The Democratic primary for New York City comptroller was a close race. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer beat out former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, winning 52 percent of the vote. But when it came to race and ethnicity, Spitzer was an overwhelming favorite among black and Latino voters.
Leading up to last week’s primary, various news outlets ran stories discussing Spitzer and Anthony Weiner’s appeal to minority voters. Take, for instance, this New York Times headline: “Among Blacks, Spitzer and Weiner Find a More Forgiving Crowd”.
Weiner was a non-factor come primary day. But Spitzer kept it close down to the wire, winning 66 percent of the black vote and 54 percent of the Hispanic vote. Stringer, by comparison, won 67 percent of the white vote and cleaned up among high-income voters.
This graphic from WNYC puts the racial split in relief. Red represents the share of New York Democrats who voted for Stringer, blue the share that went for Spitzer:
Look a map of how each district voted, and you get a fairly comprehensive outline of how New York City has gentrified over the years:
But it’s not a matter of trust or forgiveness. It’s policy and the optics of inner-city crime.
“I wouldn’t characterize it as trust from his transgressions or fall from grace,” says Darrick Hamilton, an associate professor of economics and urban policy at The New School who lives in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. “The narrative about urban crime is always a depiction of these young blacks and Latinos that are out of control and they need to take personal responsibility.”
Spitzer’s approach to crime-fighting policy, though, doesn’t fit that mold. “When one thinks of Eliot Spitzer,” Hamilton continues, “they think of somebody who was no-nonsense with regard to crime regardless of income or circumstance. If you were doing wrong, he was coming after you. He went beyond inner-city crimes and the depiction of young black and Latinos with their pants down committing crimes. And I suspect that resonated with blacks and Latinos.”
This isn’t about identity politics. Black and Latino voters don’t necessarily find Spitzer to be more human in the wake of his prostitution scandal. It’s about educated voters who felt that Spitzer understands the breadth of crime in New York City and knows that it’s not just about saggy pants.
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Bill Bradley is a writer and reporter living in Brooklyn. His work has appeared in Deadspin, GQ, and Vanity Fair, among others.