Behind the race also includes civil rights attorney maya wiley the former sanitation commissioner catherine garcia new york city controller. Scott stringer former nonprofit executive. Diane morales former federal housing secretary. Shaun donovan and businessman ray. Maguire the top mayoral candidates took the stage last night for final debate. This spirit exchange came when the candidates were asked about the worst idea. They've heard from their opponent. Will hear from eric adams. Ray mcguire and diane morales. But i my widely my godson who is six three six foot three feet tall black and beautiful. I've had to accompany him to core for riding his skateboard ri- black. I've had to accompany him to court for sitting in a park while black. And the worst idea i've ever heard is bringing back. Stop and frisk. The anti crime unit from eric adams which one is racist to is unconstitutional and three didn't stop any crime and four. it will not happen in a mayawati administration. You don't have to worry about danger when you have private security in your on your block. I don't never will allow stop and frisk to return an abused people. I know real solutions for real people in new york his private security. You're gonna have to buy any of that stuff eric. Adams is feeling the maya mental and let me just say that the important issue for new yorkers that everyone understands that public safety is broad complex and it means making sure. We're spending our dollars wisely and i will have a moral budget that protects all our people must be very clear for black and brown communities. Now there'd be fun. The police north stop and frisk. You don how dare you assume to speak for black and brown community that you cannot do that. All it did was started. You know what just talk the community as a whole is last voices. Diane morales taking on rey. Mcguire an excerpt from last night's new york city mayoral debate The last one before the june twenty second democratic primary though people are ready voting But that january. Twenty second voters choosing also candidates for fifty one city council seats from among hundreds of people running as well as city controller. Who's the city's chief fiscal officer and patrick watchdog on the manhattan district attorney for more. We're joined by. Ross sparkin an investigative journalists closely following the primary a columnist for the guardian and jacob and he also has a new book coming out next week titled the prince andrew cuomo corona virus and the fall of new york. Welcome to democracy now. Ross so for an audience in the rest of the country and around the world. If you can talk about the significance of the mayoral race its ups and downs and who really is vying to run this city. Sure so new. York city obviously is by far the biggest city in america. And while i wouldn't necessarily call it a trend setter you are having far more people. Vote in this municipal contest than any other municipal contests in any other city. I it's really more akin to a statewide race so there are millions of registered. Democrats probably eight hundred thousand. Democrats are going to vote next tuesday. So you're the winner will be competing in trying to win. Many different factions that are somewhat representative of the democratic party so to new york while as a reputation is very much elective center city to ease. It's much more progressive than it used to be. There still a wide array of different people who are coming to vote. It's an incredibly diverse electorate. You have lack voters. You have latino voters you have orthodox jews you have young affluent voters and educated. Voters working class voters. It really. is this tremendous mix of people. and while i wouldn't go as far to say that the winner can say something about the future of the democratic party. You can say that within new york city. There is an incredible amount of diversity even in that democratic electorate and right now there are four candidates who say who really have a shot. You know the famous one is andrew yang that former presidential candidate entrepreneur. Is eric adams brooklyn borough president. Who is a former police. Captain would be the city's second black mayor and their two women who are competing to be the first female mayor of new york city ever. And that is maya wiley. Who worked for building. Blasios is council bill. The laws of the outgoing mayor and kathryn garcia also worked as a for building laws as his sanitation commissioner. They'll all have been quite critical of the zoo. Which is very interesting. And i would say. Finally there definitely competing currents kind of with the left of the center in this race. Where you have candidates were taking on more moderate postures on policing on on crime even on economics and then you have candidates who are also hewing to the left on issues as well so you have a real competition of ideas. I wanted to ask you in terms of the the other big thing. That's happening this This time around is ranked choice voting. And i'm actually pretty worried about the counting of ranked choice voting given the fact. The new york city board of elections is notorious for botching election procedures. And now they're going to be dealing with this very complicated system of determining who the winner is. I worry this this could go on for weeks and months in terms of challenges to even figure out who one wondering your sense of to what degree voters understand. Ranked choice voting voters. I think for a long time did not have a great understanding. I do see wariness increasing lot. You're seeing interviews with voters who are now going to vote in early voting. Who say yes. I understand i. Early voted myself. And i've seen the ballot is clearer than i thought it would be which was good. I agree to the board of elections in in new york city. New york state is notoriously. Dysfunctional in patronage ridden will not know the outcome of the vote on tuesday because a new york state law mandates. The absentee ballots ballots get counted after election. This is not true. A lot of other states so this is a law. That has yet to be changed. So the absentee ballots must be counted burst. Then you enter into the rtd calculation and so he tabulation of these votes won't occur until july that is without any any kind of malfeasance. That's just the schedule. Were on right now. Post july fourth. They will tabulate all the first the second third fourth fifth place votes and then you will have a winner. It's possible on election night. You may see