Did rank choice voting save us from extremism?

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning, Which way is our city going? Who’s going to be mayor? A lot of people are concerned because the way the next mayor is going to determine if we have a city to live in with us today is Jesse Arms. He is the Manhattan Institute. He’s the excessive director of External Affairs and chief of staff at

0:24 the Manhattan Institute. Well, Jesse, give us your pulse of what the heck is going on?

0:31 Speaker 2 Well, I think what’s going on, John, And it’s great to be on Thank you for having me. Is that rank choice voting was supposed to save us from the extremes, but it might be delivering us one. We had ranked choice voting that was pitched to New Yorkers as a guardrail against extremism.

0:45 Speaker 3 It was supposed to.

0:46 Speaker 2 Reward moderate, coalition building candidates, and instead it’s being used to prop up the most radical candidate in the Democratic primary field.

0:55 Speaker 3 In zorn Mundani, the Working.

0:57 Speaker 2 Families Party and it allies are running a core NATed effort to block Andrew Cuomo by gaming the second and third choice mechanics. And because the center left field is crowded and still waiting for that kind of New York Times endorsement that may or may not come to tell them who to vote for, like what happened four years

1:16 ago with the technocratic Catherine Garcia, who surged after receiving the New York Times nod. Mom Donnie could very well sneak into the runoff rounds and ride activists turnout straight to power.

1:27 Speaker 3 And the irony here is brutal. You’ve got a.

1:29 Speaker 2 System that’s designed to elevate consensus that may end up handing the keys to Gracie Mansion over to a socialist who openly sympathizes with Hesbolitarists and belongs to a movement that just praised the DC assassination of two foreign simple.

1:44 Speaker 1 Mass on some of my Republican friends. Because I’m a guy that’s really in the middle, I just want a safe city and I want a great city. Some of my reproperty and friends have said to me, turning it over to one of the socialists is like having what’s happening with the District Attorney’s who office in Manhattan with

2:04 Alvin Bragg. I mean, Alvin Bragg is a very nice guy. I know him very well, but I don’t exactly agree with his philosophies.

2:13 Speaker 2 Right You’re exactly right. So there’s a normy lane that’s still wide open in this race, with the left two fragmented to seize it. There’s a silent majority in this city, working class democrats, independence, you know, moderate reasonable Republicans like you and I who just want a mayor who’s competent, insane.

2:30 That’s the normy lane, and right now nobody’s claiming it. Cuomo. Yes, he’s polarizing, maybe some uninspiring to some who remember, you know, the dark old days of COVID. Brad Lander blew his cash early. Adrian Adams has establishment backing but can’t move numbers.

2:47 There’s some who believe Scott Stringer might be the most viable kind of mainstream left candidate in the primary race, but he’s barely registering at this point, as all these guys are.

2:58 Speaker 1 I know him for a long time. I think when Jerry Dadler wants to retire, I think he wants to Jerry Dada’s See.

3:05 Speaker 2 That’s what’s scary, right, So Mom, Donnie is running circles around all these guys. He’s built the organized machine, he’s locked up the activist energy, and he’s got no serious progressive rival. And that means that the middle doesn’t consolidate fast and forcefully, you’re going to see someone who wants to spend one hundred billion dollars on socialist fantasy program

3:24 to take over a city that’s already petering fiscally.

3:28 Speaker 1 I agree with you one hundred percent. What I’ve said publicly is, look, I know Andrew and his family a long time. I certainly endorse him in the Democratic primary, and I hope he wins because he’s the best of candidate in the Democratic primary. On the other hand, Mayor Eric Adams is currently the current mayor, and I support

3:52 his efforts to clean up the city with the help of Donald Trump because of the fact is that the criminals that have being deported. I support one hundred percent of the fact that Tom Hoeman and Eric Adams are working with each other to get rid of the criminals in New York City. And on the third hand, Curtis Lee,

4:14 what is my friend for thirty years, so I always support him. But this is the problem I have as in New York.

4:22 Speaker 2 Well, that’s the bottom line, John. It’s exactly like you say, the general election is probably going to be a four way mess. What happens in a month in the Democratic primary almost doesn’t really matter, because if you think the New York Democratic Primary is the whole ballgame has a mistake.

4:39 We’re heading towards the four way General Cuomo is going to be on his own line or on the Democratic line. Fleewa’s got the Republican line. Eric Adams is running as an independent, and whether Macdonni, you know, beats out Clomo in the primary or not, he’s going to be there taking the working Families party line almost certainly, if not

4:56 so in that kind of chaos, thirty percent gets you over the finish line. And the Mamdanie team knows that. That’s why they’re not just trying to win in June. They’re trying to lock down activist support now and coast on base turnout in November while everyone else fits each other.

5:11 And you’re hearing all this talk about, oh, where’s THEOC, where’s Bernie Sanders? Why haven’t they endorsed just you wait, they’re waiting for potentially the general election or whenever their endorsement.

5:21 Speaker 3 Is going to make the most maximal impact.

5:23 Speaker 2 So you’ve got these Jewish voters, You’ve got small business owners, cops, Asian parents, all the constituencies that have real skin in the game, and if they don’t wake up, they’re going to watch a DSA backed radical takeover city Hall by default.

5:37 So this race is.

5:38 Speaker 1 Then we allow, then we lose New York City.

5:41 Speaker 3 Yeah, it’s not about who gives the best speech.

5:43 Speaker 2 It’s about who’s actually willing to govern and who’s trying to blow up the system from within.

5:49 Speaker 1 Well, Jesse Arms, thank you so much for coming on, and I think we’re both on track over the what’s going on in a city and let’s pray. When is the Democratic primary?

6:01 Speaker 2 The Democratic primary will be on June twenty fourth, and with a general election to follow in November, both of which will be very important this time.

6:09 Speaker 1 Around, so that’s not too far away, not.

6:12 Speaker 2 Too far, but I’m sure we’ll talk against soon.

6:15 Speaker 1 Let’s talk against soon. Thank you so much, Take care, John, Thank you