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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. We'll talk about the mayoral race coming up a little later in the show with Juan Manuel Benitez. All this week, we're going borough by borough in separate segments for some of the most interesting races other than for mayor. We did Brooklyn yesterday. Today we're focusing on city council and borough president races in Queens on the table for the dozen or so council seats up for grabs.

Remember almost all of city council, majority of city council, the 51 current members are term-limited out so most of city council turns over. It is such a pivotal moment for New York City. On the table for the dozen or so council seats up for grabs in the most diverse borough in the city or in the country county in the country. I guess they don't call them Burroughs everywhere, but that's what the five boroughs of New York City are, they're counties. There are issues around real estate, gentrification, and bailouts for taxi medallion owners with so many South Asian cab drivers living in Queens and with over a dozen candidates running for some of these seats, we definitely need a guide. With me now is Christine Chung, Queen's reporter for the nonprofit news organization, The City. Hi, Christine. Welcome back to WNYC.

Christine Chung: Hey Brian, thanks for having me.

Brian Lehrer: Let's start with the borough president's race. Incumbent Donovan Richards is running for reelection. He won in a special election not that long ago after the former borough president Melinda Katz won the race for Queens Attorney General. This is the only case in the five boroughs where there is an incumbent and it's generally an incumbent's race to lose. Is that expected to be the case here? There are two pretty well-known democratic challengers, City Council Member, Elizabeth Crowley and City Council Member, Jimmy Van Bramer.

Christine Chung: Donovan, as you mentioned, Brian, just won a couple of months ago, he was sworn in December. His incumbency is quite young, but at the same time there's already been, this will be I think the second race in order to, I guess, determine who is going to finish out Melinda Katz's term--, sorry, this will now be the third race in order to see who will not only finish out the term, but then get a new term. I think voters in Queens feel a certain kind of fatigue on this race just because the outcome has already been decided last year.

The candidates have already been on the ballot a couple of times now. There's not been too much attention on this race. It's honestly been pretty quiet, but Donovan obviously is considered to be a key front runner in this race. He does have the advantage of the incumbency and he won very handily last November, taking home something like two-thirds of the vote after a pretty close democratic primary.

Brian Lehrer: Are there any key issues on which the candidates disagree or on which Crowley or Van Bramer are going after Richards on and saying, we really disagree with you on this?

Christine Chung: Policing as in the rest of the city has emerged as a pretty key

issue in a demarcation point in this race with both JVB, Jimmy Van Bramer, and Donovan Richards saying they are open to re-evaluating the police budget potentially, divesting, reallocating money. Liz Crowley has said that she's firmly against defunding. That's been a clear way in which the candidates have differed. There haven't been that many flashpoints in this race. It's been, like I said, pretty quiet. I guess one key way in which the candidates do differs is also their stances on development and real estate interests.

Jimmy Van Bramer who has more support from the progressive wing of the party. He has a support of a list of less leading elected officials, has talked a lot about how he is against development wants to implement racial impact studies for development. Whereas Donovan Richards and Elizabeth Crowley are seen to be a little bit more friendly to those interests.

Brian Lehrer: City Council Member, Jimmy Van Bramer is leaving his seat in any case because of term limits in District 26, which is Long Island City, Sunnyside elsewhere in Western Queens. I believe there are 15 or 16 people running for that seat. Really?

Christine Chung: Yes, it is very, very busy in District 26. There are 16 candidates and many of them are fighting to be the progressive choice, which is tough when you have that many candidates. It's actually the only race in Queens where the Working Families Party ranked two candidates and then this race the DSA's sitting it out. Amit Bagga is seen as a front runner in the race. He has some key endorsments, including from the Working Families Party and labor unions, like 32BJ.

I think it's an example of the challenge when you have so many progressive candidates and races, which is something we're seeing across Queens too, and how it becomes difficult for endorser's key unions et cetera, and the community really to rally behind or coalesce behind one or two candidates.

Brian Lehrer: That district overlaps with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's congressional district. I see that seven, seven candidates in that race have received an endorsement from AOC's political PAC called Courage to Change. Seven. You only get to vote for five even with rank choice voting, so how do they think that people are supposed to use that list of endorsements?

