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Brian Lehrer: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning, everyone. Today on the show, philosopher Kate Manne from Cornell on using the term "pregnant people" to refer to, well, pregnant people rather than the term "pregnant women," what it means, what to do about the backlash. Also, the rise and fall of the American shopping mall with architecture critic Alexandra Lange, who has a new book. We'll invite your stories of being a teenage mall rat or however you used to love shopping malls. Maybe you still do. Lange will share some ideas for what to do with those mostly rundown spaces now.

Let's start today with a little game. Which one does not belong? One of the New York Democrats on this list is different from the others. Which one is it? Which one does not belong? Former Mayor Bill de Blasio, former New York City Comptroller, Brooklyn DA, and Brooklyn Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman, current Congressman Mondaire Jones of Westchester and Rockland, state assembly member Yuh-Line Niou from Manhattan, state assembly member Jo Anne Simon from Brooklyn, city council member Carlina Rivera from Manhattan, and former federal prosecutor and MSNBC legal analyst Dan Goldman, best known for being the House impeachment lawyer during the first impeachment trial of Donald Trump.

Which of those does not belong? The answer, which some of you, no doubt, figured out, is former Mayor Bill de Blasio. Because after dropping out this week, he is the only politician on that list not running in the Democratic primary to represent the newly-drawn 10th congressional district comprised mostly of Lower Manhattan and parts of Brownstone Brooklyn such as Park Slope, Red Hook, Sunset Park, and Borough Park. There are even more candidates in that race than I mentioned, totaling about a dozen in all. We'll mention a few more names as we go.

Let's talk about this unusual and unusually crowded field, including the role that real estate industry campaign donations are playing in it now with WNYC and Gothamist political reporter Elizabeth Kim. Among her articles on the race, New York City real estate industry exerts influence on high-profile congressional race and Affordable housing in one of New York's most expensive neighborhoods becomes litmus test in competitive congressional race. Hi, Liz, can't tell the players without a scorecard, right?

Elizabeth Kim: Right, Brian. That was a really good list. I'm glad you read those out.

Brian Lehrer: As you know--

Elizabeth Kim: The list is even longer actually.

Brian Lehrer: Go ahead.

Elizabeth Kim: In the beginning, there were as many as 15. Believe it or not, it actually has whittled down because, now, we are down to 12.

Brian Lehrer: Just 12. Each of the candidates I mentioned are relatively well-known. There are others lesser-known, including one named Elizabeth Kim. Are you running for Congress?

Elizabeth Kim: No, but I think it must be kismet that I'm covering this race because there was someone who was interested in running named Elizabeth Kim. She actually did not make the ballot. I'm not sure whether it's because she didn't have enough signatures or perhaps she changed her mind. I will note though that she raised over $200,000 or the most of that was for a previous race, but that was still pretty impressive for an unknown candidate.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, I would have to recuse myself, by the way, from covering the race if you were running because I would be so biased in your favor.

Elizabeth Kim: Oh. [laughs] Thank you.

Brian Lehrer: In a way, it's good you're not running, but maybe I'll write you in.

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Brian Lehrer: Except I don't live in that district, so I can't. Bill de Blasio was almost certainly the best-known candidate in the race. Why did he drop out?

Elizabeth Kim: In a nutshell, it's a lack of support essentially. The mayor did not leave office with high approval ratings. One of the last polls that I remember looking at showed him being under 40%. In recent weeks, the polling on the congressional race showed him in single digits near the bottom of the pack. His team also did their own internal polling and he didn't do well there either. I sat down actually with the mayor yesterday and we went over this. What he also added was he got the sense that there just wasn't public appetite for him to run again. He said he was very appreciative for the opportunity to go out and campaign and speak to voters, but he also wanted to respect the fact that they wanted someone different.

Brian Lehrer: Here's a clip, folks, if you haven't heard this of the former mayor from his withdrawal announcement video after he said he's been listening to the people of the district.

