BY THE VILLAGE SUN | Updated May 18, 5:45 p.m.: So long, Scott. … Hello, Maya. …
Following the accusations last month by a former campaign volunteer that she was sexually harassed by Scott Stringer 20 years ago, the Village Independent Democrats club on Thurs., May 13, overturned its earlier endorsement of the comptroller for mayor.
Instead, the storied Village club is throwing its support behind Maya Wiley.
“In light of recent events in the mayoral race, the membership of V.I.D. has voted to rescind its endorsement of Scott Stringer and endorse Maya Wiley for mayor of New York City,” the club’s co-presidents, Cameron Krause and Mar Fitzgerald, told The Village Sun in a statement.
The club held a series of votes. The first was on whether to vote on rescinding its support for Stringer. The club next voted on whether to rescind the endorsement for Stringer. Finally, V.I.D. held a new ranked-choice vote for mayor, and Wiley won.
A lawyer and civil-rights activist, Wiley was a former counsel to Mayor de Blasio, chaired the Civilian Complaint Review Board and has appeared on MSNBC as a political and legal analyst. She is currently the senior vice president for social justice at the New School.
Following the new endorsement, club members campaigned with Wiley in Greenwich Village in Abingdon Square this weekend.
Meanwhile, however, New York City’s three daily newspapers are supporting candidates with more government experience and who are not as far to the left as Wiley, as well as Stringer.
Kathryn Garcia on Sunday scored her second major newspaper endorsement, winning the backing of the Daily News. The former Department of Sanitation commissioner recently also got the nod from The New York Times. For its part, the New York Post is going with Eric Adams, the current Brooklyn borough president, for mayor.
For comptroller, V.I.D. is endorsing Brooklyn Councilmember Brad Lander. The club endorsed him before City Council Speaker Johnson entered the race.
Why is the VID supporting CCM Rivera? She has sold out District 2 by reneging on her campaign promises and her egregious voting record. Erin Hussein is the best candidate for this district and is not part of the de Blasio machine.
“De Blasio machine”? He doesn’t have a machine. He has a junkyard.
Congratulations to the VID , you made history in picking a full slate of candidates who have been or will be serving the real estate lobby to stop any law giving Village small businesses any rights when their leases expired. Not one candidate has made a priority to save even one Village business or job. That would have never happened in the days of former Councilwomen Carol Greitzer or Miriam Freiedlander. VID should rethink their name. Eric Bottcher who orchestrated the biggest sham hearing against small businesses ever held. Really.
Maya Wiley is my choice.
Maya Wiley is the best in the field.
Oh I will add, who is familiar with my community’s issue of heart, and is more likely to restore CHARAS/El Bohio Cultural and Community Center (the landmarked old PS 64 building on East 9th Street) to the community to meet expressed needs and truly fulfill the deed restriction that was embedded in auction conditions. (It was unjustly auctioned by then-Mayor Giuliani to an evil, profiteering, non-community-minded developer, who has gutted it and sought to destroy it by abandonment, negating the thousands of hours of community sweat equity, Federal, State, City and private funds invested in its refurbishing, when it was rescued from being a shooting gallery, and became the heart and soul of Loisaida, the “East Village” /northern part of the Lower East Side.)
My choice (shall I say choices now, w/ ranked voting) are based on a few factors. Who can I pick up the phone and talk to/knows my name, who has done things for my community, who has executive experience, enough to manager the HUGE job, the mayor of NYC, and who says community-based land trusts.
Therefore I choose Scott Stringer, Kathryn Garcia, followed by, (but not ticking all those boxes) Dianne Morales, and lastly, Maya Wiley.
Thank you for your ideas but adios to the others. My latter two choices actually would be better tapped to run agencies, and have key roles in the administration.
CCM Rivera should be at the bottom of the list. She has been a disaster for District 2 by reneging on her campaign promises and her egregious voting record.
While Ms.Wiley’s heart is in the right place, defunding the police by an additional $1 billion will serve only to inflate the chaos and lawlessness that our city is descending into. If anything, the funds that were withdrawn from the New York Police Department by our brain-dead mayor need to be restored. Laws and law enforcement protect people’s lives and liberties. New York will turn into a criminal free-for-all should Ms. Wiley’s misguided brand of liberalism be institutionalized by the voters.