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Brian Lehrer: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning again everyone. Now, I'll help last-minute voters in the New York primary to make up your minds with a complete list of endorsements for Mayor, Comptroller, and Manhattan DA. We have some for other offices too but we'll focus mostly on Mayor, Comptroller, and Manhattan DA. With me for this is the Human Endorsement Aggregator, Jeff Coltin, political reporter for the local news organization, City & State, and author of their newsletter called Campaign Confidential. Thanks for doing this, Jeff, welcome back to WNYC.

Jeff Coltin: Hours of every week for the past few months have been spent tracking endorsements and it's paying off now, people are interested and I love to see it.

Brian Lehrer: Now, listeners if you're curious about who any candidate is endorsed by or curious about any of the endorsers, there are some good stories there. Give us a call 646-435-7280. 646-435-7280. We will get to some other races as well further down-ballot but the big ones, mostly Mayor, Comptroller, and Manhattan DA.

Let's start with Mayor and some endorsement breaking news I call it in the last day. Public Advocate Jumaane Williams had already endorsed Maya Wiley number one, but yesterday he announced who his other four picks would be in Ranked-Choice Voting. He didn't announce the order but they were Adams, McGuire, Stringer, and Donovan.

I think the most newsworthy part was that he said he had been considering Kathryn Garcia, but decided against her at the last minute because she's been co-campaigning with Yang the last few days. Why do you think Jumaane Williams and maybe others might be turned off by that?

Jeff Coltin: I think that Andrew Yang has really turned off some progressives in this primary maybe more than any other candidate just because of his rhetoric, particularly on things like crime and homelessness. He has taken an endorsement from the Captains Endowment Association and NYPD Union. He's the only mayoral candidate to take an endorsement from an NYPD Union. He's working with his main consultants' task strategists are associated with Michael Bloomberg and the Michael Bloomberg campaign.

That is all to say that Andrew Yang has definitely been running a more moderate or even more conservative campaign at times. I think that people like Jumaane Williams who's I believe identifies as a democratic socialist, they're really turned off by not just Andrew Yang, but also anybody who would partner up with Andrew Yang such as Kathryn Garcia.

Brian Lehrer: Yes. Similarly, Yang announced he would list Garcia number two on his ballot, but she in these joint appearances would not say who she would list number two. She did not cross endorse back to him. Why do you think they were different on that? Do you get it? Especially from the Garcia standpoint, which is confusing to a lot of people?

Jeff Coltin: Yes, it was a very interesting tightrope walking by Garcia, is campaigning with Yang but is refusing to say that she is co-endorsing Yang, refusing to say that she is encouraging her voters to rank Yang or encouraging her voters to rank any particular candidate.

Look, I don't know if the average voter will be able to see that nuance, really, the two are campaigning together. There's clearly a political affinity between the two but it was interesting to see what Andrew Yang is saying now, "I want my supporters to rank Kathryn Garcia number two." That's something that he has pretty consistently been saying for months. Up to three months ago, he was saying that he's really impressed by Garcia and that he would want to hire her and which she was publicly offended by.

It's interesting to see that yes, the two of them are campaigning together, but taking a different approach towards it with Yang saying this is explicitly a number two endorsement of Kathryn Garcia and Garcia saying, "Nope, I am just promoting our CV without promoting any particular candidate."

Brian Lehrer: All right, so that's the Jumaane Williams endorsement breaking news. Now, before we start listing interesting ones from other individuals and organizations, let's talk about the whole notion of endorsements a little bit. You wrote to us, "Endorsements are a great shorthand from trusted "brands" but not all endorsements are created equal." What did you mean by that?

Jeff Coltin: Well, sure. There are so many candidates and so many races, and particularly, maybe a lot of voters are somewhat tuned in to the mayoral race but City Council Comptroller, there's a good chance that you're voting without having seen a debate or heard from these candidates directly and so endorsements are a great shorthand to understand which candidate better aligns with your views. If you know that you are a Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez style Democrat, then you can look at who she endorsed and get a general sense of, "Oh, maybe this candidate for Comptroller, this candidate for city council aligns with my views."

