Yusef Salaam, an exonerated member of the “Central Park Five,” is set to win a seat Tuesday on the New York City Council, marking a surprising reversal of fortune for a political newcomer who was wrongfully imprisoned when was a teenager in the infamous rape case.
Salaam, a Democrat, will represent a central Harlem district on the City Council, having run unopposed for the seat in one of many local elections taking place across New York state on Tuesday. He won his primary election in a landslide.
The victory will come more than two decades after DNA evidence was used to overturn the convictions of Salaam and four other black and Latino men for the 1989 rape and beating of a white jogger in Central Park. Salaam was imprisoned for almost seven years.
“To me, this means that we can truly become the wildest dreams of our ancestors,” Salaam said in an interview before the election.
Elsewhere in New York City, voters will decide whether to re-elect the Queens district attorney and cast their votes in another City Council election. The council, which passes laws and has some oversight powers over city agencies, has long been dominated by Democrats and the party is certain to maintain firm control after the election.
Local elections on Long Island could offer clues about how the city’s suburbs might vote in next year’s congressional elections.
The races for Suffolk County executive and North Hempstead supervisor have been the most notable, although they are expected to have low turnout because they are being held in a year with no federal or state candidates on the ballot.
“Keeping an eye on Long Island, which has been a bit mixed in its election results in recent years with a mix of national and local issues, gives you a chance to see what’s going on in a typical suburb that’s not unlike the of Pennsylvania. , Michigan, North Carolina, Virginia, Arizona, Nevada and other places that both sides believe are in play,” said Lawrence Levy, executive dean of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University on Long Island.
Democrats lost all four of Long Island’s congressional districts last year and have devoted significant resources to the region for 2024. Republicans, driving campaigns focused on local issues such as crime and immigrants, aim to hold onto the seats next year.
Meanwhile, in the city, Salaam’s candidacy is a reminder of what the war on crime can be like when it goes too far.
Salaam was just 15 years old when he was arrested along with Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise and accused of attacking a woman jogging in Central Park.
The crime dominated the city’s headlines, stoking racial tensions as police detained black and Latino men and boys for questioning. Former President Donald Trump, then a brash real estate executive in the city, took out large newspaper ads imploring New York to reinstate the death penalty.
The teenagers convicted of the attack served between five and 12 years in prison before the case was re-examined.
A serial rapist and killer was finally linked to the crime through DNA evidence and a confession. The Central Park Five’s convictions were overturned in 2002 and they received a combined $41 million settlement from the city.
Salaam campaigned to alleviate poverty and combat gentrification in Harlem. He often mentioned his conviction and imprisonment in the process: his place as a symbol of injustice helped energize the overwhelmingly black district and propelled it to victory.
“I’m really everyone’s pain ambassador,” he said. “In many ways, I went through that for our people and now I get to lead them.”
In a more competitive City Council race on Tuesday, Democrat Justin Brannan faces Republican Ari Kagan in an ethnically diverse southern Brooklyn district. The election has become heated as the candidates approach Election Day, with both arguing over the war between Israel and Hamas and New York’s migrant crisis.
In a snub that symbolizes the tension between the two men, Brannan recently tweeted a photo of an inauguration ceremony he and Kagan attended, but Kagan’s face was blurred in the image.
Statewide, New Yorkers will vote on two ballot measures. One would eliminate the debt limit imposed on small-city school districts under the state Constitution. The second would extend an exclusion from the debt limit for sewer projects.
