Adams or Sliwa? New Yorkers set to chose city’s next mayor

November 2, 2021 Associated Press

Voters fill in their ballots at a polling place in New York, Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021. AP Photo/Seth Wenig

Share this:

New York City voters will pick the city’s next mayor Tuesday, with voters deciding between Republican radio host Curtis Sliwa and Democrat Eric Adams, a Brooklyn police captain who went into politics.

Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, is seen as the prohibitive favorite in the race. Democrats outnumber Republicans 7 to 1 in New York City. He spent 22 years in the police department before winning a seat in the state senate.

Carrying a photo of his late mother, Adams voted Tuesday morning in Brooklyn. He teared up as he portrayed his life as a New York story, taking him from a poor childhood to potential leader of the nation’s most populous city.

Sliwa is best known as the founder of the Guardian Angels. He still wears the anti-crime patrol’s signature red beret at public events and while campaigning.

With his left arm in a sling because he was hit by a taxi on Friday, Sliwa cast his ballot during a fraught trip to his Manhattan polling place.

First, he was told that one of his companions — which was one of his and his wife’s many rescue cats — would have to stay outside. Then Sliwa tangled with poll workers who, concerned about laws against electioneering in polling places, wanted him to take off a jacket emblazoned with his name.

Then Sliwa’s ballot got jammed in the scanner, forcing poll workers to get someone to repair the machine as the candidate complained about the city’s oft-maligned Board of Elections.

The next mayor inherits the big challenge of bringing the city back from the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 34,500 New Yorkers and is still infecting hundreds every day.

The winner will replace Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is limited to two terms.

The final days of the campaign happened as de Blasio sparred with unions over a mandatory vaccination order for all city employees.

The race is one of many local elections for municipal and county leaders being contested across the state Tuesday. They include a fierce fight in Buffalo that is a rematch between India Walton and the incumbent mayor she beat in the Democratic primary, Byron Brown. Brown refused to quit after his primary loss and has been asking voters to write his name in on their ballots.

New York voters are also voting on constitutional amendments that could make it easier to vote and establish a right to clean air and water.