The Story:
In nine weeks, the Democratic Party in New York City will choose that party’s candidate for Mayor. The front-runner in a crowded field is now Andrew Yang, a successful entrepreneur who sought the party’s nomination for President last year on a platform that included a universal basic income (UBI).
Background:
The current Mayor is Bill de Blasio, who was elected in 2013 and re-elected in 2017. There is a two term limit in place, determined by a city-wide referendum in 2010, so de Blasio will be stepping down.
Candidates in the Republican Primary include Curtis Sliwa (founder of the Guardian Angels) and Fernando Matea, founder of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers.
But the next mayor will most likely come from the Democratic side, and the primary there (in addition to Yang) includes Eric Adams, Brooklyn Borough President, and Maya Wiley, former counsel to Mayor de Blasio.
The Thing to Know:
Adams has slammed Yang for allegedly spending too much time through the Covid epidemic at his home in New Paltz (a town about 90 miles north of NYC on the western side of the Hudson River.) Adams boasts about staying within the city limits, “When others fled, I led.” This is a sample of the tone of the campaign as a whole. Yang is everyone else’s target.
