Kathryn Garcia, Andrew Yang campaigning together is ‘opportunistic’ says NYC mayor
Mayor de Blasio Monday derided as “opportunistic” the eleventh-hour alliance between NYC mayoral candidates Andrew Yang and Kathryn Garcia.
With just hours to go before polls open Tuesday, de Blasio noted that the ranked-choice voting system is designed to help supporters of two candidates who broadly share “similar views and a similar vision” to vote for both of them.
Hizzoner said the Garcia/Yang alliance appears to be more like a political marriage of convenience.
“This one strikes me as an ‘odd couple’ situation and a little more opportunistic,” de Blasio said. “These are two people who don’t seem to share a lot of positions.”
Garcia wasted little time hitting back at de Blasio, saying he should know better than to criticize a system that three-quarters of New Yorkers supported.
“I would’ve thought the current mayor who knows that New Yorkers voted by 73% to support ranked-choice voting would be for that as well,” Garcia said.
A spokesman for Yang also lashed out at the mayor.
“Who’d have thunk [he’d be] undermining the ranked-choice voting system HE championed,” said Jake Sporn, Yang’s press secretary.
De Blasio, who hasn’t made an endorsement, refused to comment on front-runner Eric Adams’ increasingly strident attacks on the two rivals.
The Brooklyn borough president has accused Garcia and Yang of joining forces to prevent a Black candidate from winning the crowded race.
Adams and his surrogates have denounced the pact as voter suppression and compared it to policies design to prevent Black people from voting.
“African-Americans are very clear about voter suppression,” Adams said on CNN Monday. “We know about the poll tax, and we know about the fight we’ve had historically.”
De Blasio said he didn’t think Adams meant to call his rivals racist and insisted he wanted to focus on urging New Yorkers to vote.
Maya Wiley, another leading Black candidate, warned Adams to tone down his rhetoric.
“This partnership is not racist, and we should not be using this term so loosely against other candidates,” said Wiley, a progressive lawyer.
Eight major candidates are running for the Democratic nomination, including Wiley, Adams, Yang and Garcia. Polls say Adams is narrowly leading the pack, but many voters remain undecided.
The mayor warned New Yorkers that it could be days or even weeks before they will know the winner of the crowded primary that will be decided using the newfangled voting system.
The initial count of first-place ballots won’t be finished till next week at the earliest, since mail-in ballots may be received until June 29. After that, if no one wins a majority as expected, elections officials will start allocating voters’ No. 2 and lower picks.
“We will just have to exercise a little patience, which is not something New Yorkers are known for,” de Blasio said.
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