Brian Lehrer: This week as early voting and mailing voting take place in the New York primary, we are devoting part of the show each day and we'll do one on the mayoral race later on really interesting developments in the last day, as there have been every day, but we're devoting part of the show each day this week to selected races in each borough. Monday was Brooklyn, yesterday was Queens, and today it's Manhattan where there is a lot to talk about.

Manhattan is used to being the center of the universe or at least the city, the term outer-borough refers to all the boroughs that aren't Manhattan, but it has lost a bit of luster when offices and hotels shut down during the pandemic, not to mention lost a bit of money.

Almost every council seat in Manhattan is up for grabs. The current borough president is term-limited out and running for one of those city council seats, by the way, Gale Brewer. The current district attorney Cyrus Vance chose not to run again, opening up one of the most high-profile prosecutor's offices in the country. Again, these are primary races in a borough where party affiliation skew so overwhelmingly democratic that the winners of these races will almost certainly be the winners in November.

To talk about as much of this as we can get to and some through lines that cut across all these races is Ben Max, executive editor of Gotham Gazette, and host of the podcast, Max Politics. Hey Ben.

Ben Max: Hey Brian. Good to be with you.

Brian Lehrer: Where to start? Maybe with the DA's race, if for no other reason and has probably generated the most work for the post office at least up until about a week ago when the other races started to catch up so many mailers, mainly from Tali Farhadian Weinstein who made headlines this week with her latest campaign finance disclosure that she had donated over $8 million to herself. For people who've maybe seen the flyers, seen some TV commercials, but don't really know, who is Tali Weinstein?

Ben Max: Well, what's interesting about this is she's an extremely qualified and experienced prosecutor and attorney. She also is very, very wealthy in part due to her husband's wealth. She's received a lot of endorsements, she's a very formidable candidate, no matter what, but now we've seen her in essence, trying to combine that resume with, in some sense, buying the election through pumping all these millions of dollars into it and creating a very uneven playing field.

This is technically a state election, so there is no campaign finance, public matching system. This is just a free for all. There's very, very high contribution limits. There's no public matching like I said, and there's also no rank choice voting in the district attorney primary, folks should know that as well unlike all these other races we'll talk about. She's, in essence, flooding everybody's mailboxes, as you said, and doing so much more with all this money that she's trying to overwhelm the rest of this field, which has a number of other strong candidates as well, but without those resources.

Brian Lehrer: She's that rich, huh? That she could donate $8 million to her own campaign?

Ben Max: Well, apparently, and also, her wealth and her husband's wealth and his finance ties have also been a source of discussion and controversy during the race already short of all this money that they're now putting into the race, questions around whether she would be a tough enough district attorney on Wall Street or if she would need to recuse herself from some major cases. She defended herself very well on those charges in terms of saying, "You really should not be holding a spouse's profession against anyone running for office," and that's certainly fair, but there's legitimate questions around some of this. Then the biggest question now is the amount of money that she's flooding this race with to try to overwhelm the field.

Brian Lehrer: Weinstein has the daily news and the posts endorsement. I think I saw Hillary Clinton just came out for her, but then there's Alvin Bragg who got the New York Times endorsement in this race. He's a former assistant US attorney and was also endorsed by his well-known former boss Preet Bharara from when he was the US attorney in New York and Alvin Bragg worked for him. Who else is Alvin Bragg, Besides somebody who used to work for Preet Bharara and are there policy differences between Weinstein and Bragg if they are two of the big horses in this race?

Ben Max: Right, they're undoubtedly two of the top if not the two top front runners in the race, but I don't think we should discount at least a couple of other candidates and their potential chances. Something like a district attorney race, even though there's been some limited polling that I don't really know is fair to even go into because of how large the undecided population is. It's very hard to predict this race, but clearly, Bragg and Weinstein have had the biggest profiles maybe among a couple of others in the race.

Bragg was also a top deputy to the New York State Attorney General. He's had a long and extensive career as well, both he and Farhadian Weinstein are among basically half the field is former prosecutors and then almost half the field is not and that's one of the big dividing lines in this race. The folks who haven't been prosecutors are running as major reformers to the office, whereas the people who've been prosecutors are running on some reform but to varying degrees.

Bragg is somewhere in the middle. He is a former prosecutor, but he's running as more of a reformer it seems. Weinstein, and also Liz Crotty, I should mention is running as sort of the most traditional law and order tough on crime candidate. She's got the backing of the Police Unions, for example. Then you have Lucy Lang who is also in the middle with Bragg. Then further to the left, you have assembly member, Dan Quart, public defender Eliza Orlins, and civil rights attorney Tahanie Aboushi, that are all trying to compete for that pretty far left lane of dismantling a lot of what the office does because they say it inflicts so much harm on people and is part of the carceral system that needs to be rethought.

