Grand Street Dems 2022 Endorsements
Governor: Jumaane Williams
Lt Governor: Ana María Archila
US Senate: Chuck Schumer
NYS Attorney General: Letitia James
NYS Comptroller: Thomas DiNapoli
NY State Senate District 29: Vittoria Fariello
NY State Assembly District 65: Grace Lee
NY Democratic State Committee AD 65 (F): Kathryn Freed
NY Democratic State Committee AD 65 (M): Joshua Goodman
In a new vote on Monday evening, Grand Street Dems members endorsed Kathryn Garcia for Mayor.
GSD members’ close second choice for Mayor is Dianne Morales.
Members spoke in favor of Garcia’s highly-regarded managerial experience within city government. Especially given the scale of economic recovery New York faces in the next several years, and the opportunities for challenging reforms within city agencies, her no-nonsense, goal-oriented approach to problem-solving would be a huge asset for all New Yorkers.
At the same time, many GSD members who are looking for transformational change in the way we talk about race, housing, equity, and policing were drawn to Dianne Morales, who is running as perhaps the most purely progressive candidate in the race. As our own ranked choice voting process peeled off the outliers, Morales came in a close second to Garcia.
This new endorsement meeting was called by the GSD Executive Committee ten days ago so that members could reconsider our previous endorsement of Scott Stringer given the sexual misconduct allegations recently made against him. The new vote was a full do-over among all 13 candidates who will be on the Democratic primary ballot on June 22, including Stringer.
To help our neighbors navigate the ranked choice ballot we will all use for the primary this year for the first time, the Executive Committee also voted prior to last night’s endorsement vote to release the club’s first and second choices for Mayor, as opposed to the single endorsements GSD has made public previously.
In response to sexual abuse allegations made against Scott Stringer this week, the GSD Executive Committee has voted to hold a membership meeting on Monday, May 10 to reconsider the club’s Mayoral endorsement.
All GSD members are invited to attend, and all members with voting privileges will be able to vote to endorse one of the candidates on the primary ballot for NYC Mayor.
Monday, May 10, 2021
7:00 pm
Members will receive Zoom link by email
In the meantime, there are a few Mayoral forums coming up over the next week that you might want to attend to brush up on the state of the race:
At our meeting on February 23, Grand Street Dems voted to endorse Christopher Chin and Edward Irizarry for the two open seats on the New York Civil Court, Judicial District 2.
At last night’s marathon endorsement meeting, Grand Street Dems endorsed a full slate of candidates for New York City’s epic 2021 primary.
Grand Street Dems 2021 EndorsementsSCOTT STRINGER for Mayor (endorsement updated 5/10/21)
BRAD LANDER for Comptroller
LINDSEY BOYLAN for Borough President
ALVIN BRAGG for District Attorney
CAROLINE LASKOW and LEE BERMAN for District Leaders
And a reminder that we had already voted to endorse CHRISTOPHER MARTE for City Council District 1.
Club members voted to make no endorsement for City Council District 2, where Carlina Rivera is running for re-election.
Grand Street Dems is proud to announce our endorsement for Christopher Marte for City Council District 1.
Following his near-miss campaign in 2017, Chris has been relentless in his advocacy for our community. As an activist, he has fought rampant development, supported tenants facing eviction, and organized neighbors against new jails in Chinatown. As a representative to the New York State Democratic Committee, he has pushed for small-d democratic reform of our state party along with a growing progressive caucus. And as a neighbor and advocate, he has been at every community meeting, rally, and action standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the residents and small business owners of lower Manhattan.
One member of Congress faces four primary opponents in possibly the biggest political challenge of her career, while our representative in the NY State Assembly is vying for only her third term against a well-funded challenger. And though Grand Street Dems was borne out of a challenge to the status quo, and has often stood with underdogs and local allies without any bias toward incumbency, this year club members are rewarding the hard work of public service by voting to endorse Rep. Carolyn Maloney and Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou for re-election.
On Sunday, GSD heard from all five candidates for US Congress NY-12 and voted solidly to back Maloney. (We were all set to practice ranked-choice voting, but Maloney won a majority on the first ballot.) Maloney’s accomplishments in securing funding for 9-11 first responders, her long-standing advocacy for the Equal Rights Amendment, and her recent elevation to chair of the House Oversight Committee gave her the edge over the admirable progressive spirit and energy of her challengers.
Assemblymember Niou is still running high from what was Albany’s most progressive legislative session in generations, and club members had no interest in punishing her for those accomplishments — bail reform, rent regulations, and the Child Victims Act, just to name a few.
GSD members will be carrying petitions for Maloney and Niou to get on the ballot starting on February 25, and then helping to support their campaigns leading up to the primary on June 23.
Just because no one’s running against you doesn’t mean you aren’t worth supporting!
This week, GSD members voted to endorse for re-election Rep. Nydia Velázquez (NY-7), State Senator Brian Kavanagh, and Democratic State Committee Members Jenny Lam Low and Christopher Marte.
Grand Street Democrats voted this week to endorse Ben Yee for Public Advocate.
Ben is a “traveling civics superhero” who has brought workshops in civic engagement to groups throughout the five boroughs. His platform is aimed directly at engaging citizens, empowering community groups, and punishing bad actors who degrade our civic institutions.
We made our endorsement last night after a heavily attended candidate forum at Manny Cantor Center where we heard from 14 candidates running in the February 26 special election. (Many thanks to the other downtown political clubs and community groups that supported the event.)
We will let you know more about Ben in the coming weeks. For now, if you are so inclined, you can contribute to Ben’s campaign. With public matching funds, your small donation is multiplied nine times to make a big contribution to this short campaign:
Governor and Lt. Governor — Andrew Cuomo & Kathy Hochul
Comptroller — Thomas DiNapoli
Attorney General — Letitia James
United States Senator — Kirsten Gillibrand
Representative in Congress — Nydia Velazquez (NY-7), Carolyn Maloney (NY-12)
State Senator — Brian Kavanagh
Member of the Assembly — Yuh-Line Niou
Justices of the Supreme Court — Alexander Tisch, Lynn Kotler, Mary Rosado (vote for 3)
Judge of the Civil Court – County — Shahabuddeen Ally, Ariel Chesler (vote for 2)
Judge of the Civil Court — Wendy Li