District 2 City Councilmember Carlina Rivera made it official yesterday, announcing that she is running for Congress in the newly redrawn 10th District that spans parts of Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn.NY-10 is my home. It's where I was born and raised, where I learned the importance of community.
— Carlina Rivera 利華娜 (@CarlinaRivera) June 1, 2022
My love for this city drives everything I do—and now, I'm running for Congress to help build a future that every New Yorker can see themselves in.
¡Vamos!: https://t.co/SdCbxwn3BB pic.twitter.com/cdjdorxGDU
The new 10th District leans heavily Democratic, spanning all of Manhattan below 14th Street and areas of Brooklyn spanning Dumbo and Brooklyn Heights to Park Slope all the way to Sunset Park and Borough Park. Whomever wins the Democratic primary in August is expected to cruise to a November general election victory.First elected to the Council in 2017, Rivera now represents several Manhattan neighborhoods where she'll be wooing voters, including parts of Chinatown and the Lower East Side, the East Village and Alphabet City.
In a phone interview on Tuesday, Rivera listed housing and climate change among the top issues in the district and touted her efforts to expand affordable housing development and climate resiliency.
A POLITICO analysis of the 2018 Democratic primary for governor — the last year New Yorkers voted in a midterm election — showed that parts of Rivera's lower Manhattan district, including Chinatown and the Lower East Side, voted in far fewer numbers than Park Slope and Cobble Hill. Not only did those Brooklyn areas lead turnout in the newly drawn congressional seat, they are consistently among the highest-performing districts across the city, election returns and data from the CUNY’s Center for Urban Research show. They are also the home turf of competitors, including de Blasio and Simon.
And...
While she doesn’t have the baggage of former Mayor Bill de Blasio ... she also doesn't have his near-universal name recognition. What's more, Rivera hails from lower Manhattan and hasn't appeared on the ballot in some of the most civically active neighborhoods within the district, which de Blasio represented for eight years in the Council.
While she grew up in the district — unlike fellow hopeful Rep. Mondaire Jones , whose nearest office is more than 20 miles away — she now lives eight blocks north of its boundaries. And she has just begun to fundraise, whereas Jones already has $2.9 million in the bank as of the most recent filing.
Still, her team believes she will prevail, as outlined in an email — titled "Carlina Rivera NY-10 Path to Victory" — sent to media outlets yesterday.
We believe that Council Member Rivera has the clearest and most straightforward path to victory in NY-10 of any announced or potential candidate in the race.
Rivera has a reliable voter base in Council District 2, the clear ability to win Hispanic voters across Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, a history of winning in NYCHA and housing cooperatives, and a proven appeal to high-turnout liberal voters in racially and economically diverse neighborhoods throughout the district who aligned with Maya Wiley and Kathryn Garcia in the 2021 Democratic mayoral primary.
No other candidate in this race combines such a strong existing constituency with such a clear path to building a district-wide coalition, and no other candidate has been able to secure such a strong level of support from elected officials both within the district and around the city.
A recent poll conducted by PIX11/Emerson College/The Hill (before Rivera entered the race) found that 77% of Democratic voters in the district are undecided on who they would vote for in the Aug. 23 primary.
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For further listening: Carlina Rivera on Running for Congress in the New NY-10 (Podcast at Gotham Gazette)
32 comments:
So maybe now would be a good time to explain her subsidized housing situation, before entering politics, while her husband was making 250K annual income?
I am on the fence on this one. If she wins her bid for a seat in Congress, she will be gone from our our neighborhood and her betrayal of those who voted for her will end. However if she wins, she will be given a chance to betray many more of us on a more expansive scale.
Anyone But Bill.
After the East River Park my support for Carlina is tepid but I'll work for any "Stop de Blasio" movement. We're gonna need garlic, mirrors and a stake.
Is this the best our city has to offer - Rivera & DeBlasio ? I’ll vote for the rent is too damn high guy before I vote for either of them.
Honestly AOC is going to be the king maker in this district
whichever gets AOC endorsement Jones or Rivera will propel them to victory.
I wish they'd restructure the City Council East & West so we could be represented by Erik Bottcher. He's doing a great job.
I'd vote for Erik Bottcher if he were running but I really would
like to see Chris Marte in the mix. I'm with anonymous June 2nd 8:38 am. I'd vote for "The Rent is Too Damn High" guy before I'd vote foe DeBlasio or Rivera.
Well, surprise, surprise! Carlina wants out of this local gig which just isn't high-profile enough for her.
Because, la-di-dah, SHE is meant for bigger things (things with more power and definitely with higher salaries, lobbyist $$$, and bigger megaphones).
I'd say she's the classic case of grasping at power while pretty much doing nada of value or help for her actual constituents
Hell will freeze over before I ever vote for her for ANYTHING.
