Adams leads in NYC primary
Mayoral candidate relishes initial lead, but results still not finalized
In an election night speech to supporters, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams relished his initial lead in the race to become New York City’s next mayor, saying he was proud to have been many voters’ “first choice.”
But under the city’s new ranked choice election system, the ultimate winner in the Democratic primary might be the candidate who most voters pick second, third, fourth or fifth.
Hundreds of thousands of ballots cast for losing candidates are set to be redistributed to higher-ranked contenders in additional rounds of tabulation that begin next week. It remained possible for two other candidates, Maya Wiley or Kathryn Garcia, to come out on top.
Early returns show that Adams, a former police captain who also served in the state Senate, was the first choice of 32 percent of those who voted in person on Tuesday or during the early voting period, compared to 22 percent for Wiley and 20 percent for Garcia.
An undetermined number of mail-in ballots — possibly as many as 200,000 — have yet to be counted.
Victory could hinge on where people who voted for losing candidates ranked Adams, Wiley or Garcia on their ballots, or whether they bothered to rank anyone at all.
There were good signs and bad signs for Adams, according to elections data analyzed by The Associated Press.
Overall, in the ballots counted so far, he was ranked on more ballots than any other candidate.
However, Garcia and Wiley both did better than Adams among the ballots that could be redistributed in the ranked choice voting system.
The numbers suggest that any of the three candidates could ultimately win.
The final numbers in the mayoral primary likely won’t be known for at least two weeks.
The three emerged from a crowded field that also included 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang, who finished fourth in first-place votes of in-person voters and conceded about two hours after polls closed.
In other election-related news:
Borough president
Lindsey Boylan, a former aide to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo who was the first of multiple women to say he sexually harassed them, conceded on Wednesday in the Democratic primary for Manhattan borough president.
A winner in Tuesday’s primary election has not yet officially been determined. Absentee ballots remain to be counted and a final accounting of how voters ranked the field of candidates has to take place, but Boylan was lagging in the initial numbers released after the polls closed.
Boylan, an urban planner and former state economic development adviser, in December became the first of multiple women to say that Cuomo sexually harassed them.
Cuomo has denied he did anything wrong.
Manhattan DA
Alvin Bragg, a law professor and former top deputy in the New York attorney general’s office, had a narrow lead Wednesday in the Democratic primary over former federal prosecutor Tali Farhadian Weinstein.
Six other Democrats were too far back to win the high-profile prosecutor job.
The Associated Press is not declaring a winner since tens of thousands of absentee ballots are still being counted. Bragg has a lead of 7,200 votes among voters who cast ballots in person.
If he wins, Bragg would become the first Black man to hold the office.
Farhadian Weinstein said she was waiting for all votes to be counted and wouldn’t concede.
Farhadian Weinstein would be the first woman district attorney in Manhattan if elected.
In heavily Democratic Manhattan, the party’s primary is all but certain to determine who succeeds District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.
Buffalo mayor
India Walton, a socialist community activist, has defeated the four-term mayor of Buffalo in a Democratic primary, putting her on track to become the first woman to lead New York’s second-largest city.
The 38-year-old nurse and union leader captured a major political prize for the party’s left wing with her victory over Mayor Byron Brown.
The Associated Press called the race Wednesday after it became clear there weren’t enough absentee ballots for Brown to overcome Walton’s lead.
Walton is all but assured to win the general election in November. There is no Republican candidate in the race.
The victory in her first run for office came with the backing of the Democratic Socialists of America, the Working Families Party and the progressive People’s Action in a campaign focused on affordable housing, health care and criminal justice reform.
Brown, who matched the record for Buffalo’s longestserving mayor and was a longtime ally of Cuomo, did not immediately concede.
Rochester mayor
Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren, who ran for a third term while under indictment in a campaign finance case and under fire for her handling of a police killing, was defeated Tuesday in the Democratic primary by City Councilman Malik Evans.
Evans’ win all but guarantees he’ll become mayor of New York’s third largest city. There is no Republican challenger on the November ballot.
The former Rochester School Board president entered the race in January, taking on the vulnerable Warren with a theme of restoring trust and government transparency.
“Tonight is the true beginning of our journey together to put Rochester in the upper echelon of U.S. cities where it belongs,” Evans said to supporters in his victory speech.
In her concession speech, Warren pledged to support Evans and urged her supporters to do the same.
Warren started to face calls for her resignation last summer amid protests over the death of Daniel Prude, a Black man who was pressed to the pavement by a group of police officers until he stopped breathing.
In October, she was indicted on charges that she schemed to evade campaign contribution limits. Then in May, her husband was charged with being part of a drug trafficking ring.
She had remained defiant as she denied wrongdoing.