Christine Chung: I think it really becomes more about voter's personal platforms rather than- It's like a, I guess, a qualification the Courage to Change PAC, but obviously having seven people who take the pledge isn't that helpful to when you're down who your top five, even your top one or two will be. It really becomes about, I guess the smaller groups like the Sunrise Movement other, local democratic clubs who voters listen to and that becomes a way in which people inform their choices. Yes, it's definitely a tough one. People are calling this to be a little bit of a hot mess.

Brian Lehrer: You mentioned the Democratic Socialists of America sitting out the District 26 race. Did you say that?

Christine Chung: I did. Yes.

Brian Lehrer: They're also sitting out the mayoral race. Have you looked closely enough at the DSA and their position to know why they don't consider any mayoral candidate progressive enough for them?

Christine Chung: I spoke to a Queens DSA member yesterday, and I think this is what has also been reported by other outlets too. In general, it seems to be that their mission is a little bit more oriented again. Not exactly just choosing to elect because they're open elections, but really taking the time to be more careful and seeing which candidate aligns very closely with what they believe in their worker-centered platform.

I guess that judiciousness is reflected in their choice of endorsements across the city where I think they've only endorsed about six candidates across the city, only two in Queens and District 22 with Tiffany Cabán and District 23 with Jaslin Kaur who both represent pretty different races. Obviously very different demographics in each race in a tougher race, maybe for District 23. I've heard that District 23 has been seen or is being seen as more of a test for the DSA movement for the progressive reach in Queens just because the recent victories of the progressive left have tended to be in Western Queens, in Astoria, like what we saw at Long Island City, what we saw with AOC, Tiffany Cabán's near-win, last years when for Assembly members Khaleel Anderson's, Zohran Mamdani, and it's not yet been replicated in Central and Western Queens. We'll see if that happens this time for Jaslin Kaur for District 23.

Brian Lehrer: Let's take one or two of those in particular. I know you've reported on Districts 22 and 25, that covers Astoria, Jackson Heights, and Elmhurst. You've described them as offering almost too many choices for progressive voters to choose from. You want to take one of those and break it down a little bit?

Christine Chung: Sure. In District 22 which I mentioned, this has a couple of candidates like Cabán obviously.

Brian Lehrer: Just give me the neighborhoods there so people know we're talking about them.

Christine Chung: Sure. District 22 is Astoria, East Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, and Woodside. It does cover some of AOC's district. Obviously it is a big progressive bastion for Queens. It's where a lot of younger people live. It's very diverse. In District 22, there are a couple of candidates, including Tiffany Cabán who's seen as one of the key front runners. We saw her almost when the Queens District Attorney's race. Recently she has a ton of name recognition there and a ton of support.

This race is illustrative of the fact that it is really difficult, even when there's like a big name, like Tiffany Cabán, because there are a lot of other progressive candidates in the race, a couple of progressive candidates and including long-time community activists who've been doing the work for years. I would put Evie Hantzopoulos up there too. She was key in organizing mutual aid for the area during the pandemic. There's been a splitting of I guess support from political groups and unions between those two candidates with Cabán taking some of the biggest endorsements like from  

AOC the Courage to Change PAC Working Families Party but Evie Hantzopoulos getting some of that smaller support as well.

Brian Lehrer: Listeners we can take some phone calls if you have a question about any of the races for City Council in Queens or the Queens Borough President race with Christine Chung from the nonprofit news organization, The City, she's their Queens correspondent. 6464357280. 6464357280 or tweet @BrianLehrer. We should say that the divisions in races in Queens aren't only among progressives and who deserves the votes of progressive's. I see that a super PAC backed by real estate developer Stephen Ross has funded what he calls anti-socialist ads against candidates who are backed by AOC all over the city including in Queens, you've written about this. So far three Queens candidates have been the target of these ads. What's at issue for Stephen Ross and the real estate industry and in which districts.

Christine Chung: Last week we saw the emergence of mailers from Stephen Ross's PAC the Common Sense PAC targeting many candidates across the city. In Queens, I believe District 20, John Choe that's Flushing, Moumita Ahmed that's in District 24. We also saw ads against Jaslin Kaur in District 23. They seem to be attacked primarily based on their attitudes or perspectives on policing. They've all spoken about defunding the police, supporting the decriminalization of sex work, closing Rikers. Basically, just their attitudes towards policing has been the main ways in which they seem to be targeted by Common Sense PAC.