That's what I mean the great shorthand, but not all endorsements are created equal. Yes, somebody like Ocasio-Cortez can really draw voters to a candidate for mayor, comptroller of city council, whatever, but, look, there have been dozens and dozens of endorsements. Some of them are very small political clubs and some elected officials that just don't have big followings, random assembly members that don't actually end up delivering any votes whatsoever to the candidate they endorse. It's just a name on a long list.

Brian Lehrer: You said an interesting thing a minute ago that I actually didn't even realize when referring to Andrew Yang accepting the Police Captains Union endorsement, that the other police unions did not endorse at all or that nobody accepted another endorsement. The big police union, the PBA, that people think about with Pat Lynch, their union president who's in the news a lot, who symbolizes some things to some voters, other things to other voters. Did the PBA not endorse, and if not, why not?

Jeff Coltin: The PBA and also the SBA, the Sergeants Benevolent Association, another one of the more controversial police unions, neither of them endorsed in the mayor's race. It's unclear to me whether is that because none of the leading democrats wanted their endorsement or whether the PBA is saying, "We didn't want to give anybody the endorsement." I think it's a mixture of the two. Those unions in particular are really toxic among a certain portion of the electorate and they stayed out.

However, the police unions did endorse in the comptroller race. Many of them are lining up behind David Weprin running for Comptroller and in the Manhattan District Attorney race, where all the police unions, all six of them have lined up behind Liz Crotty, who's running on probably the most conservative platform in the Manhattan District Attorney race.

Brian Lehrer: Let's talk about Manhattan District Attorney. Some of the final week campaign news has been some tough back and forth between the two presumed leaders Tali Farhadian Weinstein and Alvin Bragg. Weinstein also attacked another potential contender Dan Quart. Can you review and unpack what this was all about? Then we'll look at who has endorsed Bragg and who has endorsed Weinstein.

Jeff Coltin: Oh, sure, sure. Farhadian Weinstein, yes, was flush with money because she donated $8 million of her own money to her campaign, is going really heavy on TV ads, digital ads, and print ads in this final couple weeks, saying that Alvin Bragg and Dan Quart, two of her male opponents in this race, basically will not protect women, will not protect domestic violence survivors. I forget the exact wording but it's something pretty alarming like that. "Will not protect our women in Manhattan."

The reason she has for saying this is because both Bragg and Quart have taken some policy positions involving domestic violence cases where they're less likely to prosecute. Both of them have a philosophy here that maybe district attorneys prosecute too much and they like to have less of a carceral hand in the district attorney's office. Farhadian Weinstein is pulling out specifically some positions they have on domestic violence cases and yes, running some pretty alarming ads.

Bragg supporters and Quart supporters have both fired back really aggressively saying that this is unfair. This is offensive. This is stretching the truth. All sorts of things. Bragg who is Black, by the way, they're saying this is race-baiting. They're saying that this is a trope of a Black man not protecting your women or something like that. Yes, it's gotten very heated in these final days between some of the leading district attorney candidates.

Brian Lehrer: Did this have something to do tangentially with the Central Park Five?

Jeff Coltin: Yes, actually. Both Bragg and Quart have said that they-- Let me try and remember the specifics here. Linda Fairstein, the District Attorney. If you know the details [unintelligible 00:10:03]

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Brian Lehrer: I think part of this. I'll say what I know. You can follow up. Linda Fairstein, who was the sex crimes prosecutor who is involved in that case, because of that case having been wrongly decided and questions about the prosecution that came up years later, some people want to investigate other situations in which she was the prosecutor. I guess Weinstein was saying, "Well, that looks like you're soft on sexual assault." If you're going back to many of the cases that this once renowned sexual assault prosecutor had looked at.

They say, "No, no. That's because of Central Park Five, any prosecutor would have to have their cases re-examined after that." That's how I understand the back and forth roughly.

Jeff Coltin: Yes, exactly. Some say that you should be reviewing all of the sex crimes cases to possibly exonerate more potentially innocent people. Bragg and Quart say that whereas yes, Farhadian Weinstein says that, no, that would be maybe traumatizing, and that would possibly let some real perpetrators off the hook. It is a complicated issue. Yes, it's becoming politicized because it's being referenced in these attack ads, frankly.

