Latest news with #GracieMansion
The Guardian
06-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
The other winner in New York's mayoral contest: ranked-choice voting
The polls did not look good for New York progressives this winter when the Working Families party began making its endorsements for city elections. An early February poll from Emerson College showed Andrew Cuomo with a 23-point lead in a hypothetical Democratic primary matchup. None of the four leading progressives even approached double-digit support – including the then unknown assemblyman Zohran Mamdani. He polled at 1%. In the days before ranked-choice voting, the Working Families party's endorsement process might have looked quite different. Like-minded candidates would have drawn sharp distinctions between each other. Party officials might have looked to nudge candidates toward the exits, behind closed doors. Before any votes had been cast in the primary, the party would consolidate behind just one choice. It would have been bloody and left a bitter taste for everyone. Instead, the opposite happened. Working Families, knowing that majorities rule and that no one can spoil a ranked-choice race, endorsed four candidates. Instead of a single endorsement that served as a kiss of death for other progressives, they backed a slate, allowing voters time to tune in and for candidates to make their pitches. Now Mamdani is the Democratic nominee and the overwhelming favorite to go from 1% all the way to Gracie Mansion. There are many reasons why this 33-year-old pulled off a seemingly unthinkable upset and soared from obscurity to the most talked about Democrat in the nation overnight. He energized young people, reached voters where they are on social media and built an unstoppable coalition. He and his volunteers talked to everyone, everywhere. Ranked-choice voting (RCV) encouraged and incentivized that joyous, barnstorming approach. And while Mamdani ultimately would have won a plurality contest or a ranked-choice one, his super-long-shot candidacy might have been squelched at the very beginning under the old system with its different electoral incentives. His victory shows how much more real power voters have under ranked-choice voting. To be clear: RCV is a party-neutral and candidate-neutral tool. Its job is to produce a majority winner with the widest and deepest support from any field of more than two candidates. It puts an end to spoilers and to the impossible, wish-and-a-prayer calculation that voters otherwise have to make when faced with multiple candidates, some of whom they really like and some of whom they do not. Liberals, conservatives, independents and moderates have run and won under RCV, from coast to coast. But while RCV might be strictly non-partisan, it is decidedly pro-voter – and almost always produces a more positive, issue-focused campaign that looks to drive up turnout and appeal to as many people as possible. A ranked-choice campaign rewards engagement and encourages coalitions; it's a race where instead of tearing down opponents, candidates point out areas of agreement and ask to be a voter's second choice. Voters love RCV and find it easy to use. According to a new SurveyUSA poll of New York voters, 96% said their ballot was easy to fill out. More than three-quarters of voters want to keep or expand RCV. And 82% said they had taken advantage of RCV and ranked at least two candidates. (These numbers are similar across RCV elections, and a powerful rejoinder to critics who insist, despite evidence to the contrary, that it's too confusing.) A remarkable number of New Yorkers saw first-hand how RCV makes our votes more powerful – they had the freedom to express themselves and rank a long-shot first, but still had their vote count for either Mamdani or Cuomo in the ranked choice tally. Perhaps the high marks are of little surprise: voters received a campaign unlike most any other. The tone remained positive and issue-based. Instead of cutting each other down, candidates lifted each other up: Mamdani and Brad Lander cross-endorsed each other, cutting joint ads, riding bicycles together to shared events, sharing the couch on Stephen Colbert, and even sharing a stage at Mamdani's victory party. Jessica Ramos and Whitney Tilson endorsed Cuomo and said that they would rank him second. Mamdani helped Adrienne Adams with fundraising. Sign up to Fighting Back Big thinkers on what we can do to protect civil liberties and fundamental freedoms in a Trump presidency. From our opinion desk. after newsletter promotion Voters always say that they want more choice at the polls, candidates who engage with them, and a genuine, issue-based campaign. They got exactly that in New York City because of ranked choice. And the historic turnout levels – more than 1 million New Yorkers cast ballots, the highest number since the 1980s – shows that when voters get that kind of elevated, engaging campaign, they show up and get involved. When voters have the opportunity to consider new candidates campaigning in creative new ways, the frontrunner with the early name recognition and largest donors can be eclipsed by a newcomer who started at 1%. And instead of going scorched-earth