AOC endorses for City Council. Sort of.
BY BEN BRACHFELD
US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-
Cortez on Saturday backed 60
candidates for City Council,
including 19 in Brooklyn, but
in some of the races where her
support could matter most, her
stamp of approval is functionally
useless.
That’s because, in Council
Districts 33, 35, and 39, Ocasio-
Cortez listed multiple candidates
without ranking them,
meaning no hopeful could say
they, alone were backed by the
prominent progressive pol.
Those three districts have
open-seat races this year where
the left-wing vote will likely be
a strong factor, and where the
backing of Ocasio-Cortez could
feasibly have pushed a candidate
over the edge.
Those three districts have
open-seat races this year where
the left-wing vote will likely be
a strong factor, and where the
backing of Ocasio-Cortez could
feasibly have pushed a candidate
over the edge.
This meant that, those
60 candidates who “took the
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COURIER L 8 IFE, JUNE 11-17, 2021
pledge,” were not necessarily
endorsed by Ocasio-Cortez,
but rather were given a stamp
of approval by her PAC.
The questionnaire asked
candidates to take a number
of pledges, such as to not to
take money from real estate
developers or fossil fuel companies,
and to vote to defund
the NYPD. The survey also included
a pledge to refrain from
negative campaigning.
Despite it not being a formal
endorsement, in many
races only one candidate received
a perfect score, meaning
their inclusion was effectively
a recommendation by
the PAC. In Brooklyn that list
included Jennifer Gutierrez in
District 34, Chi Ossé in District
36, Sandy Nurse in District 37,
Rita Joseph in District 40, Wilfredo
Florentino in District 42,
and Anthony Beckford in District
45.
In District 33, perfect scores
were attained by Elizabeth Adams,
Victoria Cambranes, Stu
Sherman, and Lincoln Restler.
In District 35, Michael Hollingsworth
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and Crystal Hudson
got the nod. And in District
39, Courage to Change backed
Shahana Hanif, Brandon West,
Justin Krebs, and Briget Rein.
In districts where multiple
candidates are listed but not
ranked, Ocasio-Cortez said to
rank them all at the top at the
City Hall event. “If you are
blessed enough to have more
than one candidate to make 27
policy commitments, put all of
them at the top of your list,”
she said, despite the city’s FAQ
on ranked-choice saying this
would spoil the ballot.
Brooklyn Paper spoke to
several of the candidates or
their staff, most of whom requested
anonymity. Some
said the endorsement was effectively
defanged in districts
where multiple people got the
nod.
“I don’t think it’s a distinguishing
thing since multiple
candidates got the seal of approval,”
said one candidate. “I
think it will mostly be confusing
to voters.”
A staffer for another campaign
said that they were cognizant
of the possibility that
multiple candidates could receive
the backing when they
applied, but that more could
have been done to inform candidates
that the approval was
not an endorsement.
“I wish maybe some of the
communication had been, possibly,
over-communicated to
people,” the staffer said. “Some
people put up the badge, but
some people are putting her
face all over everything.”
Nonetheless, some candidates
in races with multiple
picks said that the backing
could spur voters to do deeper
research into candidates ahead
of the June 22 primary.
“I think what AOC said on
Saturday was that these 60
candidates are the candidates
that I’m encouraging people to
rank,” said Hudson.
Ocasio-Cortez’s PAC did
make one ranked endorsement
in Brooklyn. In District
38, candidate Alexa Avilés got
the fi rst rank, followed by Rodrigo
Camarena and then Jacqui
Painter. A rep for Avilés
was unsure why the distinction
was made.
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez released
new, “personal” endorsements
for on June 9, separate from
those candidates who gained
the support of her PAC. In
Brooklyn, she endorsed Gutierrez
in District 34, Nurse in District
37, and Avilés in District
38. In District 39,she’s backing
both Hanif and West in a “coendorsement.”
AOC introduces the 60 candidates
her PAC supports.
Photo by Ben Brachfeld
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