed an interest in doing away with the current model of mayoral control of schools and establishing a new, more community-focused model.

Only three members of the second panel were asked whether they would support repeal of the 1971 Hecht-Calandra Act, which created the Specialized High School Admissions Test as the sole entrance criteria for the city’s three most selective high schools (Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, and Brooklyn Tech) that has become a subject of intense controversy in recent years. They were also pressed on whether the city should have the authority to control the cap on charter schools rather than the state. Stringer, who was on the first panel, volunteered his support for repealing Hecht-Calandra to give the city the power to determine admissions to all the specialized high schools.

Donovan and Morales both said they support repeal and said the city should have control of the charter school cap.

“I believe the state should make that determination,” said Adams, who also called for creating five more specialized high schools in the city. “I'm not running for state office. I'm running for city office. They need to decide and debate that and give them the opportunity to come to a conclusion.” Asked if he thought the mayor’s voice was important in the debate, he said, “No, I don't.” Similarly, on the charter school cap, he said, “I believe that should be a state decision. They should make the determination.”

The candidates were also somewhat split on the bail reforms approved by the state Legislature in 2019 that were subsequently partially rolled back in 2020 after significant opposition from law enforcement officials, Republicans, and some Democrats.  

Both Menchaca and Morales said they were disappointed that the law was watered down. Adams and Garcia seemed satisfied with where the law stands now. And Donovan and Stringer said they would have to wait to see how the law is currently working -- though a Stringer spokesperson again clarified after the forum that the comptroller still opposes the rollbacks and would prefer the original reforms passed in 2019 to be the law.

Watch the full forum here.

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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

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The Bronx Becomes a Focal Point in 2021 Mayor’s Race


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Ruben Diaz Jr. outside City Hall (photo: Diaz Jr./Flickr)


After Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., a Democrat, announced that he would retire from government at the end of his third term, it opened up the Bronx as fertile ground for votes in the 2021 New York City mayor’s race. Diaz Jr. had long hinted at and prepared for a run for mayor, and was considered a top contender. Without the threat of his charisma and popularity in the race, candidates who are running immediately saw a better opportunity to compete for the hearts, minds, and votes of more than 650,000 Bronxites who are registered Democrats. The Bronx has, more often than not, been overlooked and underserved, and Bronx leaders, activists, and elected officials are hoping that will change as the borough faces some of its hardest times yet while offering mayoral contenders potential help toward building a winning coalition.

Among the top Democratic candidates, in a field that is as wide as it is diverse, none is of the Bronx, though several claim ties to the borough and many have been attempting to make inroads there. Of the three elected officials in the race, two are from Brooklyn. Other candidates have served the borough in their nonprofit or government roles, whether elected or appointed, but they do not call the Bronx home. The Democratic candidates include Comptroller Scott Stringer, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, former counsel to the mayor Maya Wiley, City Council Member Carlos Menchaca, former Citigroup executive Ray McGuire, former federal housing secretary Shaun Donovan, former sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia, former veterans services commissioner Loree Sutton, former nonprofit executive Dianne Morales, entrepreneur Andrew Yang, and more.     

Out of the five boroughs, the Bronx is fourth in population (1.4 million), registered voters (867,716), registered Democrats (17.3% of the city’s total as of November 1) and, in past mayoral elections, voter turnout.

In the Democratic mayoral primary election of 2017, when Mayor Bill de Blasio was reelected to a second and final term, 71,084 Democratic Bronx voters cast a ballot, about 14.7% of the total votes cast. In the general election that year, the Bronx accounted for 149,717 votes, or about 12.8% of all votes. In 2013, the last time there was an open contest for mayor, 96,779 Bronx Democrats voted in the primary election, 13.9% of all votes. In the November general that year, the number of votes rose to 141,157 or about 12.8% of all cast.

“So it’s sort of natural that it gets a little less attention than the other three bigger boroughs,” said Jerry Skurnik, a former aide to Mayor Ed Koch who closely studies voting trends as a political consultant at Prime New York, in a phone interview.

There’s a certain chicken-and-egg quality to the Bronx’s importance in the Democratic primary. 