Bill de Blasio: Even though this is not going to work out, I hope you know how much I appreciate you. We're going to do a lot together to make the city better in the future. I'm feeling like a graduate. I'm also recognizing I made mistakes. I want to do better in the future. I want to learn from those mistakes. It's been a humbling experience at times, but it's been a healthy experience.

Brian Lehrer: He sounds sad, Liz.

Elizabeth Kim: I know. I said the same thing to him yesterday. I said, "You sound sad. Are you sad?" He is sad. Before I forget, I will say that Gothamist is going to publish excerpts of the interview, so your listeners should visit the site tomorrow to look at it. He is very sad. Not only did he say that he's dropping out of the race, he also said that he does not plan to run for office again. This is from a man who loves to campaign. He used to be a strategist. By his own admission, he wants to serve. He wants to keep serving and he thinks he can serve, but not in the capacity of an elected official.

Brian Lehrer: Did he elaborate it all on the mistakes that he referred to in that clip that he believes he made?

Elizabeth Kim: He did. There are some interesting things. I asked him to be more specific because he's talked about that. This was not the first time he's talked about making mistakes. Shortly after leaving office, he wrote an essay in The Atlantic, saying something to the effect of, "I've made mistakes and I want Joe Biden to learn from them." I asked him to be more specific, "Can you talk specifically about policy?"

A lot of it was about what he's talked about before, which is that he wish that he had been a better communicator, that he felt that with his policies, he had all the best intentions. I think he stalwartly believes in those policies, but that he had not done a better job of communicating to the public, and also developing a better rapport or connection with New Yorkers. I think he does regret that. Yes, I'll leave it there.

Brian Lehrer: It's actually such a common answer for a politician, right? When they're asked about failures or mistakes they've made, they say, "Well, I was right on all the issues. I just didn't communicate it well enough to enough people to have them agree with me." I saw a factoid that no New York City mayor has been elected to anything after leaving that office since the 1800s. If it's comforting to him, he's got a lot of company.

Also, I saw our friends, sort of friends of the show because they come on a lot as guests. Fordham political science professor Christina Greer and NY1 anchor Errol Louis say to each other on Errol's show last night that they think de Blasio could still have won in this crowded field because it's such a low turnout election as the best-known candidate. They thought just from a strategic standpoint that he dropped out prematurely. Could there have been any reason other than that he was totally convinced he would lose?

Elizabeth Kim: I asked him about that because I said to him, "Listen, there are five weeks to go. You know as well as anybody that things can change on a dime in an election like candidates can implode." At the end of the day just like Professor Greer and Errol Louis said, he has name recognition. I will say something that really struck me. Shortly after he announced like maybe a day after he announced, I went and I stood in front of the Park Slope Co-op interviewing those patrons coming in and out.

Because not only is that considered the heart of the district in terms of the most engaged voters that people expect to come out for this primary, but it's also in his neighborhood. A lot of the people, a lot of the shoppers that I spoke to knew him. They knew him personally. Some said, "Oh yes, he lives a block away from me," and although they groaned when they heard that or they had already heard that he was planning to make this run and they groaned.

I thought what was interesting was when I asked them, "Are you ruling him out? Does this mean that you won't vote for him?" they wouldn't go that far. They told me they weren't keen on voting for him, but they said they'd listen to what he had to say. When I asked the former mayor about this yesterday, what he said was he still didn't think that he had enough time to change their minds.

This is not a conventional primary by any stretch of the imagination. This is a very strange date to have a primary and we're not really sure who is going to come out for this election. His reasoning was, "Listen, I've been involved in a lot of campaigns." He just did not see a path. There's also the question of resources. He was able to raise over $500,000 and that put him third. In a field of 12, it sounds impressive.

You have to think that the two at the top, Mondaire Jones has over $3 million. Dan Goldman raised over $1.2 million, plus the fact that he has the option of adding his own money. When you look at that, he still can't match up with those two top competitors and he already has campaign debt. I think maybe he had to take that into account as well. He's like, "If I'm not going to win this race and then I rack up even more campaign debt," how does he pay that back?

