A year ago, predictions that the most likely contenders to pick up the pieces from the Bill de Blasio regime would be the most centrist candidates would have gotten you laughed out of the room in a New York minute.
Yet, two weeks before the June 22 primary, that is the state of New York City’s mayoral race. In the crowded Democratic primary, whose winner is all-but-guaranteed to take over City Hall, Eric Adams and Andrew Yang remain entrenched atop the eight-person field.
To be sure, neither Yang, the one-time Democratic presidential hopeful, nor Adams, the borough president of Brooklyn, fit the mold of a “moderate” Democrat by the standards of John F. Kennedy or even President Joe Biden before his remake as a woke liberal. But as a recent New York Times headline bemoaned, the strength of Yang and Adams has created a “‘Sense of Disappointment’ on the Left as the N.Y.C. Mayor’s Race Unfolds.”
With the clock ticking, the political knives are out for the front-runners. Yang’s Big Apple bona fides and experience have come under fire, while Adams has been vilified as a corrupt conservative in sheep’s clothing.
Meanwhile, New York City residents are dodging literal knives amid a worsening crime wave. The statistics are disturbing: Shootings increased 166% year over year in April. But, they offer useful insight into the durable strength of Adams and Yang. In the words of the left-leaning Huffington Post, “A Historic Spike In Crime Upended New York City Politics.”
Most notably, Adams and Yang refused to jump on the “defund the police” bandwagon that has swept over the progressive Left — a decision that looks wiser by the day. During the first debate, Yang declared that “defund the police is the wrong approach for New York City.” Adams, a former NYPD officer, blamed “a lot of young, white, affluent people” for the defund slogan.
Meanwhile, former MSNBC analyst Maya Wiley, viewed as the Left’s last hope, has repeated her call for a $1 billion cut to the NYPD budget. She launched a television ad accusing the police department of running “into peaceful protesters [and beating] others to the ground.” At last week’s debate, she even vowed “to stop the hiring in the next two police cadet classes.”
It should come as no surprise that Wiley’s anti-police campaign has failed to gain traction. Public surveys show voters list crime high among pressing issues, replacing homelessness.
When the daily headlines involve graphic details of shootings and unthinkable violence, such as the umbrella stabbing on the Subway, it’s not rocket science why residents want more police on the street and more resources in the department, not fewer.
Other cities are also seeing a major uptick in violence as summer begins. In St. Louis, the murder rate is at a 50-year high while the progressive mayor barrels ahead with her defund agenda. In Minneapolis, murders have more than doubled, and carjacking incidents have tripled in the last year. As NPR noted, “Elected officials have softened their tone” on defunding the police. Funny how that works.
Keep an eye on the New York City mayoral race. If an anti-police message can’t make it in a Democratic primary here, it can’t make it anywhere. These off-year elections tend to be a harbinger of where the national electoral winds will blow. As they head into next year’s midterm elections defending the slimmest of majorities, members of the national Democratic Party better take notice or face a backlash of their own.
Colin Reed is a Republican strategist and a former senior adviser to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown.