Perhaps because it offers fewer votes, the borough tends not to be a targeted focus of candidates. Or perhaps because candidates fail to get their message out to Bronx residents, voters aren’t excited to vote for them. There is also the inseparable issue of the fact that the Bronx has the city’s highest unemployment rate, the worst health outcomes in the state, among the highest poverty rates in the country, and other devastating conditions that both cry out for more attention but also contribute to less political engagement.

It’s all part of the perception that Bronx elected officials and activists want to fight as they say candidates need to do more than offer broad citywide proposals and should be pledging borough-specific ideas, particularly for the neighborhoods most impacted by the coronavirus.

“I think historically, the Bronx has been an overlooked borough and I think that still presents itself today, even in this mayoral race,” said recently-elected Assemblymember Kenny Burgos, who represents District 85, which includes Longwood, Soundview, Clason Point, Shorehaven and Rikers Island. “I think candidates can sometimes look to quote-unquote voter-rich areas like the Upper West Side and parts of Brooklyn. But, frankly, you're looking to represent the entire city and the Bronx has faced issues that can be unique to the city, the Bronx has voters, the Bronx has engaged individuals.”

There is, of course, no “Bronx vote,” and the borough itself is diverse – the population is 56.4%  Hispanic or Latino, 29% Black, 8.8% white and 3.7% Asian, according to the American Community Survey’s 2019 data. While there are whiter and wealthier sections of the borough, especially in its northwest, much of the Bronx is home to middle- and lower-income Black and Hispanic residents. There are 75 NYCHA developments in the Bronx, with 41,831 apartments and roughly 94,773 residents as of 2019.

Diaz Jr. is likely one of the most sought-after endorsers in the mayoral race across the entire city. As is his close friend and ally, State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie of the Bronx, who is one of the most powerful elected officials in the state.

Some of the candidates have begun outreach efforts to Bronx elected officials, local business groups, clergy, and advocacy organizations, even if the pandemic has forced them to do so virtually most of the time.

One of the first public actions Wiley took when exploring her candidacy was tweeting a photo of herself having lunch with Heastie in the Bronx. Donovan launched his campaign from the South Bronx, where he began his career working for the nonprofit Community Preservation Corporation. Yang launched his campaign in Manhattan but with the endorsement of new Bronx Congressional Rep. Ritchie Torres and recently toured Burgos’ district with the Assembly member. Yang has made several trips to the Bronx, according to his campaign. Last month, Wiley toured the South Bronx with Shams DaBaron, a homeless advocate. Several of the candidates rallied in the Bronx for Kevin Riley’s City Council campaign ahead of a December 22 special election that Riley won.

This past Saturday, McGuire had a five-stop day in the Bronx, including separate district visits with City Council Member Rafael Salamanca and District Leader Marjorie Velázquez.

In January, Bronx State Senator Gustavo Rivera backed two candidates in the first-ever New York City mayoral race ranked-choice endorsement – announcing Stringer as his first choice and Morales, who has done extensive social services work in the Bronx, as his second. Morales frequently cites her work leading Phipps Neighborhoods on the campaign trail. Several candidates also made appearances at Hunts Point market last month as produce workers went on strike for increased pay.

On February 3, Stringer, who is the only mayoral candidate who can boast of actually having received votes from Bronxites before, held a virtual town hall for South Bronx residents in his government capacity. Early on in his campaign, Stringer announced the endorsement of new Congressional Rep. Jamaal Bowman during a press conference in Bowman’s Bronx district. This came after he previously announced the endorsement of other Bronx officials including State Senator Alessandra Biaggi and Assemblymember Amanda Septimo.

One of the factors differentiating how candidates approach the Bronx, Skurnik speculated, is its powerful Democratic Party machinery, which continues to employ significant heft in the city’s political landscape. For instance, the Bronx County Party plays an important role in the internal election of the City Council Speaker and its members are often rewarded with plum committee assignments. Heastie, the Assembly Speaker, is the former head of the Bronx Democrats, now run by his close ally State Senator Jamaal Bailey, and able to flex political muscle larger than most others in New York.

According to New York Magazine, Wiley is the only candidate who has met with Heastie so far. A representative for the speaker did not return requests for an interview for this article. Diaz Jr. was not made available to comment. 