Brian Lehrer: All right, now that we've talked about the candidate who's no longer in the 10th congressional district primary, we're going to take a short break, and then we're going to talk about these dozen or so candidates who still are, including some of the prominent ones. We'll touch on some of the less prominent ones. We'll get into the role that real estate money may be playing in this race and who's taking real estate money and who's not taking real estate money. Not every Democratic politician even agrees to take real estate money. Looks like most of them in this race are. We'll talk about some of the endorsements that are coming in.

Liz has an article about how endorsements might matter more in this race because there are so many candidates and the turnout is expected to be so low than in many other races. Listeners, if you live in the new 10th congressional district, Lower Manhattan, and we'll call it parts of Brownstone Brooklyn, how are you decided among all these candidates in the Democratic primary, or what questions would you like to ask about them with WNYC and Gothamist political reporter Elizabeth Kim, who's covering the race? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692, or tweet @BrianLehrer as we continue after this.

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Here are some names you may not know. Peter Gleason, Yan Xiong, Jimmy Lee, Maud Maron, Quanda Francis, and Brian Robinson. Those are all candidates for the 10th congressional district nomination in the Democratic Party from Lower Manhattan and inner Brooklyn in addition to the better-known candidates who we mentioned at the top of the show, Liz Holtzman, Mondaire Jones, Yuh-Line Niou, Jo Anne Simon, Carlina Rivera, and Dan Goldman.

What a list. What a primary. What an overwhelming choice. Covering it for WNYC and Gothamist is Elizabeth Kim, who's with us. As I said before the break, we can take your questions on how you're deciding. 212-433-WNYC, 433-9692, or tweet @Brian Lehrer. Liz, remind people exactly how we got to this point. This is like basically all of Lower Manhattan. You tell me where the line is. It looks to my eye roughly like 14th Street, but what is the district and why is it new?

Elizabeth Kim: The district is new because, under redistricting, this was part of the protracted process involving the lawsuit, which Democrats were accused of gerrymandering. This had to be redrawn, I should say, by a special master who came up with the different lines than the ones that Democrats had proposed. That essentially changed this district and created an open seat.

The old 10th district was represented by Jerry Nadler. If you look at the map, it's quite different. It's more of a west side sliver going as far north as Morningside Heights and then traveling down, but sticking more or less to the west side and then going into Brooklyn. They're both combinations of Brooklyn and Manhattan but different parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan, although there is certainly overlap.

The biggest being Lower Manhattan. You're right. The new district is essentially Lower Manhattan. The area below 14th Street. That's how I also ballpark it as well. Then going into Sunset Park, there's parts of Borough Hall in it. There's parts of Red Hook in this district and also what they normally call Brownstone Brooklyn and Park Slope as I previously mentioned.

Brian Lehrer: You said Borough Hall. I think you meant parts of Borough Park, right?

Elizabeth Kim: Yes, sorry, Borough Park.

Brian Lehrer: You described the district as largely white and affluent, but the leading candidates include a number of people of color from relatively humble backgrounds, assembly member Yuh-Line Niou, Congressman Mondaire Jones, city council member Carlina Rivera. What is the path to victory in the district generally seen to be?

Elizabeth Kim: There are two interesting things that I should note when you're talking about the makeup of this district. First, there are just the demographics, who lives there. Even when we look at that, it does tip more, I believe, towards white residents. What's more important for the candidates is not who lives there but who are the Democratic voters and then beyond that, who are the likely primary Democratic voters that would come out for an August 23rd election? When you whittle it down, that's when that group of voters becomes more white and more affluent. The district itself, it contain pockets of Asian voters.

For instance, Chinatown is in this district and Sunset Park has a lot of Asians and Latinos. The Lower East Side is also diverse. At the same time, when you look at something like that because you don't know who's going to come out because there are so many candidates, the idea is if you can still knit together a coalition, if you can get enough progressive white voters to vote for you and then bring along some other coalitions like, per se, the LGBTQ vote or the Latino vote or the Asian vote, that can possibly be a path to victory. You mentioned those three people, Yuh-Line Niou, Mondaire Jones, Carlina Rivera. That's exactly who they are appealing to.

