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Presented by CVS Health
The woman who accused mayoral hopeful Scott Stringer of sexual misconduct
has filed a formal complaint with state Attorney General Tish James, opening a new front after her accusations against the city comptroller
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In the Democratic primary for mayor, the battle for the race’s left lane may come down to two first-time candidates: Dianne Morales and Maya Wiley.
If endorsements are any measure, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer’s campaign is sputtering in the wake of an accusation of sexual assault, which he denies. Most of his high-profile endorsers pulled away from his campaign, including Rep. Jamaal Bowman, the Working Families Party and a slew of young, progressive legislators who were supposed to lend Stringer, a career Democratic insider, credibility with the left wing of the party.
It’s possible, given the growing evidence that older Democrats are less moved by sexual harassment allegations than they used to be, that Stringer’s campaign will not entirely collapse, especially with the $7 million he still has in the bank. But Stringer was never at the front of the pack to begin with, typically placing third in recent polls behind Andrew Yang and Brooklyn Borough Pres
arrow Dianne Morales greets a new volunteer at Jackson Heights Greenmarket on Sunday Cindy Rodriguez / Gothamist
Dianne Morales had a cold. Not COVID, she’s fully vaccinated, but when she arrived at the Jackson Heights Greenmarket on Sunday, acutely aware that this was a pivotal moment in the mayor’s race and for her candidacy, she was battling congestion and a slight sore throat. So she did what we’ve all learned to do: she wore two masks and proceeded with caution.
Dressed in a white shirt, linen blazer, and black pants, she elbow-bumped and chatted with prospective voters and volunteers, posing for pictures and listening to the issues that mattered to them. Her stump speech, which she delivers at campaign events like this one, is as much about making a case for her own candidacy as it is about broader involvement.
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The pandemic has taken a disproportionate toll on people of color across the board. Rates of COVID-19 infection are higher, death rates are higher and vaccinations are rolling out more slowly in Black and Latino communities.
The same can be said for the pandemic’s impact on New York’s small businesses. “We are mired, right now, in pandemics,” said Michael Garner, chief diversity officer at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, at City & State’s Diversity Summit in February. “A health pandemic, a fallout economically. When this country is in a recession, Black America is in a depression.”
A report last summer found that nationally, 41% of Black-owned businesses, 32% of Latino-owned businesses and 26% of Asian-owned businesses had closed either temporarily or permanently, compared to 17% of white-owned businesses. And in New York, businesses owned by people of color have struggled to access funds from federal relief programs. A report by New York City Compt