candidate far ahead and you could probably guess the candidate will win. It's also possible. The candidates could be bunched up where there is a lot of unpredictability and perhaps the first place finisher does not win. You see rare. Instances where the first place finisher in fact loses out to another candidate. And i wanted to ask you the battle over who's progressive candidate here. It clearly myo widely has been emerging in recent weeks as the the the standard bearer of of many of the progressives in new york city. But i know several of these people. I've known them for. I've known eric adams who personally for more than thirty years and he has been portrayed as the more conservative candidate. People forget that. When i when he was a sergeant in the in the transit police in new york city of fighting racism within the department and also fighting police abuse with an apartment. It's a lot harder to fight. Police abuse from within the department that is from outside the department. But there's no doubt he's increasingly become more conservative as years of gone on. I'm wondering among these candidates who to use who who do you see as having the momentum in recent months to a po-potentially win. Eric adams definitely has a good chance because he is putting together a very reliable coalition which is working class blacks and then bader white voters orthodox jews outburst ethnics. You know these are people who do show up to vote so if you're trying to win a mayoral race having support from the black community ease very important building block. You had the same in his twenty thirteen race. So eric adams definitely has an inside track right. Now you're right. He came up out of the lease for for movement. He still talks about police reform but he's also. Campaigning is tough on crime. Mayor certainly very aggressively against the on the lease. He's also very close to the real estate industry and supportive of landlords and not really friendly to tenant that's kind of his oster and you've andrew yang who similarly has been positioning himself as a tough on crime candidate though with fresher newer ideas but also someone who says he takes public safety very seriously it. Surely maya wiley who is now. The standard bearer sort of by default got stringer accused of sexual assault. Their candidate dan morales imploded. Wiley is not necessarily the favourite of various socialists and progressive groups but she is now the default and so there's been a coalescing around her. Afc endorsed her. So leave very interesting to see where she ends up if she can come from behind win and pull it. Blasio remember at this point. The primary eight years ago to blasio had established himself as a clear front runner right now. That's adams but adams does not have the lead at dubois. You did have in two thousand thirteen. So i i would say the race has much more volatile than it was back than and you have this front page piece in the new york times a few days ago. Saying i mean here you had my wiley. Who's gotten the endorsement of alexandra. Cortes eleven ninety nine the union And other progressives But you the front page piece was about de blasio. Even though she was his lawyer city lawyer Working behind the scenes for adams saying he would preserve his progressive legacy to strange thing. Because i would not agree with the blogs. The other eric adams's best. Physicians preserve his legacy. But the thing with politics is a lot of its personal. Eric adams and build de blasio. Go back a long time eric. Atoms i would say unlike a lot of other politicians was not known for attacking bill de blasio. When he was mayor it was not known for gratuitous criticisms of bill de blasio when he was mayor of the to always seen tabbed understanding both maya wiley and caffeine garcia worked for walls. Yo now have been quite critical of him and also you know not don't speak warmly about their time in city hall so i can imagine for two blasi himself. He is aggrieved that he gave both of them jobs and promotions and they are not grateful in any way. That's politics Unfortunately it's not always about policy and ideology. It's it can be about these kinds of relationships. So eric adams is the person build. A waku feels most personally comfortable with. He is trying to rally organized labor behind atoms. He's been pretty successful at that. And so far the races going. I would say to has way in that. Adams is the favorite and yang has lost strength but anything can happen on primary day. There's still a lot of variables. And of course you mentioned kathryn garcia who surprisingly the gotten the editorial -dorsements in the major papers including the new york times and there are some analysts who believed that dude or ranked choice voting. She may not come out at the top of the front of the pack. But through ranked choice voting. She may end up actually a winning. The primary. your your sense of catherine garcia's rule. She's definitely come on very strong. The new york times endorsement was a big surprise. originally i would have guessed. Scott stringer would have gotten. It was accused of sexual assault. So that fell by the wayside. Then i personally imagine that my widely would get it because she was positioning herself as a liberal candidate. Sort of in the in the mold of what. The new york times usually endorses. But they really went out of left. Field a bit and support catherine garcia. Who's really running at technocratic. Moderate someone who supported of charter schools. Someone who is against taxing the rich someone who is fairly supportive of the real estate industry skeptical of rent stabilization. That being said. I think unlike eric adams kathryn garcia is less alienating. To some voters you know adams and yang each have the challenge of ending up on a lot of ballots. Both of them. Now have the potential to be dropped from the ballots of a lot of highly educated. Progressives in high information voters each of them have sustained negative news cycles each of them. 'cause voters who read the new york times to recoil hathen garcia does not. She does have some potential because she's going to show up. In a lot of ballots. Injury yang himself helped. Elevate her when he said she was his number two and it's possible that will backfire him in the end because she is going to be people under twos at. We're going to have to leave it there. But i thank you so much for being with us. Ross barkan his new book the prince. I'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez stacey..