Primary Day, from Buffalo to the Bronx

Presented by Grubhub: POLITICO's must-read briefing informing the daily conversation among knowledgeable New Yorkers

Jun 27, 2023 View in browser   By Julia Marsh, Joseph Spector, Madina Touré and Hajah Bah Presented by In Buffalo, India Walton (pictured) will face off against Zeneta Everhart to represent the Masten district on the city’s Common Council. | AP Photo/Joshua Bessex Tuesday’s New York primaries are local affairs featuring candidates for mayor and city council, from Buffalo to the Bronx. But the results could be harbingers of 2024 when the state will likely play a major role in which party controls the House. If big Democratic energy in the Hudson Valley is any indicator, the future is bright blue. The region is a political battleground, with cities New Rochelle, Yonkers, Poughkeepsie and Kingston fielding younger, more diverse Democratic candidates vying to move up the ballot — or enter elected office for the first time. In New Rochelle, Councilmember Yadira Ramos-Herbert is running in the city’s first open mayoral primary in more than two decades. A councilmember in Yonkers, Corazon Pineda-Isaac, is trying to block Mayor Mike Spano from taking a fourth term in her quest to become the first woman and person of color to lead the state’s third largest city. Kingston’s Charlotte Lloyd, a 25-year-old tenant activist, is running for the local council and was recruited by the group For the Many, which came out of the Occupy movement. And north of the Hudson Valley in Buffalo, India Walton will face off against Zeneta Everhart. Walton previously beat incumbent Mayor Byron Brown in the June 2021 primary — only to lose to his write-in bid in November. Now Walton and Everhart will compete to represent the Masten district on Buffalo's Common Council. That’s where a white shooter opened fire in the Tops supermarket, killing 10 people, almost all of them Black. Everhart’s son was injured but survived the attack. On the other hand, the Democratic energy in New York City this primary season is more subdued. As our Bill Mahoney reported, only 17 City Council seats have contested Democratic primaries, down from 46 in 2021. And two of the most contested races are in districts that could go red this November. The first race is the Bronx’s district 13, where incumbent Marjorie Velázquez is defending her seat from three challengers. Should she win, Velázquez will have another tough race against a Republican in a district that went for GOP mayoral nominee Curtis Sliwa in 2021. The second race that could add to the GOP’s small but growing caucus on the council is in a brand new district. Brooklyn’s 43, which includes Sunset Park, was created through redistricting to reflect the area’s majority Asian population. The district was solidly red in the gubernatorial race, where former GOP candidate Lee Zeldin won 61 percent of the vote, and Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul took just 38 percent. IT’S TUESDAY. WHERE’S KATHY? In New York City with no immediate public schedule. WHERE’S ERIC? Voting in the 2023 primary election, delivering an education and mental health-related announcement, and meeting with Italy’s President of Emilia-Romagna Region Stefano Bonaccini. QUOTE OF THE DAY: “I think pizza has saved more marriages than any other food,” Mayor Eric Adams said, responding to a protest on Monday at City Hall where a person threw multiple pies over the gate. The city's Department of Environmental Protection drafted a new rule that would target pizza shops using wood and coal-fired ovens.   A message from Grubhub: Grubhub and Seamless provide small businesses across New York City essential marketing services that help our local restaurants grow and reach new customers. Our neighborhood restaurants deserve more marketing choices to they can compete with national chains. Learn how NYC Council can support the restaurants we love.   ABOVE THE FOLD Spectators look on during the Diwali festival at a Times Square celebration Saturday, Oct. 7, 2017, in New York. | Kevin Hagen/AP Photo DIWALI DAY: Diwali — the festival of lights celebrated by Hindu, Jain, Sikh and some Buddhist communities — is going to be a New York City school holiday, after a long fight. Adams, advocates and lawmakers celebrated the passage of state legislation making Diwali a school holiday. Adams expressed confidence that Hochul would sign the bill. “This is a victory, not only for the men and women of the Indian community and all communities that celebrate Diwali but it’s a victory for New York,” Adams said during a press conference in the City Hall Rotunda on Monday morning. He added that the bill communicates New York “is made for everyone.” Advocates have been fighting for a school holiday for Diwali, usually celebrated in October or November, for more than 20 years. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio — who had announced school holidays for the Muslim holidays Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, and for Asian Lunar New Year — declined to offer any more holidays due to the state requirement that schools have at least 180 days of instruction. Adams vowed to make Diwali a holiday a day after he was elected. But in early October, advocates and parents expressed frustration when that didn’t occur and put pressure on him to deliver. That month, Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar (D-Queens) and Adams unveiled a city-state partnership to make it a reality. Rajkumar introduced the legislation, and Sen. Joseph Addabbo (D-Queens) is the Senate sponsor. “This is what victory looks like,” Rajkumar said. “This is what victory feels like. For over two decades, the South Asian and Indo-Caribbean community has fought for this moment.” — Madina Touré    STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today.     