Brian Lehrer: That I guess is another way to sort the candidates, those who are now looking beyond Bragg and Weinstein so we don't just talk about them. The other candidates sort them into those who've been prosecutors before and those who are coming from outside of that system as reformers. Liz Crotty, former prosecutor, as you say, the most law and order candidate or traditional candidate in the group. Lucy Lang who teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and worked with Cyrus Vance in that office. Then the outsider's Dan Quart, who's a politician state assembly member, Tahanie Aboushi a civil rights attorney.

Always interesting when somebody with that background wants to become a prosecutor and similar with Eliza Orlins because she's been a defense attorney. Again, listeners, like we've been saying all week, we can't go so deeply into every candidate in these races with so many candidates that you can decide based on this show, but we're trying to give you an overview just so that more people vote. Go and do your homework Manhattan Heights. If you haven't already on these DA candidates, but there's a little place for you to start, hopefully.

The other borough wide race in Manhattan is for borough president Gale Brewer's term-limited out and running for her old city council seat, which we'll get to and there are seven candidates for the Democratic nomination for Manhattan borough president, which weighs in on land-use decisions and has some funds for programs and projects and, oh boy, Lindsey Boylan, Elizabeth Caputo, Brad Hoylman, and Benjamin Kallos, Mark Levine, Guillermo Perez and Kimberly Watkins.

Let's start with the two city council members in the race, Mark Levine and Ben Kallos, and a state Senator Brad Hoylman. These are the elected politicians who might have some name recognition going for them in the race.

The others have not been in elected office before, although Lindsey Boylan did make news this year as Governor Cuomo's first accuser, but she's much more than that. She has a lot of experience running things including very significant policy areas in the governor's office as well as Elizabeth Caputo, who's been a major player in New York parks and neighborhoods for a long time. Let's take Lindsay Boylan first, what's her experience?

Ben Max: Her experiences in economic development and planning. As you said, she worked at some of the highest levels of state government, she's held other positions, but she is basically running a pretty progressive far-left campaign, but also very much focused on the idea of her expertise in urbanism and planning and economic development, and being able to merge a very progressive ideology with the idea of plotting out Manhattan's future when it comes to things like economic development, but also open space, park, street use and things of that nature.

Brian Lehrer: How about Elizabeth Caputo?

Ben Max: She's been a Community Board Chair on the Upper West Side. She has also had an extensive career, also sort of in economic development and policy. She is making a somewhat similar pitch, but definitely more in the moderate lane. She really focuses on the need to revitalize the economy, but she's also talking a lot about doing proper planning. It's a theme in the borough president race and also in the city council races on.

There are so many candidates who are running largely opposed to new development and key land use issues. Elizabeth Caputo takes a very measured approach to this and talks about how Manhattan needs to continue to build and grow.

Brian Lehrer: Among the three elected officials in the race, Mark Levine and Ben Kallos from city council and state senator Brad Hoylman, would it be accurate to say that Levine has broken out a little bit from that pack?

Ben Max: I would say so, but I would say that Brad Hoylman also is very strong. Ben Kallos has a very interesting resume and a lot of accomplishments, especially on things like government reform and campaign finance reform in the city council, which has been what his career has been highlighted by even before elected office. Kallos as a reformer and as someone with a lot of thoughtful policy should not be counted out. Levine and Hoylman certainly have a lot of momentum.

Levine probably more so in terms of endorsements and just the energy behind their campaigns. I would say if you're just putting a finger in the air or taking a snapshot right now, Levine looks in very strong position, but Hoylman's also in pretty good shape.

Brian Lehrer: What would you say is one major accomplishment or policy concentration in the career of Mark Levine for people who don't know him and one for Brad Hoylman?

Ben Max: Mark Levine, I have to quickly say two. He's the Health Committee Chair of the city council and became very well known for all the COVID information he was putting out on social media, sometimes with a few mistakes in there that should be highlighted. Also, taking really serious stances on what the Mayor and Governor were not doing well or right and he was mostly right on those assessments.

The thing I think is very important to highlight in Levine's City Council career is that he was one of the top couple of driving forces on the right to counsel legislation that has helped prevent tens of thousands of evictions. I don't think there's anybody who would take that away from him. It's one of the biggest legislative accomplishments in the city in a long time.

Hoylman has many, many legislative accomplishments in the state, especially since democrats took over the State Senate in the last couple years. Hoylman's running to be the first openly LGBT Manhattan Borough President I believe, and he has a lot of accomplishments related to LGBT rights.

Brian Lehrer: One other candidate, Kimberly Watkins, former auxiliary police officer.

