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Brooklyn borough president leads NYC Democratic primary

By AI HEPING in New York | China Daily Global | Updated: 2021-06-24 10:44
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Eric Adams speaks at a New York City primary mayoral election night party in New York City, US, June 22, 2021. [Photo/Agencies]

Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president and a former police captain, appeared to have the advantage Wednesday in New York City's first ranked-choice Democratic primary election for mayor of the nation's largest city.

With 83 percent of the results in from Tuesday's primary by Wednesday afternoon, the 60-year-old Adams, who would be the second black mayor of New York, was the first choice of 32 percent of those who voted in person on Tuesday or during the early voting period.

Maya Wiley, a civil rights lawyer and former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio, was in second with 22 percent; Kathryn Garcia, a former city sanitation commissioner, was third with 20 percent. Either would become the city's first female mayor.

As of Wednesday at 1:30 am, more than 790,000 ballots cast in person had been counted in New York City, according to an Associated Press estimate.

The current results could change once thousands of absentee ballots are included and ranked-choice tabulation is run. No candidate won an outright majority Tuesday, so the ranked choice preferences of voters will now be redistributed as the candidates with the fewest number of votes are eliminated in a series of rounds.

Andrew Yang, the former presidential candidate who had spent months as the dominant candidate in the race, was a distant fourth and conceded on Tuesday night.

"We still believe we can help, but not as mayor and first lady," said Yang, who had hoped to be the city's first Asian American mayor, as he stood with his wife, Evelyn.

The Democratic race has been largely focused on what the candidates would do to stem rising gun violence — shootings are up 77 percent year to date — and other crimes. Other issues have included guiding the city's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, in which more than 33,000 New Yorkers died, as well as areas such as public education and tourism.

On crime, Adams, a 22-year veteran of the police department, wants to revamp the department's plainclothes unit to target illegal guns, send more officers into high-crime neighborhoods and reassign 500 officers who do work that could be handled by civilians.

He also has put forth a process in which community boards and precinct councils can help select precinct commanders and has vowed to create a more diverse police force, including by naming the first female police commissioner.

Adams has suggested a $1 billion plan to provide up to $4,000 per year to low-income residents in the form of a tax credit.

Wiley's platform calls for a Works Progress Administration-style infrastructure, stimulus and jobs program that would include a $10 billion capital spending program.

She has called for moving $1 billion from the police department's $6 billion budget and reinvesting that money in communities hardest hit by gun violence. Wiley has been endorsed by US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Garcia said she plans to get 10,000 illegal guns off the streets during her first year in office, in part by increasing the gun-buyback rebate from $200 to $2,000.

She said that she would spend $630 million a year to provide free childcare for young children in families making less than $70,000 a year — to be funded largely by finding cost savings elsewhere in government — and guarantee housing for every foster care child until age 26.

Garcia also wants to increase the size of the NYPD Gun Violence Suppression Division to tackle an increase in shootings. She wants police and mental health professionals to patrol subway platforms.

The city's Board of Elections is expected to release the first batch of ranked choice votes next Tuesday, calculating only the preferences of early and in-person voters. Final results are not expected until July 12.

In November, the Democratic winner will face Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels, who handily defeated Fernando Mateo in the Republican primary.

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