For New York City, the pendulum may be swinging the other way.
Eric Adams, a former police captain, was declared the winner of the Democratic primary for New York City mayor on Tuesday, bringing an end to a contest plagued by chaos and confusion.
Yes, the city that is controlled by the political party that claims some years that elections are stolen and other years that elections have never been safer has just now gotten around to announcing the winner of its June 22 Democratic primary.
The final round of results for the contest, which counted absentee ballots, showed Adams with 50.5% support and his next-closest rival in the ranked-choice election, Kathryn Garcia, with 49.5% support, the Washington Examiner’s Daniel Chaitin and Jeremy Beaman report.
Should Adams win the general election, he will become the second black mayor in the city’s history, succeeding the deeply unpopular Mayor Bill de Blasio.
“While there are still some very small amounts of votes to be counted, the results are clear: an historic, diverse, five-borough coalition led by working-class New Yorkers has led us to victory in the Democratic primary for Mayor of New York City,” Adams, who is the bureau president of Brooklyn, announced in a statement after the Associated Press declared him the winner of the Democratic primary.
He added, “Now we must focus on winning in November so that we can deliver on the promise of this great city for those who are struggling, who are underserved, and who are committed to a safe, fair, affordable future for all New Yorkers.”
The primary itself was a total mess, including the part where New York’s Board of Elections accidentally published erroneous preliminary results drawn from its totally befuddling ranked-choice voting system.
The chaos and confusion, coupled with the fact that Adams was declared the winner Tuesday evening, has left some of his far-left opponents and their supporters deeply irked.
“It would be an understatement to express dismay at the [board of election’s] administration of this election,” said Democratic primary candidate Maya Wiley, a de Blasio appointee. “Today, we simply must recommit ourselves to a reformed Board of Elections and build new confidence in how we administer voting in New York City.”
Earlier, Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who supported Wiley’s candidacy, had similar criticisms for the board.
“The incompetence of the New York City [board of elections] far predates ranked-choice voting,” Ocasio-Cortez, who represents parts of Queens and the Bronx, told the Washington Examiner. New Yorkers have been “blowing the whistle on the BoE for a few years now.”
Adams now prepares himself for the general election, which is basically his for the taking. Considering the odds against a Republican winning the spot are 7-1 (the Republican nominee for mayor is Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa), it may be safe to assume the former police captain is a lock for the spot.
Imagine that. From de Blasio, a left-wing zealot who supports things as far out as the abolishment of private property, to Adams, a 22-year veteran of the police force who fought to end the city’s onerous pandemic lockdowns, who is unapologetically anti-defund-the-police, and whose platform calls for lifting the cap on charter schools so “the half of New York City students who fail basic proficiency tests would have a chance at a better education,” as National Review’s John Fund explains.
There may be hope yet for the city.