Ben Max: Kim Watkins is running the most insurgent outsider campaign here. She's got the least government-related credentials, but she's been a Community Education Council President. She's running very interestingly on the need to put more nurses and other helpful people in schools like guidance counselors, but she has a real focus on the need for nurses in schools. Because of her education background, she's also running on dismantling mayoral control of city schools, which might appeal to some people and of course might not to others. It's a bold policy idea that she's running on.

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, if you're just joining us, Ben max from Gotham Gazette is my guest. We're running down some of the most interesting races in the New York primary, in the Borough of Manhattan. If anybody has a question, we can take it, time for a few phone calls in our remaining time in this segment. Let's say no election hearing today. There are just so many races.

Don't call up and say for DA, I'm for this one or for Borough President, I'm for that one because we're not going to be able to have time to have a balanced take and get a lot of people endorsing and a lot of other people, I hope you get it. If you have a question, something that Ben can help clarify about any of the City Council or Manhattan Borough President or DA race in Manhattan, 646-435-7280, 646-435-7280. City council races, Ben, all listeners and maybe this is best for this segment, you can tweet your question @BrianLehrer.

City Council races, there are 10 districts in Manhattan and only one of them, the fourth district on the east side is not open or have a serious challenge to the incumbent, which makes it tough for reporters whose beat is Manhattan. For voters, they just have to know about their own district. You want to just maybe pick one or I'll pick one, the homelessness issue and quality of life concerns roiled District 6. Maybe start there?

Ben Max: Sure, yes. All of the issues around the Lucerne and how-

[crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: [unintelligible 00:15:48] I should say.

Ben Max: -homeless New Yorkers were treated during COVID and really under any circumstances in terms of the use of shelters, and hotels and what services are provided and then related issues has really been a key issue there. That issue, as you mentioned, that race is really fascinating, because you have Gale Brewer, the Borough President trying to go back to her old city council seat. That certainly in some ways convinced some potential candidates to not run because she's seen as such a heavy favorite.

There is an interesting field of six candidates. They all have thoughtful policy agendas that people should look up. I've moderated a debate in almost all of these city council districts in Manhattan and their very interesting discussions about the future of these neighborhoods.

The biggest challenger to Brewer, who is clearly a heavy favorite, is probably Sara Lind, who is running a very different campaign than most of the other candidates. She's really running on a pro-growth, pro-development, increased housing, increased affordable housing campaign, open space and things of that nature, which some of those things the other candidates agree on. She's really staked out a lot of ground around her proposals around housing.

Of course, Brewer is running on her history serving the district and constituent services and livability issues. Then I'll also highlight, there's a candidate Maria Danzilo, who's running among others on a much more sort of, "Clean up the neighborhood, things are a little out of control. We need to get a little tougher on issues like public safety and homelessness," that clearly there's some folks in that district who that's appealing to. There's always questions around people's compassion and tone around these things. Those are a few dividing marks in that race.

Brian Lehrer: How about District 1 in Lower Manhattan, Margaret Chin's seat, the one she's vacating because of term limits, the lower tip of Manhattan up to Washington Square Park or so? Chinatown and Tribeca, Washington Square Park itself has been a flashpoint. She was the first Asian American elected there to city council. There's history there that will continue or not. How about District 1?

Ben Max: Yes, I'm glad you raised that because if you'd asked me to pick one to highlight, I probably would have said District 1, because it's such an interesting race. It has so much on the line. Again, like some others, this has even more candidates in it, something like nine or 10. These racists are incredibly crowded. Again, there's rank choice voting. Folks can pick a few of their favorites.

This is one thing you got at, this race is really important in terms of Asian-American representation in city government. That's obviously been somewhat of a theme in the mayoral race with Andrew Yang running. He's dabbled in this race a little bit. There's only a couple of Asian Americans on the city council.

This is a race where that representation might actually vanish because there is such a strong candidate and Christopher Marte, who almost beat Chin in 2017 when she was running for re-election. Marte is a potential favorite there. There are a number of other candidates who are strong, including Gigi Li who has Chin's endorsement and who worked for her and is running a very strong campaign on serving the district in Chin's office.

Jenny Lowe is another candidate who's gotten a pretty strong amount of support in that district. Maud Maron is also running. She's been very focused on reopening schools and education-related Policy. I don't know that I can give something on each of the candidates. You have someone like Denny Salas, who's also running on pro-growth agenda there. I'll leave it there, I guess.

Brian Lehrer: Here's an interesting question from a listener on Twitter. It says, "What city council races have public school parents running in them, and what are they saying? Public school families have gone through torture this year. There's not a plan for the fall." Any public school parents running prominently as public school parents that you're aware of?

