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The leading candidates for mayor of New York City entered the frenetic final day of early voting on Sunday, a whirlwind of primary campaign activity marked by creative fragmentation politics and a deepening ambivalence between the presumptive contestant in the race, Eric Adams, and the rest of the candidates. field.
While the campaign trail was filled with hilarious moments – Catherine Garcia practiced yoga in Times Square; Maya de Willie – There have also been serious clashes arising from Mrs. Garcia’s late alliance with Andrew Yang, leading Mr Adams and his agents to question the integrity of the election, with two days until the June 22 primary.
Allies of Mr. Adams, the Brooklyn borough chief, have gone so far as to claim unfoundedly that the emergence of an alliance between Mrs. Garcia and Mr. Yang amounts to voter suppression—even though such alliances are common in elections with ranked choice votes.
This is the first New York City municipal election to use ranked ballots, allowing voters to support up to five candidates in order of preference.
Ms Garcia, a former sanitation commissioner, appeared again with Mr Yang, the former presidential candidate, on Sunday, but again insisted that did not mean she supported his campaign.
Instead, she suggested, their joint appearance, in the campaign literature and in person, was a calculated attempt to get Mr. Yang’s voters into second place.
Unlike a number of her competitors who started their day at church, Ms. Garcia began practicing yoga in Times Square, then visited the Zappers on the Upper West Side and a green market near Central Park, a schedule that may resonate with many. – Manhattan.
The table reflected Manhattan’s importance to Ms. Garcia’s strategy, but it also emphasized the challenge she faced: to attract voters outside of Manhattan and Brownston-Brooklyn. She has openly acknowledged that her appearance this weekend with Mr. Yang was a tactic to expand her support. Later on Sunday, she spent time in the Bronx, the city with the largest Latino population.
As early voting ended Sunday evening in preparation for Tuesday’s primary, voters flocked to polling sites in the five boroughs.
As of Sunday evening, 192,000 New Yorkers had taken part in the early voting.
Among them was Tom Werther, a retired police officer with a gun who believes crime is the dominant issue today. On Sunday, he turned up to vote at the YMCA in Rockaway, Queens, but his first choice for mayor wasn’t Mr. Adams, a retired police officer who also carries a gun and believes crime is the dominant issue.
It was Mrs. Garcia who impressed Mr. Werther by being “clearly speaking” during a recent meet and greet. Mr. Yang was ranked second, and Mr. Adams ranked third.
The last day for early voting fell on Father’s Day. Mr Yang, a father of two, can be found tapping into his natural enthusiasm while taking selfies on a Sunday morning in Forest Hills, Queens.
Throughout his campaign, Mr. Yang appeared happiest as he campaigned in person, surrounded by selfie-seekers — a testament to the national name recognition and powerful social media game he hoped would propel him to City Hall.
But as he withstood the natural scrutiny afforded to early runners-up, his standing on the ballot waned, and his tone waned. In recent weeks, he has spoken ominously about the dangers of voting for Mr. Adams, the person Yang considers morally questionable and who is now leading opinion polls.
On Sunday, the original crowd-pleasing Mr. Yang spirit, the one he showed while vowing to be a New York City fan, was put on display once again.
Matthew Rubinstein, 19, attributed his vote for Mr. Yang to that energy.
“You see Andrew Yang going here, Andrew Yang going there,” said Mr. Rubinstein, who grew up in Forest Hills. “It’s on my TikTok, it’s on my Instagram. It’s everywhere, you know? It’s just more for people.”
Mr. Adams and his allies continued to express concern that Mrs. Garcia and Mr. Yang, by aligning their campaigns, were trying to disenfranchise black and Latino voters.
Outside a church in the Bedford-Stevesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, Mr. Adams said it was disrespectful to Mrs. Garcia and Mr. Yang to campaign together on Juneteenth.
“While we were celebrating emancipation and freedom from slavery, they sent a message and I thought it was the wrong message to send,” Mr. Adams said. “Yes, Andrew, you are a person of color and the Asian community understands that I am the strongest voice for people of color in this city.”
Understand the NYC Mayoral Race
At his campaign station in the Inwood neighborhood of Manhattan, Mr. Adams was asked to respond to a voter disenfranchisement that some of his supporters had claimed and rejected, even though his campaign sent statements.
Mr. Yang and Mrs. Garcia disputed Mr. Adams’ assertion, and so did Mrs. Wiley, a Black. She said the candidates would make different decisions about strategy with the ranking vote.
“I won’t play the racing card lightly unless I see racism, and I don’t call that racism,” Ms Wiley said.
She also defended the ranking voting system after Mr Adams raised concerns about it again. Good government groups hail the new system as an advance for democracy, by not allowing candidates to split votes and eliminating the need for costly runoffs. Mr. Adams has long condemned the new system and his allies sued to thwart its implementation, which failed in court. Many voters also expressed confusion about the system.
Ms Wylie, who supports the vote on the arrangement, said Mr Adams should fear its momentum if he was complaining about the system.
“I think a ranked vote is better for democracy, period – no matter who the people vote for,” said Ms. Wylie.
For his part, Mr. Yang indicated that he is in fact campaigning with Ms. Garcia to prevent Adams’ victory. He has repeatedly questioned Mr. Adams’ moral integrity as the mayor has faced questions about residence and scrutiny over tax and estate disclosures.
Later in the day, the central argument of Mr Adams’ campaign – that the upsurge in street violence required someone with his level of policing expertise – seemed to hit home in a personal way. The campaign used Twitter to announce that one of its volunteers had been stabbed; A week earlier, the campaign said a gun was thrown in front of Mr. Adams’ campaign office in Brooklyn after a fight.
Scott M. Stringer, the city’s auditor, kept a relatively low profile on Sunday, despite making an afternoon appearance with his wife and two sons on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, and again in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood.
Mr Stringer’s campaign faltered after two women accused him of sexual misconduct decades ago.
However, when he stopped to speak to voters on Sunday, many of them greeted him enthusiastically, seeming optimistic about his path to victory.
“As you can see on the streets, the reaction is great,” he said.
Reporting was contributed by Emma J. Fitzsimmons, Katie Gluck, Michael Gould and Jeffrey C. Mays.
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