Primary Day in NYC

It's Primary Day! Today is the last day for registered party voters to decide who will be the candidates for mayor, comptroller, public advocates, the borough presidents, all 51 city council seat, as well as the District Attorneys, in the November general elections.

All of these elected offices are important but the two most important races are for mayor (obviously) and for Manhattan District Attorney. They easily wield the most power, the most influence, over the city, and their policy and prosecutorial decisions can have ramifications for years -- even decades -- to come.

The next mayor will determine how this city is policed, how the public schools are run, what gets built or doesn't, how legislation from the city council gets signed-off on, and how basic services are delivered. The NYC mayoralty used to attract big personalities like LaGuardia, Koch and Giuliani but are two most-recent Boston-born mayors have been much more low-key and some, like the author of this article, bemoan this fact that even if, in my opinion, blowhard chief executives are a nightmare that we're well rid off. 

But Manhattan DA is just as powerful but nowhere near as high profile. That said, the current Manhattan DA refused to prosecute the Trump family for their corruption or Harvey Weinstein for his predations years ago when he had the chanc. Imagine if he had? Much of recent history would be very different. And while mayors come and come every 4, 8, or 12 years, DAs can stay in office for decades (and most do). Manhattan has only had three elected District Attorneys for the last ... drum-roll ... 80 years! Frank Hogan, Robert Morgenthau, Cy Vance Jr. Whoever wins this race today will probably be in this office for a very long time and determine how criminals are prosecuted for decades. This will shape and influence prosecutorial law for the whole country -- the stakes couldn't be higher.

History has its eyes on us.