Bragg comfortably ahead in Manhattan DA race
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
Alvin Bragg pulled ahead with a
comfortable lead in the Democratic
primary to become Manhattan’s
next district attorney Tuesday, June 22,
according to preliminary vote counts.
Bragg, a lifelong Harlemite and former
prosecutor for the State Attorney General,
gained 33.84% of the vote with 71,947
ballots cast for him out of 212,617 total in
the eight-way race to become Manhattan’s
next top prosecutor, giving him a lead over
former federal prosecutor Tali Farhadian
Weinstein, who got 30.42% of the vote
with 64,682 ballots cast, according with
98.44% of precincts reporting according
to the Board of Elections Tuesday night.
“To whom much is given, much is required.
We have been given a profound
responsibility,” Bragg told a crowd of
supporters at the Cecil Steakhouse in
Harlem. “The responsibility for the
safety of Manhattan, the responsibility
for the fair administration of justice in
Manhattan.”
The Tuesday night tally only includes
in-person votes and 27,682 absentee ballots
remain to be counted by BOE in the
coming weeks, which could still sway the
race as Bragg holds a 7,265-vote lead over
Farhadian Weinstein.
Alvin Bragg
In a statement early Wednesday morning,
Farhadian Weinstein declined to
concede, citing thousands of ballots that
remain to be tallied.
“We all knew going into today that this
race was not going to be decided tonight
and it has not been. We are down about
3.9% with tens of thousands of ballots
from today and about 50,000 absentee
ballots left to be counted. And so we have
to be patient,” she said.
FILE PHOTO
In third place came Tahanie Aboushi,
a progressive who had the backing of US
Senator Bernie Sanders, with 11.31% and
24,044 votes.
Unlike the city elections, the Manhattan
DA’s race does not have ranked-choice
voting, because district attorneys are state
elected offi ces.
In heavily-blue Manhattan, the Democratic
primary’s winner is likely to sail
to victory against the sole Republican
candidate, Thomas Kenniff, in the November
general election.
Bragg, who is poised to succeed incumbent
DA Cyrus Vance as Manhattan’s
top prosecutor, served as a chief deputy
attorney general for the state where he
oversaw cases including suing disgraced
movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.
He previously led a unit that investigated
police killings of unarmed civilians and he
told the New York Times — whose endorsement
he got — that he would reform
the prominent law enforcement offi ce while
balancing civil rights with public safety.
He gained the New York Times’s endorsement
and succeeded over Farhadian
Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor
married to a hedge fund manager.
The next Manhattan DA will be tasked
with overseeing the ongoing investigation
into former President Donald Trump along
with a district rich in white-collar crime
cases.
Farhadian Weinstein, a well-heeled former
federal prosecutor and wife of hedge
fund manager Boaz Weinstein, gained attention
after she poured a staggering $8.2
million of her own personal wealth into
her campaign in the home stretch of the
race, and when ProPublica reported that
she paid almost no federal income taxes in
four recent years.
Levine and Hoylman neck-and-neck in Manhattan beep race
BY DEAN MOSES
Candidates from city council contenders
to mayoral hopefuls hunkered
down late Tuesday night, June 22, as
they braced for round one of the citywide
primary results.
Manhattan Borough President candidate
Mark Levine and City Council District 7
candidate Shaun Abreu were but two competitors
amidst a legion of men and women
vying for a new elected seat. The pair chose
to wait out the process at the Hilltop Park
Alehouse restaurant on West 159th Street.
The night proved to be a tense one for
Levine. As the results began to trickle in
just after 9pm, the Manhattan Borough
President race soon developed into a game
of hot potato between Levine and state
Senator Brad Hoylman as they traded the
lead by a matter of decimal points. For
Abreu, however, it was a much different
story.
Abreu, who looks to succeed Levine in
City Council District 7, quickly took the
lead according to preliminary vote counts,
much to the delight of his supporters. The
bar broke out in an eruption of cheers and
chants as Abreu fans literally jumped for
Mark Levine and Shaun Abreu enjoy the moment at their election night party.
joy after he ended the night leading with
27% of the vote count.
“It’s a true honor to be here to represent
folks from District 7 — this is my home, the
place I have known my entire life. I went
from being evicted as a child to a tenant’s
rights attorney to keep families in their
PHOTO BY DEAN MOSES
homes. The folks in this room saw me grow
up from the good and the bad and now I am
their champaign and I will be their fi ghter,”
Abreu told amNewYork Metro.
As the night wore on and June 22
became June 23, Levine began to edge
ahead of Hoylman, which had his team
high-fi ving and clapping. They were not the
only excited ones though. Fellow politicians
such as Councilman Justin Brannan and
Congressmember Adriano Espaillat arrived
to show their support for Levine.
Although the race remained tight,
Levine ended election day with 28% of
the votes narrowly beating out Hoylman
by 3 points. With ranked-choice voting still
capable of switching things up, Levine was
careful not to declare victory, but he did
tell amNewYork Metro that he is feeling
optimistic.
“I am so grateful for the people in this
room who have put their hearts and souls
into this campaign—hundreds of volunteers.
We have a lot more votes to count and
so this is not about declaring victory, but I
feel really good about where we are right
now, but I am also very tired,” he joked.
Hoylman, on the other hand, issued a
statement expressing confi dence that he
would pull off the victory once all the
ranked-choice votes are counted.
“We’ll be closely following the numbers
in the days ahead, and are confi dent that
our campaign to do more for Manhattan
will come out on top,” Hoylman said. “We
expect to win.”
10 June 24, 2021 Schneps Media