Ben Max: Well, that picks up perfectly on Maud Maron, who I just mentioned in city council District 1, because that's been a focus for her. There are quite a few. I don't know the parental status of every single candidate. I don't know that I can give you any percentages, but there's quite a few including some in the very interesting city council District 5 race, which is the race to replace Ben Kallos on the Upper East Side and others. It's definitely an issue.

I would maybe disagree a little bit with the idea that there isn't a plan for the fall. We need to see a lot more details, but the plan right now from the city is that schools will be reopened for in-person learning. Students still will be in school. I know, there's details that still need to be announced and worked out, but that's the gist. Yes, that's one of these issues that's been part of many of these races, including the mayoral race and many city council races, that with this June primary, and then another six months until these winners take office.

Some of these discussions will be very outdated by the time these races are done, and people will look back and say, "Oh, those issues that dominated the primaries, some of those are really-- This conversation shifted very much now."

Brian Lehrer: Yes, let's hope. All right, another listener tweets, "Please speak about District 10." That's Ydanis Rodriguez's seat, covering Washington Heights up through Inwood on Marble Hill. That place that everybody thinks is in The Bronx, but as a political district is in Manhattan, just above the water there. Ydanih Rodriguez has been a prominent member of City Council also term-limited out. He's been the chair of the Transportation Committee in the news a lot. What's the race up there?

Ben Max: This is another crowded race, but I would probably say this one is a little easier than some to narrow things down to the folks that seem to really be the front runners. It looks like a three candidate race. Again, I'm very hesitant to do this because I want voters to research the candidates and figure out who they like best, and with rank choice voting, they can really make their preferences known. Assembly member Carmen De La Rosa is, if not the favorite one of the favorites. Anytime someone's trying to go from one elected office to another in the same area, they're pretty well known and they have a very strong chance of winning unless they have some major scandal or something.

Angela Fernandez has been a very active advocate, nonprofit leader, immigrants’ rights leader in the area. Johanna Garcia has been a very active aide to State Senator Robert Jackson, and back when he was in the city council, especially with a major focus on education issues. Those three candidates look like they're the top tier there by a wide margin over others. I could be wrong. I'm not on the ground in these districts regularly. There could be energy around some other candidates, but those three look really formidable and they each have accomplishments and issue areas that they focus on.

That's obviously a very immigrant heavy district, Latino heavy district that has a number of concerns coming out of the COVID crisis, including public health, small business. There's always questions around development up there, gentrification, affordability, and such.

Brian Lehrer: We're going to leave it there. We can't go through all 10 City Council districts for an overview, there's just not time. Again, this is just to give you a flavor of some of these races, listeners, and there are ways to dive deeper now. The big thing is with early voting now and then primary day itself, next Tuesday. You can always mail in your absentee ballot, if you have an absentee ballot just to get as many of you Brian Lehrer Show listeners as possible to vote.

There are different places where you can get more information about the candidates in your particular district. We have a voter’s guide @gothamist.com. The New York Times and Citizens Union together have a voter's guide. Ben max, for you as executive editor of Gotham Gazette, I'm sure you have a voter's guide. Do you want to tell people about anything you have going?

Ben Max: Well, I'll highlight two quick things. There's a lot @gothamgazette.com of just coverage of all these races and the debates that I mentioned. I did 30 minute video interviews with each of the Manhattan district attorney candidates and the borough president candidate so there's a lot we have at Gotham Gazette. We also created a tool on the mayoral race with the Daily News on issues and comparing mayoral candidates on issues.

Then I definitely want to point people to our colleagues at a new site called electnyc.org where they can find information really, the city council races. It's a great resource for that @electnyc.org.

Brian Lehrer: Let me do a little addendum on DA because a couple of people called in and said there was one candidate from Manhattan DA, whose name we didn't say, and we should at least say all of them out loud. That's Diana Florence, are you familiar with her?

Ben Max: I am, yes. I noticed I didn't quite get to mention her and I apologize for that. Diana Florence is running. She's a former prosecutor also, but she's running very much on issues related to labor and wage theft. She has other parts of her platform, of course, but that was some of the work she did in the Manhattan DA's office. It's also a big part of her platform. Diana Florence, part of the reason I didn't mentioned her is because she has a pretty serious ethics issue hanging over her candidacy that was part of her Manhattan ADA tenure.

Brian Lehrer: Aha, so-

Ben Max: That's something folks should look into. I don't know how much it's held her back-- She's gotten some labor union endorsements from some of that work she's focused on but I don't know how much steam she's picked up in part because of that hanging over her.

Brian Lehrer: Ben Max, executive editor of Gotham Gazette and host of the podcast Max Politics. Thanks, Ben.

Ben Max: My pleasure.

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