on each other before the general election, even some of the 'losers' seem to have had their status elevated: Lander finished third, and instead of being an asterisk, he has now expanded his base and likability for a future campaign. The majority winner in this race was Zohran Mamdani. But it's also easy to suggest the real winner might be ranked-choice voting. In a moment when so many of our elections are fraught and polarized, all of us looking for a more unified and hopeful path forward – the 'politics of the future', as Mamdani called it when he declared victory – should take a close look at what just happened in New York as proof that stronger elections are truly possible. Outside of Washington, cities and states are becoming laboratories of democracy once again. New York's adoption of ranked-choice voting led to just the kind of campaign our politics so desperately needs: a giant field of candidates presenting their vision of the future, building coalitions, without any time squandered on 'spoilers' or anyone pushed to drop out and consolidate early. In Portland, Oregon, meanwhile, voters modernized government and moved to proportional representation to elect the city council, broadening representation to groups and neighborhoods that have never before had a seat at the table. When voters make these changes, they like them, defend them, and expand them, as we have seen in New York, Maine and Alaska. And it won't take long for people to ask why they can't have ranked choice and proportionality in all their elections. David Daley is the author of Antidemocratic: Inside the Right's 50-Year Plot to Control American Elections as well as Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn't Count
Times
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Times
Who is Zohran Mamdani, the dark horse in line to be NYC mayor?
Until he was five years old, Zohran Mamdani lived in a cottage on a hill above Kampala, Uganda, with a view of Lake Victoria. He now lives in a one-bedroom flat in Queens, but by the beginning of next year he is on course to move into the famed Gracie Mansion as the mayor of America's largest metropolis. Mamdani, 33, a democratic socialist, a New York state assemblyman since 2021 and before that a rapper who performed under the moniker Mr Cardamom, is now all but certain to secure the Democratic nomination for mayor after a primary that generally selects the city's next leader. 'In the words of Nelson Mandela: It always seems impossible until it is done,' he told his cheering supporters who had gathered in Long Island City, Queens. 'My friends, we have done it.'
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Cache of sealed documents in Mayor Eric Adams' criminal case revealed — giving inside look at prosecution that will never be
Newly unsealed documents in Mayor Eric Adams' historic corruption case revealed the FBI accused him of lying about the location of his cellphone and uncovered a trove of other electronics at Gracie Mansion – including a satellite phone found on his nightstand. The massive cache of documents — made public after The Post and other outlets fought for access — include unredacted warrants, some 50 court exhibits and affidavits describing evidence collected, giving a rare glimpse into the case that will never see the inside of a courtroom. The 1,785 pages in court filings exposed the painstaking steps that the FBI and federal prosecutors went through to piece together an investigation that Hizzoner and the Trump White House has derided as a 'political' hit job. Trump's DOJ, however, has noted that it made its decision to toss the case without considering a single piece of evidence. Court filings showed that Adams had his Signal messages set to auto-delete – with federal investigators recovering conversations that were missing from his iCloud accounts. The documents also included warrants for Adams' personal cellphone that was seized and his alleged attempt to prevent the feds from getting access to the device. 'I respectfully submit that there is probable cause to believe that Adams concealed the Adams personal cellphone from law enforcement and made false statements about its location,' an FBI agent wrote in an affidavit, the records show. Adams allegedly lied to federal agents showing 'evidence of consciousness of guilt' because he believed the feds could uncover evidence of other crimes on the phone, according to the FBI. Adams told his lawyer that he'd forgotten the passcode to the phone in question and 'incorrectly' believed it was 936639, the filing said. The feds also seized another iPhone on the floor of Adams' personal bathroom, two iPads near his bedroom and an Iridium satellite phone nestled on a nightstand next to the mayor's bed when Gracie Mansion was raided on Sept. 26, 2024. The FBI agent made the assertions while seeking a warrant to track the whereabouts of the phone and Adams' other personal devices. Magistrate Judge Robert Lehrburger signed off on the request, finding there was probable cause that Adams had committed a crime. Manhattan Federal Judge Dale Ho ordered that documents be made public last month, siding with the media it was in the best interest of New Yorkers