“The Bronx has probably more of a top-down political leadership than the other boroughs,” Skurnik said. “Elected officials are more likely to go along with what the county leader, what the majority of the district leaders want to do, and they haven't decided yet.” He said the Democratic candidates may be waiting for the party’s cue to decide whether they will run against them or with their support. Given Stringer’s alliances with the anti-establishment Biaggi, Rivera, and others, he has clearly made his ties known and does not appear in contention for support from Diaz Jr., Heastie, and the County Party.

“I believe that the Bronx is critical to the success of any mayoral candidate,” State Senator Bailey, who was elected the leader of the Bronx Democratic Party in September, said in a December appearance on the Max & Murphy podcast. “I believe that any mayoral candidate who is very serious about being the next great mayor of our city has to not only appeal to the borough of the Bronx, but they have to actually do something for the borough of the Bronx.”

There are a few wildcards in the election. Ranked-choice voting (RCV) will necessitate candidates to make broader appeals to the electorate in constituencies that may not be their traditional bases of support. “I think RCV is going to help at least keep the Bronx in the game among many more candidates,” said Michael Benjamin, a longtime observer of Bronx politics and former state legislator from the borough who now sits on the New York Post editorial board. “I think RCV requires you to then reach out to everyone and to try to become either the first choice or their second choice, and the Bronx is open without a Bronx-based candidate.”

The Bronx is ideologically, racially, and economically diverse. It’s home to a majority of Hispanic residents, more so than any other borough and while reliably Democratic overall, as Skurnik pointed out, “The Hispanic vote has been one of the more elastic votes.” Hispanic turnout tends to be higher if there is a Hispanic candidate on the ballot, he noted. Only two of the leading Democratic candidates could benefit from that – Menchaca is Latino, of Mexican heritage, and Morales is Afro-Latina, of Puerto-Rican heritage.

Prior to the pandemic, the Bronx was the fastest growing borough in the city, having experienced rapid economic development, a construction boom, and dropping unemployment, to a low of 4.6%. The coronavirus upended that success. Most new development ground to a halt and as jobs evaporated, unemployment in December hit about 15.1%, after peaking at 25% in July, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. It’s unclear how many Bronxites have left the workforce altogether and are therefore not reflected in the unemployment numbers. More than 121,000 Bronx residents have tested positive for Covid-19 and there have been 5,522 confirmed and probable deaths, according to city data as of February 7. And while that number may be lower than in Brooklyn or Queens, the deaths per 100,000 residents was the highest in the Bronx across almost every category of population.  

“The Bronx was hardest hit in a lot of ways,” said John DeSio, vice president at Risa Heller Communications and a former staff aide to Borough President Diaz Jr. for over a decade. “So I think when people are talking about these broader issues like economic development and housing in the post-COVID recovery, the Bronx is part of that…People in the Bronx feel like [the candidates] need to do more to specifically outline how you're going to help the Bronx come back on these issues.”

As DeSio noted, any discussion about building new affordable housing where it's needed or improving education outcomes in low-income communities is naturally going to be salient to the Bronx. But he said voters will gravitate to those candidates who can speak specifically to the borough. “To be mayor is to be mayor for the entire city, not just the areas where you were able to win,” he added. “And I think that part of a serious plan to run has to include what you're thinking about the Bronx, what you're thinking about Staten Island, even though these aren't necessarily massive voter holds.”

Some, like Lisa Sorin, president of the New Bronx Chamber of Commerce, want a strategic plan for small businesses and jobs creation. “We're not just a headline in the paper about, ‘the Bronx is the highest hit COVID, the largest unemployment,’ all this negative, which sells,” Sorin said in a Zoom interview. “But the truth of the matter is that real help is needed and we are sharing that message out strongly.” 

She said the NBCC has been meeting with candidates to encourage them to articulate plans for the Bronx’s revival. “There's a piece of the puzzle that's missing and we need to make a little noise about it. Just don't pity us, do something about it,” she said.  