PENN STATION REDUX: Hochul on Monday said the state would move forward with the $7 billion overhaul of Penn Station — regardless of if and when new office towers around the nation’s busiest transit hub move forward. Hochul broke from the deal brokered by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo with Vordano Realty to couple an overhaul of the station with new office buildings. She recognized that a glut of office space would delay efforts to reconstruct Penn Station. “Number one, we are decoupling this from the prior plan, the GPP. That does not mean that we're not going to be building office space here at some point,” Hochul said at an event to unveil new preliminary designs. She noted that a new Penn Station is long overdue and can’t wait on the larger construction plan that has drawn years of scrutiny and criticism, saying the money will come largely from the state and federal governments. “It's crowded, it's congested, it's unpleasant, and New Yorkers deserve to have the bright light coming in and shining up on them,” she said. ”So we're excited about this, and we're tired of seeing the underground corridors.” What City Hall's reading A truck (left) travels westbound off the George Washington Bridge as commuters line up to cross a toll plaza on April 17, 2019, in Fort Lee, N.J. | Julio Cortez/AP Photo New York congestion pricing to get federal green light, New Jersey lawmakers say, by POLITICO’s Ry Rivard: Federal transportation officials are giving a final green light to New York’s plan to toll drivers coming into parts of Manhattan, members of the New Jersey congressional delegation say. Sen. Bob Menendez and Reps. Josh Gottheimer and Bill Pascrell, all New Jersey Democrats, said they are “outraged” after hearing the Federal Highway Administration will not require New York to do more outreach and environmental studies before putting in tolls that will affect New Jersey drivers. MAP: Harlem Council race leads turnout in NYC primary election, by Gothamist’s Neil Mehta & Bridgid Bergin Attorney General warns New Yorkers  of e-bike battery dangers, offers safety advice, by Brooklyn Daily eagle’s Rob Abruzzese: “The city council is presently deliberating on proposals to launch a battery buyback initiative and supply fireproof containers to workers for charging batteries. Moreover, the New York City Fire Department has clamped down on illegal battery charging stations, particularly in bike shops and bodegas, where multiple batteries are often charged simultaneously.”  A tough day for New York journalism: The Gotham Gazette will “temporarily pause production” July 1 as the Citizen Union Foundation considers its next steps.   A message from Grubhub:   WHAT ALBANY'S READING New York officials remember Richard Ravitch, by POLITICO’s Bill Mahoney: New York’s top leaders mourned the passing of longtime problem-solver Richard Ravitch, who died Sunday less than two weeks before his 90th birthday. “He was never elected to anything, yet he had arguably the most impactful and consequential role in state and city government over the past 50 years,” Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said in an interview with POLITICO, pointing to Ravitch’s time saving New York City from the financial crisis in the 1970s, running the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and spending 18 months as lieutenant governor. Amtrak suspends Adirondack Rail Line north of Albany, by NBC5’s Sid Bewla New York wants to ban contracts that restrict workers from seeking jobs at similar firms, By Daily News’ Tim Balk   SUBSCRIBE TO POWER SWITCH: The energy landscape is profoundly transforming. Power Switch is a daily newsletter that unlocks the most important stories driving the energy sector and the political forces shaping critical decisions about your energy future, from production to storage, distribution to consumption. Don’t miss out on Power Switch, your guide to the politics of energy transformation in America and around the world. SUBSCRIBE TODAY.     AROUND NEW YORK — Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano is well ahead in campaign fundraising as he seeks a fourth term. (LoHud) — Syracuse’s Otto the Orange has been voted into the national Mascot Hall of Fame. It's long overdue. (Post-Standard) — Buffalo Bills’ training camp tickets are going on sale soon. (Buffalo News) — Mavis Discount Tire is settling four of the lawsuits against it over the deadly Schoharie limo crash that killed 20 people. (Times Union) SOCIAL DATA BY DANIEL LIPPMAN HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Reuters’ David Shepardson … NYT’s Krista Mahr and Lisa Friedman … CNN’s Carrie Stevenson … Charles Bronfman (92) … Caroline Adler Morales … Tony Fratto … George Malkin … Paul Roveda … (was Monday): Noam T. Wasserman ... Lev Grossman ... Ross Feinstein ... Sara Fredman Aeder   A message from Grubhub: "More than half of our business relies on pick-up and delivery from Grubhub. If New York City doesn’t amend the cap on marketing services it will severely impact our ability to reach as many people as we need to."- Howie Jeon, Co-Owner of Yumpling in Long Island City, NY Local restaurants like Yumpling, rely on marketing services from third-party platforms, like Grubhub and Seamless, to expand their clientele and remain competitive against national chains. NYC Council: Support our local restaurants. Amend the cap on marketing services.     Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook  |  Playbook PM  |  California Playbook  |  Florida Playbook  |  Illinois Playbook  |  Massachusetts Playbook  |  New Jersey Playbook  |  New York Playbook  |  Ottawa Playbook  |  Brussels Playbook  |  London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters Follow us

To change your alert settings, please log in at https://www.politico.com/_login?base=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.politico.com/settings This email was sent to salenamartine360.news1@blogger.com by: POLITICO, LLC 1000 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA, 22209, USA Please click here and follow the steps to unsubscribe.