Brian Lehrer: All right. Endorsements in that race for Tali Farhadian Weinstein, Hillary Clinton came out just the other day. Also, Congressman Adriano Espaillat from Upper Manhattan and the West Bronx. No slouches in the-- They want progressive-- That's what we're going to talk about. Maybe they're not seen as in the most progressive wing. Certainly, Hillary Clinton had progressive challengers like Bernie Sanders, who saw her as more centrist.

Hillary Clinton and Adriano Espaillat among the endorsers of Weinstein, among the endorses of Alvin Bragg, The New York Times, Preet Bharara, Zephyr Teachout, who of course, is considered a very progressive law professor. Break this down for us.

Jeff Coltin: I pulled up Clinton and Espaillat. Clinton actually is all in for Farhadian Weinstein and she even appeared at a fundraiser. This isn't just an endorsement name only. The former Secretary of State has been appearing on lots of Farhadian Weinstein's ads and flyers and all that. Adriano Espaillat, the congressman from Upper Manhattan is notable because he has a real reputation for getting out the vote. He could be frankly a key to Farhadian Weinstein winning, particularly because Alvin Bragg is trying to be the candidate of Harlem and Upper Manhattan. Well, he doesn't have the congressman of Harlem and Upper Manhattan in his corner.

Yes, Bragg's endorsements, The New York Times, Preet Bharara, Zephyr Teachout. That's really positioning him as this more left-leaning, more progressive lane there. He's not the most progressive candidate in the field. There's multiple candidates that are to his left running on more decarceral platforms than Bragg. Bragg has really pulled some of this kind of people that really-- I don't know. People in the law world that are liberal but maybe not too liberal. I guess that's his lane, to explain a difficult situation here.

Brian Lehrer: Is one of those candidates to his left Tahanie Aboushi? I see Aboushi got the Working Families Party endorsement.

Jeff Coltin: Exactly. Yes. Working Families Party, real progressive organization leader on the left there is endorsing Tahanie Aboushi. There's also Eliza Orlins, another candidate running who is definitely to the left of Bragg. It's been an interesting race there. Really, at the beginning of this DA race, myself and many other commentators expected this to be a real race to the left, where the candidate who was the most progressive talking about incarcerating the fewest people like we've seen recently in Philadelphia, in Los Angeles, many progressive prosecutors getting elected.

That hasn't totally been the case. Farhadian Weinstein is running on one of the more moderate platforms in the field and has really been getting a lot of support. Bragg himself who also is considered a leading candidate is certainly progressive, but not the most progressive in the field. It's been an interesting change possibly similar to what we've seen in the mayor's race where the more moderate the more "tough on crime" candidates are getting a second look here.

Brian Lehrer: My guest is Jeff Coltin. I'm calling him the human endorsement aggregator from the news organization, City & State. He's been doing this. He's had a running endorsement list on City & State for the weeks and months of the New York primary. If you're interested, obviously, you can go to their site and see it for yourself. We're going down some of the most interesting ones for various offices. If you have a question about any, 646-435-7280. 646-435-7280.

Let's go down some of the major-- This is just going to take a minute because I think there are a few major newspaper endorsements for mayor. The Times and The Daily News endorsed Garcia. The Post endorsed Adams in the Democratic primary. I guess that represents a certain obvious center-left to right spectrum. Did Wiley get any major media endorsements, or do we conclude that there is no big outlet that is progressive in the ways that she is that makes endorsements? Maybe it says more about the newspapers in this town than it does about Maya Wiley?

Jeff Coltin: Yes, none whatsoever. In fact, I'm trying to wrack my brain. Remember, I don't think The Nation, the progressive magazine endorsed in the mayor's race. They did notably in 2013 endorsing Bill de Blasio, which he attributed to helping bump him on the left there.

No, Maya Wiley has had no real newspaper endorsements. We've seen them all. Garcia has really been picking up the big notable ones with The Times and The Daily News. Then Adams, yes, getting The Post and also lots of the smaller hyperlocal papers. The Queen's ledger, The Irish Echo. He's really been cleaning up on a lot of those.