Brian Lehrer: Let's take a call from the district. Victor in Chinatown, you're on WNYC. Hi, Victor.

Victor: Hi. I lived in Chinatown for 72 years and this is the first time that a party boss has not divided Chinatown with some kind of gerrymandering district. It's the first time that a court-ordered district has united the Chinatown populations of both Manhattan and Brooklyn. In the last two years during the pandemic, Chinatown has suffered major xenophobia, anti-Asian hate. Now, they're proposing to build a 50-story jail in Chinatown, homeless shelters. We have 10 and 3 more plans. I think it's time that the Chinatowns finally unite and vote somebody in and to represent us, not these carpetbaggers who are coming from somewhere else. I don't care. They don't know anything about Chinatown and our issues.

Brian Lehrer: Should I assume you're for Yuh-Line Niou, who currently represents the area in the assembly?

Victor: Well, she's one of four Asian candidates, and I think this is an opportunity for the Chinatowns to realize that only one candidate is going to win. They got to wake up and have a strategy to vote as a block. Before, they never were able to because we were already gerrymandering a split into different districts, but it's the first time that the two Chinatowns are in the same district. This is the first time we can demonstrate our unity.

Brian Lehrer: Right, really interesting, Victor. Thank you very much. To his point, Liz, if different kinds of constituencies-- He's talking about Chinese Americans in Chinatown there, any other kinds of particular demographic groups who want to elect one of their own or one they feel represents them well. He mentioned there are four Asian Americans running in this race. I guess he'd like to see three of them drop out so they don't wind up splitting that vote that might see Asian-American candidacy as a plus. That's another hurdle, I guess, for these candidates is how to not split the vote among people very much like you.

Elizabeth Kim: Exactly. It's not just along race, but it's also along gender. I didn't count, but if you could do a quick count of all the female lawmakers or candidates in the race at a time where people are talking about abortion rights and what Congress should do to protect or ensure that, at least, New York further cements those rights for women and also maybe help be a sanctuary city for women in states where abortion is being banned.

I just also want to say that that's an excellent point that Victor made, and other experts have made that point to me as well, is that it's very interesting that this is the first time that you have these two Chinatowns being united. We'll see what happens. That's something that the candidate, Yuh-Line Niou, has spoken about and whether this will be enough to energize that electorate and bring them together and have them come to the primary. It's just a very interesting moment for that at a test, I would say, for that electorate.

Brian Lehrer: The two Chinatowns being Manhattan and Brooklyn, right?

Elizabeth Kim: Yes.

Brian Lehrer: Miranda in Gowanus, another part of the district, you're on WNYC. Hi, Miranda.

Miranda: Hi.

Brian Lehrer: What you got for us?

Miranda: Thank you for having me. We were lucky to have Nydia Velázquez advocating for the Superfund cleanup here in Gowanus. We're really concerned that the next representative also is able to speak out for our concerns, especially with the rezoning that just went through and the large amount of development that's going to happen here.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much. We'll get into development questions through your article about real estate industry donations to some of the candidates. Anything about the Gowanus Superfund cleanup that you want to say? Are they running on that?

Elizabeth Kim: Yes, that has been raised to the candidates. It's certainly an issue that's important to the residents who live in that part of the district. All of the candidates are pretty much on the same page when it comes to things like the environment and getting the kind of federal funding that the city needs to do something like the Superfund cleanup in a proper, thorough, and transparent manner. I don't really think that there has been much difference on that, although I could be wrong. They've been having forums every week up until the primary.

Brian Lehrer: I know they had a climate forum last night. I guess it leads to a larger question, which is, is this crowded primary about issues at all, or are these basically progressive Democrats who agree with each other on almost every issue they'd be involved in Congress, and the voters need to judge on other criteria like potential effectiveness or demographic representation or other things?

