New York City
Who’s trending in the NYC public advocate’s race?
A look at which New York City public advocate candidate got the biggest post-debate bump this week.
Nomiki Konst during the second new york city public advocate debate Stefan Jeremiah for the New York Post (poll)
In the second official New York City public advocate debate this week, seven of the candidates had a chance to make another pitch directy to voters. And with less than a week to go until the Feb. 26 special election, some voters are just starting to turn in.
So who spurred the most activity on Twitter? To find out, City & State once again partnered with Global Strategy Group, which analyzed the candidates to see who got the most buzz the day of the debate and into the following morning.
Out of the 17-candidate field, just seven met the Campaign Finance Board’s qualifications for the debate, down from 10 in the first official debate.
Nomiki Konst, one of the few top contenders who is not already serving in elected office, continued to dominate on Twitter.
Konst, who has the largest following on Twitter amongst the candidates, also had the most popular tweet.
On City & State’s post-debate Twitter poll, City Councilman Jumaane Williams came out ahead, with 19 percent of the 931 votes cast. A much larger share – 59 percent – voted for “someone else,” and the vast majority of the people who replied on Twitter were in favor of Konst. (Twitter polls only allow for four options.) But only 164 people, or just under 18 percent of the poll, actually replied, giving Williams the slight individual advantage.
Results following the first debate on February 6:
On Wednesday night, 10 of the candidates for New York City public advocate crowded onto the stage for the first of two official debates – and the two-hour affair didn’t even include another seven contenders who failed to make the cut.
While the race may be flying under the radar for some New Yorkers, given that it’s a special election in February for an office that isn’t widely understood, the often heated debate still generated a lot of attention online.
So who spurred the most activity on social media? To find out, City & State partnered with Global Strategy Group, which conducted an analysis of which candidates got the most buzz the day of the debate and into the following morning.
Of the 10 candidates who qualified for the debate, two were far ahead of the pack in online mentions on Twitter. Interestingly, two of the three female candidates in the debate field led the way.
Nomiki Konst, one of two candidates on the stage who has not already served in elected office, capitalized on her large Twitter following with a tweet – repeating one of the more noteworthy proposals from any candidates – that got the most retweets.
City & State also posted a Twitter poll – which is limited to four options – asking who won the debate, and Assemblyman Michael Blake came in first, garnering 33 percent of the votes. City Councilman Eric Ulrich got 25 percent, former Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito got 18 percent, and another 24 percent were write-in votes – led by Konst, who came in fourth place.
NEXT STORY: Fact-checking the second NYC public advocate debate