Queens Votes

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**Brian Lehrer** (0:40)
It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. Now we're gonna spend some time in Queens related to the New York primary that's underway. Between Nick's fever, the World Cup's arrival, and some beautiful weather, you'd be forgiven for forgetting that early voting is already underway, and campaigning is reaching its peak before primary day itself, which is next Tuesday. But Queens is really interesting this year. It has some of the most crowded, competitive races in the city, up and down the ballot. Candidates are running on everything from a casino at City Field to APEC money. Local, national, and global issues are all colliding in what we can fairly call the world's borough, right? If you know the population breakdown of Queens, it is the world's borough. With me now to try to make sense of it all is S. Mitra Kalita, co-founder of URL Media and CEO and publisher of Epicenter-NYC.
Mitra, always great to have you. Welcome back to WNYC.

**S. Mitra Kalita** (1:42)
Thanks so much, Brian. It's great to be with you.

**Brian Lehrer** (1:44)
So big picture first. Why is this year's primary season in Queens so animated right now?

**S. Mitra Kalita** (1:51)
Well, I think I would liken it to 2021 when you had the exodus of the city council and you just had a number of people raising their hands to run and you had very crowded races. So the last time I felt this much energy, hundreds of people showing up at candidate forums was indeed a few years ago.
I think you have a few things going on. One, people are leaving their seats. There's an old guard in the assembly and state senate. You have a Mamdani effect as well. So you have a number of candidates who are running as progressive left candidates, I think emboldened by seeing what happened in the city last year. Then I think you also have the tactics being used on social media, like people speaking directly to voters and seeing this as an opportunity to throw their hats in the ring. So I think you have a collision of a few trends in New York right now. You also have very, very diverse races. So that's just super interesting to me because I think in New York, we've had a lot of coalition building, we've had, for example, like South Asian Democratic Club or Muslim political engagement organization, and some of the fruits of that now, you're seeing people raising their hands to be much more a part of elected office.

**Brian Lehrer** (3:15)
Yeah, that's a lot. Now listeners, we can make part of this segment, our latest informal, unofficial, thoroughly unscientific New York primary exit poll. Who are you voting for for any race that's taking place in Queens? It can be for Congress, it can be for State Assembly, anything else, electioneering. Welcome here, as early voting is underway. Who are you voting for for any open seat in Queens? 212-433. I shouldn't even say open seat because some of them are contested seats against incumbents. 212-433-WNYC. From the 718, call in to the 212-433-WNYC.
212-433-9692. Let's- or text. Let's talk about the Mamdani effect that you mentioned.
This is the first primary season since Mayor Mamdani took office in City Hall, of course. And before moving to Gracie Mansion, he began his political career in Western Queens, part of the area nicknamed, and I'd say affectionately nicknamed, the Commie Corridor by the political analyst, Michael Lang. So is a lot of this taking place in that kind of Western Queens, Astoria, Long Island City, Sunnyside, that whole area? It is, yeah. More than even other parts of the borough, partly because of Mamdani coming out of there?

**S. Mitra Kalita** (4:49)
Can you hear me?

**Brian Lehrer** (4:50)
Yeah, I can hear. It does sound like there's another voice in the background. Is that coming from your end somehow?

**S. Mitra Kalita** (4:59)
I'm talking to you right now. Do you hear me?

**Brian Lehrer** (5:01)
I hear you. Do you hear me?

**S. Mitra Kalita** (5:03)
Yes, I do.

**Brian Lehrer** (5:04)
We're good. So we'll figure out whatever that other source is, but you can continue. Go ahead, Mitra.