with the upcoming mayoral election. Adams' corruption case was dismissed in April with no option to resurrect it. With his decision, Ho ruled against the Department of Justice, which wanted the ability to potentially prosecute Adams at a later date. Ho said the Trump administration should not be able to hold the case over the mayor's head while he runs the Big Apple — and while he runs for reelection. The judge skewered the DOJ's dismissal motion in his long-awaited 78-page ruling, writing, 'Everything here smacks of a bargain.' View this document on Scribd '[D]ismissal of the indictment in exchange for immigration policy concessions.' The Post and New York Times, along with other third parties, urged the judge to release the sealed documents. Ho granted the request, ordering the DOJ to drop the document by May 2. The feds, though, blew the deadline and asked the judge the next day for more time, delaying the release a week. Adams became the first sitting New York City mayor to be indicted last September when a five-count indictment was unsealed, accusing him of accepting tens of thousands of dollars in luxury travel by foreign officials looking to buy influence in City Hall. Prosecutors in the Southern District of New York had also said they had evidence that Adams lied to the feds and destroyed evidence, the details of which were expected to come down in an expanded indictment. The mayor has repeatedly denied all wrongdoing. The controversial dismissal request by then-Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove put Adams in a political quagmire, leading to a mass exodus in the top ranks of his administration and Gov. Hochul considering removing him from office. Bove had told the judge that the mayor needed the case to go away so he could assist the new Trump admin with its immigration plans, not on the merits of the case. The shocking February filing also sparked a series of resignations inside the SDNY, including the interim head of the department, Danielle Sassoon, and a half-dozen prosecutors in Washington DC, who worked on the case. The same week it emerged the dismissal request was in the works, Adams sat down with border czar Tom Homan and agreed to find a way to reopen ICE offices on Rikers Island. The effort has since stalled as the City Council fights the recent executive order in took more than six weeks for Ho to rule on the request, which Adams said forced him to withdraw from the Democratic primary and instead set his sights on the general elections as a long-shot third-party candidate.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Eric Adams' unsealed documents shed new light on how NYC mayor wanted Turkey to fund reelection campaign with missed detail from original indictment
Mayor Eric Adams planned to collect campaign donations in Turkey for his 2025 re-election bid, according to newly unsealed documents from his high-profile corruption case. The extensive filing, obtained by The Post Friday night, showed that Hizzoner attended a lavish January 2022 dinner with two staffers, where he expressed interest in visiting Turkey to solicit additional funds from local businessmen for his mayoral race. Adams 'welcomed the offer of foreign contributions' — and told his staff in a private area to coordinate and 'arrange the contributions,' the filing states. View this document on Scribd The scorching detail was included in court documents when Adams was indicted last September — when he became the first sitting New York City mayor to face criminal charges. Though the 1,785 pages of court filings — made public after The Post and other outlets fought for access — shed some light on Adams' murky plans when federal prosecutors requested a warrant for the mayor's electronic communications during their investigation. The court filings also exposed Adams' alleged efforts to block federal investigators from accessing his personal cellphone after a September 2024 raid at Gracie Mansion uncovered a stash of electronics — including a satellite phone on his nightstand. Adams' longtime girlfriend, Tracey Collins — who had a cushy high-ranking six-figure position in the Big Apple's Department of Education — allegedly helped arrange admission for the Turkish Consul General's child into MS 255 Salk School of Science, one of New York City's most competitive and sought after schools, court filings revealed. The feds recovered alleged text messages detailing the admission scheme after executing a search warrant on two iPhones. Collins, who retired from her position working as senior adviser to Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos in November, was described in court papers as taking trips to India, Hungary, Turkey, Jordan, Oman and Ghana with Adams starting in 2016. She was never charged with a crime. Adams was hit with a five-count indictment accusing him of accepting tens of thousands of dollars in luxury travel from foreign officials seeking to buy influence at City Hall. The historic case was controversially dismissed in April after the mayor, a moderate Democrat, appeared to align himself with President Trump in the months following his notorious charges. The mayor has repeatedly denied all wrongdoing.
