NYC’s Election Mess Is Bigger Than One Candidate
Partisan primaries have created the problems that plague the mayoral voting process. A top-two system would fix it.
It’s not his fault.
Photographer: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
New York City voters will choose a new mayor in less than two months. Yet instead of debates over crime, education and housing, the race has been dominated by a basic procedural question: Who will be a candidate on Election Day? The fact that no one can say for certain is lamentable — and a good argument for changing how future candidates are chosen.
The Democratic Party’s nominee, 33-year-old Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, is the heavy favorite after beating former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in a June primary. But Mamdani is also a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, and his far-left positions, past support for defunding the police and susceptibility to accusations of anti-Semitism have alarmed many Democrats, to say nothing of Republicans.