Elizabeth Kim: I would say it's the latter, Brian. There was one really good forum that I watched that was hosted by a group of Brooklyn Democratic clubs. Ben Max of Gotham Gazette was the moderator. He did put a very interesting and smart question to all of the candidates, which was, "What federal bill would you immediately support if you were to be elected to Congress?" I remember taking notes on that because I was like, "Oh, that's a great question because it speaks to what they would actually do if they were elected."

You really saw a lot of similarities. Just taking notes and looking at the major candidates, I saw people saying, "Green New Deal, Green New Deal," funding for public housing, the protections for democracy. There's not a whole lot of daylight between these candidates. Fortunately or unfortunately, it almost becomes a little bit about sometimes maybe more nuanced issues or maybe some blunders that they might make.

There was recently some uproar over comments that Dan Goldman had made in an interview he gave to the conservative Jewish outlet Hamodia, in which he kind of seemed to struggle with a question where he says that he misspoke, but in which he suggested that he might be in favor of having some restrictions or be in favor of having some abortion bans if it was beyond fetal viability, which is around 23 weeks, and with the exceptions that it's not due to rape or the woman's life was not involved. Immediately, his fellow candidates, particularly the women, attacked him for that.

During the interview, actually, he did have this moment where right after he answered that question, and this was written up actually in the transcript, he whispered to his aide and they talked it over and then he corrected himself. At the same time, the other candidates seized on that. Some of them said, "This is disqualifying." In the weeks to come, I think it might be more and more of those kinds of moments, especially as more of them do these types of public interviews and go on forums. I think we can look out for more of those kinds of skirmishes.

Brian Lehrer: We're talking about the 10th congressional district Democratic primary, this crowded race in Lower Manhattan, and various neighborhoods in inner Brooklyn. A little bit of breaking news from the AP. President Biden tests positive for COVID-19. The White House says he's experiencing very mild symptoms, is isolating, and taking Paxlovid. That's all we have on that now. I'll bring you more if there's anything more to say about that.

Even the president of the United States, with all the testing that goes on before anybody comes in contact with him, can't be protected from what is probably the BA.5 omicron variant. AP reporting that President Biden has tested positive for COVID-19 with the White House saying he's experiencing very mild symptoms, isolating, and taking Paxlovid. Joseph in the 10th District, you're on WNYC. Hi, Joseph.

Joseph: My candidate is Elizabeth Holtzman, first woman DA, ran against the Brooklyn machine and won, comptroller, and an outstanding congresswoman when she served in Congress.

Brian Lehrer: Joseph, thank you very much. This name has come as a surprise to a lot of people, Liz. Former New York City Comptroller, Brooklyn DA, Brooklyn Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman, 80 years old, rose to national prominence as a young member of the Watergate Committee, was prominent in that, and, of course, went on to these other offices, New York City comptroller, Brooklyn DA.

She ran for US Senate from New York but didn't make it. She's been a commentator. She's been on this show many times because of her Watergate experience. We and other media have turned to her on the impeachment proceedings, on other presidential scandals involving Bush and Cheney, and others along the way. Why is Liz Holtzman running for Congress?

Elizabeth Kim: Because she's been a congresswoman before and she thinks she can do it again. In the first forum that the candidates participated in, her line was, "I fought Richard Nixon and I could take on Donald Trump," the latter suggesting that it's likely that Donald Trump would try to run again. I think she looks at the wealth of experience that she brings to this position and she feels like she's qualified. If you look at her résumé, she is.

Brian Lehrer: She certainly is qualified. Based on her appearances on this show, many, including pretty recently, she certainly got a lot of energy. For people who might be tempted to write her off because she's 80, certainly, as of very recently when she was a guest on this show before she turned back to electoral politics, her mind is certainly very, very sharp. We don't want to say that any of these candidates who are 80 or thereabouts might be both major presidential candidates in 2024, who knows, but don't want to write them off just on the basis of a number.

Some of the endorsements in the race. The Working Families Party endorsed Yuh-Line Niou. The Downtown Independent Democrats, the largest political club in Lower Manhattan in your report, endorsed Jo Anne Simon. The big healthcare workers union, 1199, endorsed Carlina Rivera. Any other prominent endorsements you want to mention at this point?

