4 hours Ago By Carl Campanile, Craig McCarthy, David Propper
The Big Apple should overhaul its primary elections and pull critical land-use power from the City Council, the city’s Charter Revision Commission is expected to recommend this week, sources said Tuesday. A report with the proposals from the independent panel convened by Mayor Eric Adams could drop as early as Wednesday, but any potential changes would still need to be approved by voters and would likely come too late for Hizzoner to take advantage of with his campaign for another four years a long shot. The 13-member commission , which started its work in December , is expected to offer two different possible changes to primary elections.
One proposal would call on the city to hold a non-partisan primary in which all Democratic and Republican candidates would be on the same ballot and the top two candidates — regardless of party — would move on to the general election in November, according to sources familiar with the matter. It’s unclear if independents would be allowed to vote in that primary or just Republicans and Democrats, under that proposal. However, the other recommendation would allow independent voters with no political party affiliation to vote in the city’s primaries, sources said.
A source familiar with the commission’s discussions told The Post the city needs to get more voters involved in the electoral process. “Twenty percent of registered voters don’t belong to a political party. A lot of young voters are not registered with a political party,” the source said.
“Non-partisan or open primaries would give more voters a say in who gets elected mayor. Why close them out?” Adams, who dropped out of the Democratic primary earlier this month and is now running as an independent, has also been a vocal critic of the current primary system. The commission is also expected to target the City Council’s zoning power and suggest lawmakers should no longer have the final say on development projects across the five boroughs.
Instead, the mayoral administration should have the ability to override the Council’s decision, the panel is expected to recommend, according to sources. Queens Councilman Robert Holden, a moderate Democrat, slammed the possibility of council members losing zoning control. “Any effort to end member deference and override the will of the people by stripping their elected representative’s voice on zoning is nothing more than a blatant power grab and a gift to developers,” he told The Post.
“The council must oppose this at all costs to preserve local control and protect our neighborhoods.” Former First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, before her resignation, led the charge behind the scenes to dilute the council’s land use sway after council members partly scaled back Adams’ sprawling City of Yes housing plan, sources said. Any proposition would be left up to voters in November, should Adams decide to have them appear on the ballot.
But with Hizzoner dealing with poor polling numbers due to his scandal-scarred term, it’s unlikely he’ll get another four years in office when he would have gotten to work with the possible changes. “Too little, too late. The mayor and Charter Revision Commission can’t even weaponize the charter properly,” a Democratic operative told The Post.
“If they were in charge of a funeral home, people would stop dying.” This is the second charter commission formed by Adams after the first panel approved five ballot proposals that went before voters last year..
