Mayor Eric Adams endorsed longtime Harlem Democrat Inez Dickens in her primary bid for the City Council’s 9th district seat set to be vacated by lefty pol Kristin Richardson Jordan.
Flanked by Harlem powerhouses, former Rep. Charles Rangel and his successor Rep. Adriano Espalliat, as well as prominent Black leaders Dr. Hazel Dukes and Rev. Al Sharpton’s daughters, Dominique and Ashley Sharpton.
“These are days when you need experience and leadership,” said Adams in front of the Harriet Tubman Memorial in Harlem Thursday.
The beauty of walking the streets with you is that you don’t have to introduce yourself to anyone!
You don’t need a GPS to get around Harlem. You know the community so well. You’re going to bring the experience of Albany, the experience of being a council of person – just a whisper away from being a speaker,” he added referring to Dickens’ past tenure in the City Council, where she served between 2006 to 2017 before her election to the Assembly.
‘I think that you know, now we have to get in the streets. This is a real battle of the determination of what we want our city council to look like.
Dickens and Adams were aligned on several City Hall priorities in Albany over the last two years, specifically strengthening the state’s controversial bail reform law and a push to grant judges more discretion.
“I know I need this mayor in my corner, I need him to have his door open. So I can discuss with him the problems that are facing my community, district nine,” said the pol.
She’s running as the perceived establishment candidate in a three way primary against exonerated Central Park 5 candidate Yusef Salaam and Assemblyman Al Taylor.
“There’s two men against a woman — saying the woman can’t serve,” Dickens, 73, slamming her opponents for ganging up on her in a previously agreed upon cross endorsement earlier this week under the city’s new rank choice voting system.
Dickens also hit Taylor, her colleague in the Democratic-majority state Assembly, for having a habit of “flip-flops and flop flips” on “more than just a woman’s right to choose” and housing policy.
She also criticized Salaam for only recently moving back to Harlem, where he grew up, from Georgia.
Former Congressman Rangel also revealed he got a call from an individual who had a “foreign name” – Salaam – before he announced his candidacy.
The comment drew ire from the wanna be pol.
“I am a son of Harlem named Yusef Salaam. I went to prison because my name is Yusef Salaam. People looked at me funny because my name is Yusef Salaam. I am proud to be named Yusef Salaam. I am born here, raised here & of here – but even if I wasn’t, we all belong in New York City,” he tweeted.
Early voting in NYC begins Saturday, June 17 and runs through Sunday, June 25. registered voters will get their final chance to cast their ballot on Election Day, Tuesday, June 27.
City Council pols were forced to run again for their seats in the wake of redistricting, which changed the make up of several districts and even created a brand new, majority-Asian district in Brooklyn.
Some races have proven competitive, with candidates joining forces over others.
For example also on Thursday, Democratic candidates Susan Lee and Ursila Jung who are seeking to represent District 1 including the Lower East Side and Chinatown cross-endorsed each other today over rival and sitting Councilman Christopher Marte.