Brian Lehrer: I wonder if Adams gets the nomination, if The Post will endorse him in November, or if they will endorse the Republican candidate, either Curtis Sliwa or Fernando Mateo.

Also on the left, you said The Nation didn't endorse. Also, the Democratic Socialists of America, which very famously endorsed AOC before she was elected the first time. DSA has been a factor more than they have in the past in the city and in this country. The DSA did not endorse for mayor. Have you looked into why they considered nobody progressive enough?

Jeff Coltin: Yes. That's part of the issue is that nobody was progressive enough. Nobody was willing to identify as a Democratic Socialist among the leading candidates. Even Dianne Morales, who was considered the most progressive of the bunch really refused to take on that moniker of Democratic Socialist. Look, from the beginning, DSA has said pretty clearly that they've never intended to endorse for mayor. The group says that they only want to endorse in races that they can make a real impact. I think Mayor of New York City right now is just too big of a race for what is still a relatively small organization.

However, they do really punch above their weight, and we're seeing it, especially they've endorsed in six city council races across the city. In those six city council races, look, I mean DSA has a real shot to win all of them because volunteers and members are hitting the doors and canvassing really aggressively across the city there. It's been quite a sight to see. The DSA candidates won multiple seats in the state legislature last year. I think we will certainly be seeing four to six wins in the city council tomorrow.

Brian Lehrer: Interesting. One other endorsement story from the mayoral campaign, maybe in a certain respect, I don't want to rank them. I know we're in the Ranked-Choice Voting here. I'm not going to rank endorsements. One of the biggest endorsement stories is how many Scott Stringer lost that he originally had after the sexual misconduct charge broke and especially from younger progressives like Congressman Jamaal Bowman, state senators, Alessandra Biaggi, Julia Salazar, Gustavo Rivera, some members of the assembly who were in that camp, and very notably the Working Families Party.

Where did some of these progressives wind up for mayor?

Jeff Coltin: Many of them have now ended up at supporting Maya Wiley. Wiley has done a pretty good job of consolidating progressive endorsements. Just in the last three weeks. We saw her pick up support from AOC, from Jumaane Williams, from the Working Families Party, from state senator Julia Salazar, who is a DSA member. Gustavo Rivera, who you mentioned, just so many candidates, so many elected officials and organizations are lining up behind Wiley seeing her as the best shot to have another progressive mayor.

However, many of those endorsers stopped along the way at Diane Morales. We've had a few that went from endorsing Scott Stringer then they rescinded then they endorsed Diane Morales. Then among her labor unrest in the campaign, they rescinded and now have endorsed Maya Wiley. It's been a real headache for those that want to have a progressive champion become mayor but in the final weeks, Wiley has clearly been that champion.

Brian Lehrer: We mentioned before that none of the major newspapers, the city-wide, what we think of as the city-wide dailies endorsed Wiley but I should mention that The Amsterdam News did endorse Maya Wiley and that's certainly a major newspaper in its own right, as a city-wide Black-oriented newspaper in the city. We should mention The Amsterdam News in that respect as endorsing Maya Wiley. Another thing on Stringer is those who stayed with him. The United Federation of Teachers stayed with Stringer and he even picked up a few other union endorsements after the charges broke. What can you say about the UFTs or anyone else's rationale, unions in particular, for hanging in there with Scott Stringer, who appeared to many others to be damaged goods?

Jeff Coltin: Well, UFT was pretty much always destined to support Stringer. The other leading candidates in the race, Adams, Yang, Garcia, they're all quite supportive of charter schools and the UFT, the public school teachers union, they are adamantly opposed to charter schools, many of which do not have unionized workforces. Scott Stringer was always the candidate that they were going to go with, and look, they've stuck with him.

Scott stringer's original coalition was, yes, young progressives, but then it was also a lot of unions and more moderate maybe Upper West siders and those that have known Stringer for years and years.

UFT definitely fits more in that latter camp. The more moderate democrats who just stick with Stringer because they've known him for decades and trust him.

UFT have stuck with him, and not just stuck with him, they're spending heavily on an independent expenditure group, a super PAC is really supporting him. That's one of those endorsements that punches above its weight. It's not just a little name on a piece of paper, it is some real money is going to Scott Stringer's mayoral campaign thanks to that UFT endorsement.