This isn't new for Queens at least in District 24 where there was a special election in February. Ahmed had been targeted. The Common Sense PAC had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars targeting her in that race over those same attitudes.

Brian Lehrer: What's the relationship between the policing issues and the development issues there. My antenna go up here when I hear about a developer funding ads on policing issues. Do they think that they have a wedge issue with policing but their real goal here is to elect candidates who are going to be more landlord and developer friendly because they would be the same people who'd be more conservative on the police?

Christine Chung: I think that's the understanding, at least that is what candidates seem to believe. They're calling it fear-mongering. Basically as you said, Brian, using the issue of policing as a placeholder, it's just a way candidates believe that real estate interests are trying to basically stoke up fear and push people to think that these candidates are too dangerous. The flyer literally says these candidates are too dangerous for their districts.

Brian Lehrer: Let's take a phone call. Amanda in Sunnyside. You're on WNYC. Hi Amanda, thanks for calling in.

Amanda: Hi Brian. Thanks for having me. Can you hear me?

Brian Lehrer: Yes.

Amanda: Okay great. Thanks for having me. I'm in Sunnyside. My priorities for

Queens and Northwestern Queens in general are protecting our neighbors in NYCHA housing. Right now Justice for All Coalition and my friends in NYCHA are trying to stop RAD. I know they just had a victory against the blueprint but it will be coming up again and we just feel need to be vigilant against that privatization of NYCHA. Right now they're living in disrepair and [unintelligible 00:14:13] [clears throat] not properly run.

My candidates for District 26, my top choice is Amit Bagga and then Julie Won and Jonathan Bailey. I believe they have the best interest for all of Northwestern Queens and our NYCHA neighbors in general.

Brian: Thank you very much. She's expressing an opinion there. Anything to add by way of context Christine.

Christine Chung: I guess I have a question for Julie. Were there other I guess reasons or other platform issues that you were also really looking at for this race or was it really about NYCHA and the privatization of NYCHA for you as the main issue or the only issue?

Brian: It's Amanda, but Amanda go ahead.

Christine Chung: I'm sorry about that.

Amanda: [unintelligible 00:15:01] the only issues, absolutely, yes. No, no that's okay. Tied to that too is over-policing. All of the candidates that I mentioned are really dedicated to divesting from the NYPD budget and really channeling those funds into the community. That goes hand in hand with funding NYCHA properly too. Amit Bagga knows how to get things done and I believe that he'll be able to work on City Council and the budget making sure that these funds are channeled to the right resources and making sure that we take money away from the NYPD like we've said we would and actually put it back into our communities.

NYCHA needs funding. It needs proper management. What it doesn't need is to be sold out to privatization. New York City, the City Council, and key players that claim to be really progressive are backing the blueprint. They're wasting their time on privatization which is a disaster. What they need to do is let NYCHA residents run their own communities. They need to have a say in what management is. Right now they're just ignoring the people and their voice. We need to really, really, and this is true for all city council, elect people that are really going to be for the people and represent those that are most marginalized and unheard.

Brian Lehrer: Amanda thank you. Here's a tweet because listeners you can call or tweet obviously. Listen to Wrights. I'm in District 22 but won't choose a candidate because there's too many and I'm overwhelmed. I'm sure with some of the conversation that we've been having and that people are discovering as they're getting their information about their city council races elsewhere, when there are 15 candidates on the ballot and the democratic primary like in Western Queens and the District 26 race and some other numbers approaching that in some of the other districts, yes people are going to get overwhelmed, and we're not going to be able to  

give you the answers on this segment, listeners.

I'm just being honest but I think we've been transparent about that from the beginning. This is just to help put some of the contours of some of these races on your radar which is why we're going borough by borough, one day each borough this week. There are so many races with so many candidates that you're going to have to do a little homework on your own outside of this. Maybe you could listen to the radio and watch some TV shows and read the general press and come to your decision for mayor but not in these city council races. How do you help somebody like this listener who says they're just overwhelmed by too many choices in their district and so they won't even vote.

