With Election Nearing, Politicians Collide at Parade

NEW YORK — A who’s who of New York’s political power structure — and those who aspire to crash it — descended on a small stretch of Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn on Monday, seeking votes amid the bright and bedazzled costumes and pulsating beats of the city’s annual West Indian American Day Parade.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s campaign handed out sweat towels — “Caribbeans for Cuomo,” they read — on a sweltering day. Cynthia Nixon, his challenger, waved from her own parade float while her volunteers passed out bilingual campaign literature to anyone who would take it.

With less than two weeks until a rare Thursday primary in September, the undercard candidates, for attorney general, lieutenant governor and state Senate, all canvassed the crowds. Some politicians with a far longer horizon — no less than three possible candidates for mayor of New York City in 2021 — made appearances, too.

“Everybody knows if you’re running for office, you have to be here,” said Jumaane Williams, who is challenging Cuomo’s lieutenant governor, Kathy Hochul. He had an “Is it FASCISM yet?” button on his shirt near the pin that identifies him as a city councilman.

“I get tired of seeing the same elected officials coming once a year and giving the same speeches,” Williams added.

Cuomo, in a short-sleeved white button-down shirt with a giant seal of New York emblazoned above the breast pocket, addressed a pre-parade breakfast and continued to pitch himself as more an opponent of President Donald Trump than of Nixon. Cuomo also made the day’s most memorable flub, when he mistakenly included the mother of Rep. Yvette Clarke in a list of local leaders who have recently died.

“Una Clarke, God rest her soul,” Cuomo told a crowd before the parade began. The gasps were audible. “Una Clarke, who is with us here today,” he quickly corrected.

Nixon had no such moment at the microphone, one of the many advantages of incumbency she does not enjoy. Standing on a street corner flanked by Williams and Zephyr Teachout, a candidate for attorney general who had run against Cuomo in 2014, Nixon declared momentum to be on the side of the insurgents.

“I think we’re all part of a progressive wave,” Nixon said of the trio.

Nixon had spent the weekend barnstorming upstate New York, with stops in Rochester, Saratoga Springs, Ithaca, Schenectady and Kingston, drawing some of her larger crowds of the campaign after her debate with Cuomo last Wednesday.

“We just had an incredible weekend,” said Teachout, who had joined Nixon on the trail.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who is up for re-election this fall, stopped by the parade the day after she had endorsed four Democratic challengers to the former members of the Independent Democratic Conference, a breakaway faction of Democrats who had previously joined in a coalition with Republicans in the state Senate.

“I think what the IDC represented was corruption in Albany,” Gillibrand said.

Gillibrand said she had already cast her ballot early (she has endorsed Cuomo for re-election) but declined to say whom she is supporting for attorney general, the lone open statewide office, calling the decision “personal.”

In addition to Teachout, Letitia James, the New York City public advocate, Leecia Eve, a former adviser to Cuomo and Hillary Clinton, and Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney are all running.

“I would like a woman attorney general” is all Gillibrand would say, calling all the women “outstanding in terms of professionalism, experience, temperament and vision.”

While it was mostly Democrats at the parade, Marc Molinaro, the Republican candidate for governor, showed some understated dance moves as his supporters waved “Believe Again!” campaign placards. “In order to serve you New Yorkers, you have to get to know New Yorkers,” the Dutchess County executive said.

And while Molinaro suggested he is expecting to face Cuomo in the general election, he predicted that Nixon would exceed her standing in the polls, finishing as close as 10 points behind Cuomo.

In one of the more subdued moments of the day, Cuomo announced that a new community center in Brooklyn would be named after a former aide, Carey W. Gabay, who was killed three years ago during J’Ouvert, the early-morning festival that precedes the parade.

Cuomo was all smiles as he expressed confidence about the fate of not just his re-election but his preferred ticket: Hochul (“I think Kathy Hochul is going to do well,” he said) and James (citing her “strong reputation” in New York City, he said “she’s going to be very competitive.”)

“Worried? No,” Cuomo said of his ticketmates. “I think it’s an election and people will have to do what they’ll have to do.”

With that, he was off to march alongside Hochul, James and Rev. Al Sharpton.