Brian Lehrer: Let's switch to the Republican side. I see that Donald Trump endorsed in at least one race in New York City.

Jeff Coltin: I think that's it. Yes, he has endorsed Vito Fossella, former congressman who is now running on the Republican side for Staten Island borough president. He's had a very quiet campaign until this past weekend when out of nowhere he was endorsed by Donald Trump. Of course, Vito Fossella is notable for an eight, it's been quite a while, he got in a car crash and then a DUI, I should say then it was revealed that he had a second secret family. Just one of those crazy political scandals at the time.

He was trying to make a comeback and yes, now he has the former President Donald Trump behind him. However, he's running against Steve Matteo, current city councilman who has the support of the Staten Island Republican party for Staten Island borough president. Yes, it does put the Staten Island republican party which is staunchly pro-Trump in the awkward position of running against the former president.

Brian Lehrer: That is an awkward position. Staten Island GOP for one candidate, Donald Trump for another candidate for Staten Island borough president. I don't know how much a Trump endorsement influences registered Republicans who are turning out one way or another for an office like Staten Island borough president but I guess we will find out maybe some of the exit polls will tell us after whoever wins that race, why people voted and if that was one of the reasons.

Do you have anything on republican mayoral candidate endorsements, Sliwa versus Mateo, Trump decided to stay out of that one.

Jeff Coltin: He did. Mateo has really been trying to align himself with Donald Trump. A picture of him with Trump is on some of his literature. He has been telling people that he met privately with Trump. We have not seen the former President say anything about the mayoral race. The interesting endorsement in that one is just that the counties are divided. We have Staten Island and Brooklyn are both endorsing Curtis Sliwa and Queens, the Bronx and Manhattan have all endorsed Fernando Mateo and not sure where that one is going to end up.

Brian Lehrer: Comptroller, New York City Comptroller, Democratic primary very crowded field. We see a lot of unions getting behind Corey Johnson, the UFT, teachers, 1199, health care workers, 32BJ, building service workers, DC37, Municipal city workers, all for Corey Johnson. What do you make of him locking up all those unions when Brad Lander is considered the more progressive candidate in that race and the knock on Corey Johnson is well, he really wanted to run for mayor but after he decided against that, he's running as a consolation prize for Comptroller.

Jeff Coltin: It does seem like that but yes, the unions are, pretty much every single one of the city's biggest unions is behind Johnson, part of which is most likely because Corey Johnson is in the middle of negotiating the city budget, which affects unions greatly. In fact, the budget is due on June 30, just nine days from now. I can't say that I'm too surprised that unions want to stay on the city council speakers' good side.

That said, I think they also like to get behind a winner and from the moment Johnson entered this race, he has been considered the front runner, largely because of name recognition and being the city council speaker for the past three and a half years. It does become I guess, a little bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy if the unions think he's going to win and the unions help him win, we'll see, but yes, he did mention Brad Lander. He too has some real endorsement firepower behind him.

If you've been watching TV in the past month, you've probably seen an ad with AOC Jumaane Williams, Congressman Jerry Nadler, Elizabeth Warren, US Senator, former presidential candidate, they've all gotten behind Brad Lander. He is very clearly trying to be the progressive candidate in the race while Corey Johnson is running a different path.

Brian Lehrer: Let's take a phone call on the Comptroller's race. Sasha in the Bronx. You're on WNYC. Hi, Sasha. [silence] Do we have Sasha in the Bronx? Sasha, are you there?

Sasha: Yes, hi?

Brian Lehrer: Hi, now we got you.

Sasha: Hi. Can you hear me?

Brian Lehrer: Yes, now I can hear you. Hi. Sorry, Sasha, we're having a little problem keeping your line up but I think we have you solidly now. Go ahead. I apologize.

Sasha: Yes, I like many New Yorkers, I have not voted yet because every day there's a new thing that drops in all the different races. I'm holding off to the last moment. I've been really thinking about the Comptroller's race. I saw the news that Corey Johnson and Eric Adams did joint literature together. I was so disturbed by the fact that that happened. The whole point of a Comptroller is to be the accountability officer for our city and we're in a moment where we have so much money coming into the city to really focus on our recovery.

