May 14th, 2021
Week in Review 5/14/21
Winners and Losers of New York’s Mayoral Debate Mara Gay (9/10) — As the front-runner, Andrew Yang had the most to lose. But he had a good night, emerging as likable by choosing not to attack the other candidates.
Five takeaways from the first New York City Democratic mayoral debate
Yang keeps his cool, shows off debate experience
Yang entered the night as the most experienced debater -- and it showed. He didn't fight for facetime, like some others, and escaped the expected barrage of attacks. But when they came -- most pointedly from Adams -- he turned his cheek and stayed on his (mostly positive) talking points. Given the chance to, as the moderator described it, "cross-examine" their rivals, Yang turned to Morales and asked if she thought direct financial aid to the poorest New Yorkers was a good idea. It was a clever turn -- Morales said she did (but cautioned that Yang's plans didn't go far enough) -- that might have earned Yang a touch of goodwill with progressives, who hold Morales in high regard and have been turned off by his attacks on the "Defund the Police" movement.
Yang’s Latest Endorsement Shows Momentum With a Key Voting Bloc
On Monday, Mr. Yang received a major boost with an endorsement from Representative Grace Meng, the highest-ranking Asian-American elected official in New York, as he seeks to solidify support among Asian-American leaders. Ms. Meng, the city’s first Asian-American member of Congress, said she decided to back Mr. Yang after she kept hearing from her constituents in Queens who were genuinely excited by him.
Yang sits atop mayoral field vying to revive a battered New York City
Andrew Yang, the former presidential candidate and now New York City mayoral hopeful, bounded into a liquor store this week and listened as its owner shared how the business had suffered during the coronavirus pandemic. John Lau told Yang many of his customers in the borough of Queens - mostly Chinese Americans - remained afraid to venture out thanks to the disease as well as a rise in violence and anti-Asian hate crimes.
Andrew Yang back on top of mayoral field, clocks 21% support in latest poll
With just weeks until the primary election, Andrew Yang has regained his lead in the contest to become the next mayor of New York City, a new poll revealed Wednesday. Yang, a former entrepreneur who’s dominated in most polls so far, ranked as voters’ first choice among 21% of the 1,003 people surveyed in the latest poll, which was conducted by Schoen Cooperman Research.
Andrew Yang Says the Clock is Ticking to Get the City Back on Track
WSR: It’s 2025 and Mayor Yang is running for his second term. What are his specific policy accomplishments? AY: The single biggest indicator of my success is going to be whether our city is back on its feet, whether we’ve regained most or all of the 600,000 jobs that we’ve lost, and whether people are excited about raising our families in New York City. That’s my measuring stick.
De Blasio open to bike license plates — mayoral candidates not so much
But the term-limited mayor likely won’t be seeing any bicycle or bicyclist licensing process to fruition — and the folks running to replace him weren’t eager to continue the effort. “We should be building bike lanes, not bureaucracy,” candidate Andrew Yang said in a statement. “As a cyclist Andrew absolutely does not support this,” a spokesman said.
Andrew Yang’s Rivals Accuse Him of Cheating … on a Pop Quiz
Alyssa Cass, a Yang campaign spokesperson, called the allegations by Yang’s rivals false and said that he got the questions right “because he is a real New Yorker.” Asked to respond to the specific allegations, she responded simply via text: “It makes me profoundly sad that some junior press flak was asked to pitch this ludicrous story to N.Y. Magazine” and sent along a meme from the show It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia in which a character is having a conspiratorial-minded mental breakdown.
