New York and New Jersey Vote: Here Are Top Contests in Tuesday's Election
It may lack the drama and high-stakes of last year’s presidential election, but New Yorkers and voters in New Jersey are still making important decisions Tuesday to elect local leaders
Voters in New York City will pick a new mayor, public advocate, borough president and even a district attorney. In New Jersey, voters are casting ballots for governor and other statewide races. Residents in both states will also have to consider ballot initiatives on a wide array of topics.
Former New York City police captain and Brooklyn Borough president Eric Adams, a Democrat, is heavily favored over Republican Curtis Sliwa in Tuesday’s race to become the next mayor of the biggest U.S. city.
Adams, who would be the city’s second Black mayor, ran as a moderate in a crowded primary field. He’s expected to vote Tuesday at an elementary school in Bedford-Stuyvesant after polls open at 6 a.m. They will stay open until 9 p.m.
Over nine days of early voting in the city, fewer than 170,000 New Yorkers turned out to vote. Sliwa said that the low turnout in places like Staten Island doesn’t spell bad news for him.
“It’s generally Democrats who vote early. Republicans, they like November 2nd, I’m waiting to vote for November 2nd,” he said.
Sliwa, founder of 1970s-era Guardian Angel anti-crime patrol, has called for hiring 3,000 more police officers and has tried to portray Adams as an out-of-touch elitist.
Adams has vowed to address public safety and inequality and make government more efficient.
Across the state, New Yorkers are voting on several proposed changes to the state constitution, including two that could make it easier to vote.
One proposed constitutional change would remove a requirement that people must register to vote at least 10 days before an election.
Another change would make it possible for the legislature to make mail-in voting permanent. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the state has allowed any voters fearful of the virus to vote by mail, but Democrats want to make that permanent.
Before the pandemic, you had to be sick or out of town to vote with an absentee ballot.
Another ballot measure would alter New York’s process of drawing the boundaries of congressional and legislative districts. Republicans and some election rights groups say the referendum gives Democratic supermajorities too much power.
Click here for the list of ballot questions in New York and New Jersey.
In the race to become Manhattan District Attorney, civil rights lawyer and former federal prosecutor Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, will become the borough’s first Black district attorney if he wins Tuesday’s contest with Republican attorney Thomas Kenniff.
Bragg is heavily favored in a part of the city where Democrats drastically outnumber Republicans.
The winner will succeed retiring District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. and take on high-profile cases including the prosecution of former President Donald Trump’s company and its longtime finance chief on tax fraud charges.
In New Jersey, Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy is trying to fight off a challenge from Republican Jack Ciattarelli, a former state legislator.
New Jersey is something of a test case for Democrats’ theory of how they can win in 2022 and beyond. Murphy fulfilled his campaign promises and was able to implement vastly expanded government funding for widespread prekindergarten and free community college — policies that Biden is struggling to get through the Democrats’ razor-thin majorities in Congress. Murphy has embraced the left wing of the party and hosted Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders for a campaign rally last month.
While Ciattarelli has also tried to walk the line between energizing Trump voters and appealing to suburbanites, he faces a more daunting task than Youngkin. New Jersey is a more Democratic state than Virginia — Murphy won his first election by 14 percentage points in 2018. He also has the power of incumbency on his side, unlike in Virginia, the only state in the nation that doesn’t allow governors consecutive terms.
The few public polls in the race have shown Murphy with a steady lead. If he wins easily, it may be a sign of hope for Democrats that they can survive 2022 if they deliver on Biden’s plans for a massive expansion of social safety net and climate change programs. If it’s closer, that’d be another promising indication for GOP hopes in the midterms.
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