Elizabeth Kim: I think those are pretty much the big ones. I think you might also add that Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso has endorsed Carlina Rivera. To the extent that your local council members' voice matters, she also has city council members that represent portions of that district backing her.

Brian Lehrer: Do any of those that I mentioned carry special weight as far as you could tell? Certainly, the Working Families Party endorsement of assembly member Yuh-Line Niou for this congressional seat made some news.

Elizabeth Kim: Right. Oh, I should also add that Nydia Velázquez, she's considered a matriarch in the Democratic Party. She endorsed Rivera. That is quite important for her candidacy as well. Of those, I would say Velazquez is important. Also, most of all, I would say the Working Families Party endorsement is very important. That's because they have deep roots in Brooklyn, especially in that part of Brooklyn.

When we're thinking about likely voters, the most engaged voters, it's people who are members of that party who typically vote on the WFP line. I had a professor crunch the numbers for me and look at how often people in that district voted on the Working Families Party line. It's a lot more than in other districts. That will certainly help Yuh-Line.

Brian Lehrer: In a very low turnout primary, whoever can mobilize a base of voters to actually turn out, so that would be unions, that would be the Working Families Party, the people they endorse would certainly have a leg up. If Yuh-Line Niou doesn't win the primary, would she run as a third-party candidate on the Working Families line and challenge the Democratic nominee? Do you know if she's been asked?

Elizabeth Kim: I don't know whether she's been asked that question and I think I'll probably put the question to her the next time I speak to her. I don't know whether she would do that.

Brian Lehrer: Your story on endorsements includes a political analyst who thinks The New York Times endorsement if they make one in this primary will be especially influential in this race. Why is that?

Elizabeth Kim: Because if you look at the parts of this district, Tribeca, Greenwich Village, as we were talking about Park Slope, Brownstone Brooklyn, these are very highly educated, I would say affluent parts of New York City, and they also tend to be New York Times readers. When you have a race with this many candidates and so little time to decide, voters need some kind of clarifying force.

What better than the newspaper of record. I looked at it. They have a mixed record on endorsements. If you look most recently at the Democratic mayoral primary when they endorsed Kathryn Garcia, she didn't win, of course, but it did give her a big bump. It'll be very interesting to see who they choose and what that does for the candidate.

Brian Lehrer: Your article on real estate industry donations in this race, you report that the biggest recipients among the leading candidates are Dan Goldman, Carlina Rivera, and Mondaire Jones. As you also report, this comes after years of progressive Democrats making a point of refusing to take real estate industry money. Why are these congressional primary candidates in this kind of district taking real estate money at all?

Elizabeth Kim: Because there are a lot of candidates and they need to compete and they all need resources. I think any edge they can get in a competitive race, they're not going to-- I think at the end of the day if you look back even to the 2013 mayoral primary, a lot of the candidates, they have anti-real estate rhetoric. At the same time, they did take real estate money. This tends to happen a lot. At the same time, it's shown not to necessarily hurt the candidate. This will also be an interesting test.

A lot has changed since 2013 in the intensity, I think, of the criticism of the real estate industry. I think it's always been there. I think through the years, there have been more progressive Democrats who say, "I'm not taking any money from real estate." That's definitely been something, but that's also why we decided to focus on this industry because it was just interesting to see that they were taking such a big role in this race.

Brian Lehrer: Let me ask you about one of the candidates in particular in this respect, who your article mentioned some big donors too, and that's Dan Goldman, the former House impeachment prosecutor and MSNBC analyst. Developers from the related companies as it's called, The Durst Organization and the real estate and asset management giant Blackstone, all made the maximum allowable contribution of $2,900. In some cases, their spouses and colleagues did so too. Dan Goldman, Liz, is also, as you know, an heir to the Levi Strauss clothing fortune. Why would he even need to take this politically suspect money?