If the Comptroller is already in line and campaigning with a potential mayor, we won't be able to monitor the money and the contracts that are happening with the type of attention that's actually needed.

We won't be able to trust that Corey Johnson is actually being an independent comptroller.

I work for the city, I've seen intimately what the process is around how city contracts are monitored by the Comptroller's office and I want to make sure that the next Comptroller for this city is actually an independent person, independently accountable, holding the mayor accountable and I believe that person has to be Brad Lander. Corey Johnson by campaigning with doing the joint literature with Eric Adams, to me has just ruled him out as a choice on my ballot now.

Brian Lehrer: Is it for you Sasha that you think a comptroller needs to be independent in the way you were just saying, or is it that you don't like Eric Adams and if Corey Johnson had made cross endorsements with a different candidate who you like better for mayor you wouldn't be as upset?

Sasha: I personally don't like Eric Adams as a candidate, but I think there really is an element of putting these two candidates together jointly raises questions around, what's going to be the ability for Corey to ultimately be an independent comptroller. Eric Adams as far as my understanding has a long history of, not necessarily being the most honest around how his own personal finances and city finances.

I'm just following from the news stories and we really need someone who's going to, if he ends up being our next mayor, we need someone who's actually going to be able to hold him accountable for everything he does and the money that's being spent. It's a [unintelligible 00:31:00] end but, I really want to make sure that we're holding that mayor accountable.

Brian Lehrer: Sasha, thank you very much. Jeff, what can you say about the context of that? First, what is, and how new is any Alliance between Corey Johnson for comptroller and Eric Adams for mayor? If you know and I really don't know, is there a history of mayoral candidates and comptroller candidates because the comptroller is supposed to be independent in terms of monitoring the city's finances, including what the mayor does with them. Is there a history of comptroller candidates and mayoral candidates cross endorsing?

Jeff Coltin: I'm really glad that she brought this up because yes, joint literature has been the talk of the town in the past couple of days. Often an organization or another candidates will endorse a slate. For example, the Hotel Trades Council has endorsed both Eric Adams for mayor and Corey Johnson for comptroller and then maybe the Hotel Trades Council will put out a flyer that has both of their names, both of their pictures. In many cases, there is a little paid for by notice. Both of the candidates do have to pay for some of that printing legally.

However, it's not officially an endorsement, Adams and Johnson to be clear, have not co-endorsed each other, they have no formal Alliance. However, yes, they are appearing on some literature together and it's up to the voter to decide, okay, obviously there is some kind of a formal agreement there to create literature together. However, yes, it does not mean that they're endorsing.

In fact, going back to the beginning of this conversation with Jumaane Williams saying he's disappointed in Kathryn Garcia for partnering with Andrew Yang. Well, just today, somebody was posting on Twitter a joint flyer that had both Andrew Yang and Jumaane Williams on it and someone was like, "Well, please explain this."

The answer is that Vanessa Gibson, one of the Bronx borough president candidates had endorsed both of them. Vanessa Gibson was printing up her own flyers, her own literature that included her whole endorsed slate that included Andrew Yang and Jumaane Williams. Even though Yang and Williams do not see eye to eye, they are appearing together on a piece of paper telling people to vote for them. It's a funny situation that isn't quite an endorsement, but it might look like one.

Brian Lehrer: All right, the wild wacky world of endorsements in the New York primaries. The human endorsement aggregator has been my guest, Jeff Coltin, the, political reporter for City & State who also authors their campaign confidential newsletter. Among the things that he's been doing this year is keeping a running list of all the endorsements at very least in the democratic mayoral primary, and also others. Can people find the list of endorsements candidate by candidate for other things on your site as well?

Jeff Coltin: I'm sad to say we've only published the mayoral list. For the other races, you'll have to listen into The Brian Lehrer Show I guess.

Brian Lehrer: Well, you've got the big ones out there. Thanks for helping people understand the context of endorsements as well as what a lot of the individual ones are right now. Jeff, thanks a lot.

Jeff Coltin: My pleasure. Thanks, Brian.

 

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