The Story:
It is a standard trope of campaign journalism: ask a candidate questions about prices. Treat any badly wrong answer as proof that the candidate is out of touch with the economic realities that afflict his constituents. Recently, the editorial board of The New York Times, weighing what endorsement(s) it ought to make in the race to become New York City’s mayor, asked several candidates for the Democratic Party’s nomination to estimate the cost of buying a home in Brooklyn.
ThAnswers:
Shaun Donovan guessed that a home could go for $80 to $90 thousand dollars. Ray McGuire went slightly higher, proposing a median sales price at $100,000.
Andrew Yang, a former Presidential candidate , hit it on the nose: the median price is, as he said, $900,000. (Yes, that price must seem insane to much of the rest of the country outside the Big Apple.)
The Thing to Know:
McGuire is a former Citigroup executive, where he worked as global co-head of investment banking. It was too easy already for his foes to paint him as an out-of-touch elitist. Donovan’s credentials are less aloof but more ironic in this regard. He was President Obama’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
The primary is scheduled for June 22, the general election for November 2, 2021.