One such plan was created for the South Bronx by the nonprofit Diego Beekman Mutual Housing Association, which runs an affordable housing complex in Mott Haven. The Diego Beekman Neighborhood Plan, first proposed in 2017, is a broad community-based blueprint for addressing economic inequality, investing in affordable housing and local businesses, and reducing crime and preserving public safety.

Arline Parks, CEO of Diego Beekman, said the plan is more important than ever and would address longstanding problems exacerbated by the pandemic. “You don't really see mayoral candidates talking about the Bronx as they should,” she said. “In particular, the southern tip of the Bronx and the policies that need to reimagine this community so that it is not an impoverished community but investments are made that give South Bronx residents economic opportunity and public safety.”

Parks was disappointed that only Stringer and Adams had reached out to her organization so far. “Whoever is going to win New York City, they definitely have to engage the Bronx,” she said. 

In the same interview, Andrew Reicher, executive director of Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB), said the next mayor needs to follow community voices in planning rather than de Blasio’s “top-down, ignore-the-community, impose-it-from-above approach.” “The issues that [the neighborhood plan] tackles are issues that were of concern to the community and the solutions were ones that the community looked at and said, ‘Yeah, that's what we want.’”

The proposals include creating affordable housing for low- and middle-income families, targeted investments in physical infrastructure, jobs training programs, building a new retail center, establishing a new Business Improvement District, and more.

The campaigns, of course, are not oblivious to the importance of the Bronx even as they acknowledged the challenge of winning over its voters. 

A person affiliated with one mayoral campaign, who wished to remain anonymous, said it’s precisely because of the perennial nature of some of the borough’s woes that campaigns may fear making bold promises to voters. “It's like a bomb going off in a graveyard,” they said of the pandemic’s effects on the Bronx. “This is the sort of problem that is going to take years to change. It's not going to turn around quickly and there's institutionalized issues that the next mayor is going to have to tackle…That combination of things can scare off candidates actively campaigning there because it's very hard to just show up and say, ‘I have a solution to what is obviously a potentially intractable problem or set of problems.’”

As Stringer enjoys support from Bowman, Biaggi and others, Yang may also have something of an advantage in the borough with Rep. Torres serving as co-chair of his campaign. Chris Coffey, co-campaign manager for Yang’s campaign, said in a phone interview, “Certainly, when Ruben Diaz Jr. was running, he would have had hometown hero status, and the fact that he's not running means that we believe the Bronx is wide open.”  

“The Bronx has just come off a very robust campaign season, where they've elected some new members of Congress as well as new members in the City Council and the state legislature, so obviously the Bronx is definitely socially aware of their importance,” said Lupé Todd-Medina, a spokesperson for McGuire’s campaign. “And I believe that all of us that are working certainly on a citywide campaign can appreciate that.” 

“There are a lot of educated voters there and they are selecting their representatives not based off where you are in the spectrum of the Democratic Party,” Todd-Medina added. “They're not deciding based on geography, where you come from in the district or in the borough, but rather they are selecting based off their actual needs…The residents there are energized and they're plugged in. They’re watching.”

The mayoral candidates’ interest in the Bronx highlights the lack of a candidate from the borough and the fact that the Democratic field is heavy on Manhattanites and Brooklynites. While he now lives downtown, Stringer’s longtime base is on the Upper West Side. Yang, Sutton, and McGuire also live in Manhattan. Adams represented central Brooklyn in the state Senate before becoming borough president; Menchaca represents Sunset Park and Red Hook in the City Council; and they are joined in the borough by long-time residents Morales, Garcia, and Donovan.

Yuridia Peña, a spokesperson for Donovan’s campaign, and Aicha Bamba, the campaign’s political director, said they are focused on looking at the Bronx “in a totally different light.”

“It's probably the most important borough, and I'm not just saying that because I live here and I love it here,” Bamba said. “We're building up in the Bronx because it is oftentimes the borough that people consider the worst of the boroughs. It's always looked at as less than…This community that has literally built itself up through and been resistant through the burning and also uplifted itself.” 

Bamba agreed that voters in the Bronx, just as across the five boroughs, feel disenfranchised and let down by the failed promises of past administrations. “We want them to know that they are important and they're valued for more than just a vote,” she said. “They're valued as people. Their problems are important.”

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

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