The popularity of each candidate’s message and chances of victory depend not only on the strength of their personal appeal to voters but also their campaign infrastructure.
There is no one formula for victory in the Democratic mayoral primary and the top eight candidates are running vastly different campaigns. The popularity of each candidate’s message and chances of victory depend not only on the strength of their personal appeal to voters but also their campaign infrastructure – including the tacticians, advisors, consultants, and campaign staff members who mostly go unseen but whose work informs the candidates’ policies, positions, fundraising, advertising, and public appearances.
As to be expected, consultants, in particular, are having a lucrative year supplying the mayoral candidates with all manner of advice. The more well-resourced campaigns are spending hundreds of thousands, if not millions, on firms and individuals helping them hone their pitch. Leaner campaigns have had to be more creative as they try to curry favor with the electorate with fewer campaign professionals.
Hiram Alejandro Durán/THE CITY
When Sheila Lewandowski moved to Long Island City in the late 1990s, she appreciated the “sense of space and light” in the western Queens neighborhood, once defined by factories, warehouses, and a mix of blue collar workers and creative types like herself.
Now, high-rise buildings erected over the last decade have cast shadows on everything beneath them and the explosive growth of neighborhood residents is also remaking the political map.
Her City Council district, where 20 candidates vie to succeed term-limited Jimmy Van Bramer, has seen
voter registration soar, with 22% more Democrats and 18% more total voters eligible to vote in this June’s primary than the last citywide Council election in 2017.
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For communications strategist Krysten Copeland, the pandemic has been a time of reflection about her work and redefining her purpose.
“I broke down my ‘why’ for every single day for six months, and I realized that why I do (political communications) is beyond winning the race,” she said.
Copeland said she embraced her role as a translator – not one that communicates between two languages but someone who can be an effective political communicator to different cultures and communities. She told New York City Council members she could come over and talk to them for free to begin developing those conversations.