I really don't want to live in her NYC: a clear cut wasteland without a single living thing. That's what she does. Not what she says.
Let’s elect someone who wants to be here
If you want your park taken away, vote Carlina! If you want someone to bend to REBNY, vote Carlina! If you want someone to say they care about our neighborhood then six months later make a career move against that sentiment, vote Carlina!
I'm on board for "The Rent's Too High" guy also before Rivera. And agree that I wish Erik Bottcher had our district. I'm on his mailing list and get actual information about actual things happening for people in his district. Can we just get a sharpie & redraw the lines?
She sold us out on the East River Park. I'm so missing the Park these days. Just another real estate tool, perpetually running for her next office, disguised as a progressive.
Politico pointed out that she might have grown up in the district but she does not live in the new district 10. She lives 8 blocks north…
The only thing I recall her doing recently is writing a very public, strongly worded letter asking the NYPD to leave the Homeless Encampments alone. This is more than enough for me to never want to vote for her again for anything. Also when I contacted her office to help with a couple weeks of Unemployment I was owed from the beginning of the pandemic they did nothing but add more layers of the bureaucracy I was seeking relief from.
Carlina is exactly what we don't need more of in Washington or City Hall: Yet another grasping Careerist obsessed with her own ambition.
Carlina Rivera's political ambitions are well known!
She's well coached.
Agree with the "is this the best we can do?" sentiment. Hard to forgive her complete about-face on the Tech Hub, which taught me that nothing she says can be believed. An August 23rd primary is a disaster.
While I’ve also been disappointed by Carlina, I will vote for a Republican before I vote for Bill DeBlasio.
Is it possible that Rivera - and even de Blasio - might not have been well suited for local office, but could still be strong liberal voices in Congress? That’s not a rhetorical question, I am really wondering. Also find the “too ambitious” comments to be sexist - there is no reason she should not run.
I was her hugest fan, but she lost me when her office didn't respond to our complaints about the outdoor dining shed that literally drove people out of my building. There was also the tech building zoning fiasco and the destruction of the East River Park. She is too tied to special interests whether it's the hospitality lobby or the tech industry.
NOPE.
She’s a typical politician. Considering her Brooklyn competition I’m surprised she’s going for it (but I guess you can do that when you have $$$). Anyone but Deblasio…
Erik Battcher is a lovely, smart, hard-working, considerate leader new to elected office as a Council member. But like with any New York politician, he will be picked apart by the relentless media and special interest groups until his prospects for higher office are damaged too.
She betrayed her constituents in the most terrible and fundamental way: by stripping us of our critical outdoor space and its nearly 1000 70-year old trees. This is unforgivable. We will now fight her political aspirations in any and every way.
What with Rivera, de Blasio and now Eric Adams, I feel NYC just can't get the leaders it NEEDS: leaders who will do the right thing for the good of the majority of its citizens.
New Yorkers deserve better; it's almost as if we are in some abusive relationship where we keep electing people who let us down so badly.
This is really a horrible situation. Let down by Carlina. BS-ed De Blasio. A jerry rigged new district. You are right anonymous, it's not just abusive, it's sadistic. We are being tortured.
Please AOC - don’t support DeBlasio!
As a long term resident of the EV, and someone whom voted for Carlina in the past, I will not be fooled once more. This is a big fat NO from me. Following her fervent support of the destruction of East River Park, not to mention her apathy and lack of real effort towards other issues facing our community, I will vote for her opponent. I am a liberal, educated, professional gay man in his forties who sadly believed in the narrative she peddled. I feel like an idiot for how she purported an agenda for all, which only seems to serve her and her husband, and to ultimately satisfy her cravings for power, prominence, and wealth on the proverbial ladder we refer to as politics.
Wow, Carlina Rivera really fooled voters who voted for her last year, to think she wanted to be in City Council for another two years. She lost the speaker of the council race and now less than 6 months in office, she's campaigning for her next gig, as opposed to working her day job. Climate change is a concern for her - her track record with East River Park should make every voter run away. I hate to think what she would do if she had more coastline to represent.
I don't know what the big issues are on the Brooklyn side of NY10, so I am curious to learn and see if/how they overlap with Lower Manhattan's issues.
I would like to note that Maud Maron, who lives in Lower Manhattan / NY10, and Laura Thomas are also running for NY10.
After how she supported the complete destruction of East River Park and hundreds of climate-change-fighting mature trees--during COVID and a demonstrated need for green space, no less--I can't believe she cites "climate change" as one of her pet issues. I am definitely voting for candidates who might actually connect what they say to what they do. And I'm voting for candidates who might care about how major so-called "resiliency" projects might impact the health and well being of their constituents. No more greenwashing!
I will definitely NOT be voting for Carlina Rivera. She lied to her constituents about the Tech building zoning and the East River Park - she can’t be trusted!
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