Elizabeth Kim: Because I think the choice for him is, yes, you could think that someone who's wealthy could self-fund, but does it send a better statement to voters to show that you're able to raise this money on your own? I think his calculus is that the latter is because not everyone in this district might feel the same way about real estate money. They might not even notice, pay attention to this list of names, and make those distinctions.

Maybe at the end of the day, what they notice is, "Oh, he was able to raise over $1.2 million in the span of a month," which was pretty impressive. I think that it makes him stand out better than to just give himself a personal loan. I think in recent days, we saw Carolyn Maloney, who's in a very tough race against Jerry Nadler. She made some headlines for giving her campaign a nearly $1 million loan and that's a scrutiny.

Brian Lehrer: Are any of the major candidates in this race, 10th congressional district, explicitly refusing to take real estate money just in case that's a voting issue for people listening right now?

Elizabeth Kim: I have not heard that from the major candidates, but it's worth noting that Yuh-Line knew when we were going through all the donations of what you would call the major contenders or top-known contenders, I should say. She had the least amount or almost insignificant amount of real estate donors, but that did not come as a surprise to us.

She's the Working Families Party's candidate for a reason. Progressive Democrats have been very critical of real estate for trying to push industry-friendly policies that they feel have exacerbated or contributed to the affordable housing crisis. Affordable housing is one of the key issues for Niou on her platform. I would say of the candidates, she hasn't explicitly said she's refusing the money, but she doesn't have much of it.

Brian Lehrer: One more note before we run out of time about one more candidate and his funding, Mondaire Jones. Your report comes with the biggest war chest overall. People who watch a lot of news on TV have definitely seen his commercials. Some of the others are on TV with commercials as well, but Mondaire Jones, he moved from Westchester to Brooklyn apparently just to run this race. His current congressional district is in Westchester and Rockland. He's the congressman from the Tappan Zee Bridge, you might say. Why did he make this move? Is he being received as authentic enough or is being an outsider?

Elizabeth Kim: Mondaire Jones, when he was elected, he was one of the first openly gay members of Congress. He's a frequent MSNBC contributor. He's considered quite popular in his home district. After redistricting, Sean Patrick Maloney, who, if you don't know, is the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which is quite an important position in the party--

Brian Lehrer: Another Hudson Valley Democratic congressman.

Elizabeth Kim: Exactly, announced that he would run for that district. Basically, it put Jones in a real quandary. Does he run against this very prominent Democrat or does he find another way? I guess his decision was that he would find another way and he saw this 10th district as a place where he has connections to as a gay man. He speaks about the birth of the Stonewall movement and he frequently visited there and then he ultimately has moved to Brooklyn.

Now, he is a resident of the district, but I think his challenge though is still being an outsider. He has over $3 million in part because, as I said, he was a very popular Congressman. He was already raising money toward his re-election in his old district. He comes already with that money and then he raised a little bit more in the last month, but not a lot. He now does have the benefit of that money to spend.

Brian Lehrer: We've talked before on the show about how angry a lot of progressives are at Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney after this redistricting. He's the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, meaning he's the one who's supposed to be leading all these Democrats in swing districts around the country to try to hold the House and know how to run in swing districts and everything.

Rather than stay in what is basically his current district, which might be now a little more competitive for a Republican, and try to lead by example and win in a swing district himself, he did what many progressives see as poaching Mondaire Jones by declaring in that district. The domino effect pushed Jones to move to Brooklyn and join the 10th congressional district primary scrum. There, we leave it for today with WNYC and Gothamist reporter Liz Kim, who among other things is covering this 10th congressional primary district.

Remember, voters, the primary for this and all the congressional races and all the state senate races is on August 23rd. If you're not already registered, register. If you're an absentee ballot voter recently, you need to send for an absentee ballot for this one. The deadline is one of the days in early August. I don't have the exact date, but you don't have that much time left. Obviously, Liz, you'll continue to cover the 10th congressional district race. Considering all these people in it and what's at stake, I think we'll be talking again.

Elizabeth Kim: I hope so, Brian. Thank you so much for having me.

 

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