Christine Chung: I get that for sure. It is I think the number of candidates, while it's inspiring to see so many people running especially people of color woman, many of whom are fighting for representation for their communities for the first time. Some districts have never been represented by people of color. I'm thinking about the South Asian candidates that are running in Queens. We have no South Asian council member. It's important but at the same time it is really hard to winnow through various candidates how they're different their platforms.

I think for me one thing that I would do, I do as a reporter and as a voter is to watch as many local forums as I can. There are so many groups in Queens including APA VOICE recently that did forums, I think also including District 22. Obviously, there's a lot of local reporters including myself but also hyperlocal press in Queens that I think you can turn to as well.

Brian Lehrer: Definitely, Christine does a great job as the Queens correspondent for the city and the city is structured well in that respect. We also have our voter guide that's at gothamist.com. The New York Times has one. There's also the official voter guide that the city, is it the Board of Elections or the Campaign Finance Board sends around, and supposedly every registered voter in New York City gets this in the mail. Hopefully, you've gotten it by now.

They actually do a pretty good job of listing all the candidates in each race, a few facts about them, and some of the endorsements that they had at the time that the voters guide went to print. That's a hard copy thing that hopefully you have in your home by now just in case that's helpful in making your decisions. I want to touch on at least one other race and one other issue, the issue of taxi medallion debt has broken through for at least two candidates who have parents who are former or current drivers and we know about the crash and the value of taxi medallions since Uber et cetera came in. Let's pull out one of their stories. You've mentioned this name earlier in the segment in another context, but tell us about Jaslin Kaur, K-A-U-R in District 23, and her family.

Christine Chung: Jaslin Kaur is running in District 23, which covers a lot of neighborhoods, I'll just name a few Bayside Hills, Glen Oaks, Hollis, Fresh Meadows, and she is the progressive candidate in the race feeling herself as that and her endorsements also reflect that. She's been supported by AOC, Bernie Sanders, et cetera. She is also a target of those ads that we talked about from Common Sense

PAC earlier. She has a really, really tough personal story. We talked to her recently about her family's experience during the taxi medallion crash. Her father, Punjabi immigrant, is a taxi driver and over the crash a couple of years ago, the financial situation that her family was put in essentially forced her to drop out of school because they were unable to pay for the mortgage payments.

I think she is an example of a candidate who is basically running for worker justice but also her personal story really reflects, I guess, how it is important, or why it is important that candidates are running who represent the communities and their lived experiences.

Brian Lehrer: You write that there's a tension in these districts where a taxi medallion bailout is front and center because the districts run more moderate. Some of those neighborhoods that you mentioned in Kaur's district do tend to run a little more moderate. They're not the same demographically or politically as AOC's district, for example. Are moderate voters less in favor of a bailout for the Taxi Workers Alliance members?

Christine Chung: I'm unsure about where they stand on taxi medallion, and workers on that topic. I think one important point to make would be that this issue is not talked about a lot because of the fact that people who represent these communities haven't been elected to the council. There hasn't been that much movement on addressing the taxi medallion crisis in the council despite efforts to with no report that the council put together before the pandemic. I think a key reason why Jaslin and Felicia in District 32 say they're running is to amplify issues like this that aren't really being talked about so that the community members who aren't affected, maybe some of those people are the more moderate voters start to care about it.

Brian Lehrer: I think there's a lot of sympathy for the taxi drivers out there. in general. My gut would be that it wouldn't be such an alienating issue, even though it would cost the city a lot of money. People may not do that dollars and cents calculation in their head as opposed to the incredibly sympathetic story of the yellow cab medallion owners and what has happened to them. Well, there's where we're going to have to leave it with Christine Chung, Queens reporter for this city. We did Brooklyn yesterday, Queens today, tomorrow, Manhattan, and then Thursday, the Bronx, and Friday Staten Island, the way we've got them lined up in order of population size.

Again, listeners, with so many head-spinning races with so many candidates, check our voters guide at gothamist.com, The City, Christine's news organization has one plus all her articles in the case of Queens elections. The New York Times and Citizens Union have one together, there is the voters guide that the City of New York or the Board of Elections sends out, hopefully, you have that in the mail.

Hopefully, this has given you the shape of a number of the races and helps you decide at least to a vote and do that extra bit of homework to go to the polls which are open early through this weekend and then on primary day itself next Tuesday, June 22. Christine, thank you so much.

Christine Chung: Thank you for having me, Brian.

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