NY Times has approached NYC thought leaders to weigh in on mayoral race

The New York Times Editorial Board may no longer be granting its coveted endorsement to New York City mayoral candidates, but that doesn’t mean the opinion section of the paper is staying completely out of the race this election cycle. In early June, the publication plans to release an assortment of perspectives on the candidates from at least 10 to 12 experts across politics, law and business, as well as former government officials recruited to weigh in on the competitive race, three sources with knowledge of the matter told City & State.

The Times has reached out to a group of experts including Partnership for New York City CEO Kathryn Wylde, Howard Wolfson, former deputy mayor under the Bloomberg administration, Jared Trujillo, a law professor at City College of New York, former state Sen. Iwen Chu and Fordham University professor Christina Greer and Amit Singh Bagga, Democratic strategist and government veteran. 

Details are still being formalized – and often shifting – but each expert was asked to share their opinions on how the candidates would tackle a series of issues, including their public safety, education, quality of life and housing plans. Panelists have been asked to provide their perspectives on the race, though it’s unclear how their responses will ultimately end up being displayed. It’ll likely include some sort of visualization element. The opinion section has been interviewing the participants and plans to bring everyone together for a group discussion.

A New York Times spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.

The Times editorial board first backed away from making endorsements in local elections over the summer – a decision that immediately made waves across state politics. (Presidential endorsements were not impacted.) The change was a big deal. The Times’ editorial board has made an endorsement in every single New York City mayoral election going back to 1987, often resulting in measurable boosts for the candidates they’d backed. After the Times endorsed former Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia in the 2021 Democratic mayoral primary, her campaign saw a spike in fundraising and media attention. While she’d been a relatively unknown candidate upon entering the race, Garcia ended up finishing in second place.

This year, the Times is seen as one of the few influencers in New York City that could bolster any candidate’s chances against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s massive lead in the ongoing primary race. Recent polling showed Cuomo leads the next candidate by 20 points. He’s also backed with spending from a massive independent expenditure committee that has raised millions of dollars. 

A few months after the change in endorsement policy was announced, it seemed like the Times might not be completely done with weighing in on local races after all. Semafor reported in January that the board was continuing to reconsider the value of future endorsements. Asked by New York Magazine in a story published Friday, Opinion Editor Kathleen Kingsbury declined to say whether the board would endorse in the upcoming mayoral race because she didn’t want to “spoil it,” although the reporter noted that a whiteboard in an employee’s office was covered with names of prominent New Yorkers the board was thinking of interviewing.