What about the Council?
The Democratic Socialists of Americas bid to gain a foothold in the City Council appeared far from assured after the polls closed Tuesday night and New Yorkers began a potentially weekslong wait for the political bent of the legislative branch to come into focus. With more than two-thirds of the body term-limited, Tuesdays historic election will usher in a dramatically different city legislature to chart the citys course out of the economic and social wreckage of the pandemic. The full results will not be known until the citys Board of Elections receives absentee ballots and begins the ranked-choice voting tabulations for any race where a majority winner was not crowned. But a few outcomes seemed clear: It was a good night for incumbents, with the exception of Council members Alicka Ampry-Samuel and Darma Diaz, two Brooklyn lawmakers who appeared to lose to challengers. Harlems Bill Perkins was also only narrowly ahead. Several open races, including a Bronx seat where Marjorie Velzquez won a majority, were decided or appeared close to over. DSA-backed Tiffany Cabn  who narrowly lost a race for Queens district attorney in 2019  was one of the candidates to come within striking distance of an outright win in an open district, netting just under 50 percent of the vote. She has a 23-point lead in first-place votes for the Astoria seat vacated by Costa Constantinides, according to unofficial election night returns. Cabn is the most prominent member of a six-member slate of far-left candidates hoping to push cuts to the police department and shake up the city's land-use process. Alexa Avils, another DSA-backed hopeful, ended the night with a healthy lead for the Council seat based in Sunset Park and Red Hook, with 44 percent of the vote  25 points ahead of her nearest competitor. Working against that leftward push, however, will undoubtedly be more moderate Democrats such as Queens Council Member Bob Holden, who won the Democratic nomination outright Tuesday night. Holden has toyed with the idea of starting a common sense caucus that would push back against any cuts to the NYPD and at one point had 10 members interested. ITS WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23: Welcome to PM Playbook, an afternoon check-in to spill the days tea  as we know it thus far  during one of the busiest seasons in New York politics. Its the email version of the sweet caffeine that carries your brain from lunch to dinner. Shoot an email to [email protected] in Albany and [email protected] in NYC or send a shout on Twitter. Programming note: This is the last week of New York's PM Playbook. Please keep reading the morning edition by Anna and Erin Durkin and we'll see you all down the line. Covid-19 Update  GOV. ANDREW CUOMO said today that he is ending the state-of-emergency declaration enacted last year as Covid-19 began spreading in New York. The declaration expires on Thursday. CDC mask-wearing requirements for unvaccinated people and for public transportation and other settings will remain in effect. The emergency is over, Cuomo said at a New York City news conference. The state of emergency that I had declared in consultation with Commissioner [Howard] Zucker, a health emergency, it expires tomorrow. It will not be renewed." Cuomo first declared a state of emergency on March 7, 2020, just days after the state identified its first case of Covid-19. The declaration sought to allow the state to quickly contain the virus spread by expediting procurement of cleaning supplies, allow more qualified professionals to conduct testing and let emergency medical services personnel transport patients to quarantine locations other than hospitals, among other things.  Shannon Young  The Race for City Hall  WHEN ERIC ADAMS gave a triumphant speech on Tuesday night, he chronicled his rise from poverty into politics and celebrated his lead in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City. He also had a long list of people to thank. His strong showing reflected a broad, old-school political coalition that united Black and Latino voters, unions and a broad swath of the city outside Manhattan. Mr. Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, won handily in the Bronx and led in his home borough of Brooklyn and in Queens. In some parts of the city like Jamaica in Southeast Queens, Mr. Adams won more than 60 percent of votes, compared with 15 percent for his closest rival, Maya Wiley, a former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio. The race is not over, but Mr. Adams has a strong lead among the first-choice votes of nearly 800,000 Democrats. In cities with ranked-choice elections, the candidate who is leading in the first round of voting usually prevails.  The New York Times Emma Fitzsimmons  DE BLASIO expressed optimism about voter turnout on Election Day, insisting New Yorkers voted in "strong numbers" amid lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. There were 944,197 voters  853,434 in-person voters and 90,763 absentee ballots, though more ballots have to be returned, according to the mayor. The last contested primary, in 2013, saw only about 700,000 voters, by comparison. De Blasio said the turnout as the city emerges from the pandemic is "proof of the strength of New York City." But then the mayors remarks turned toward what he might call an alternate reality. He likened Eric Adams' leading coalition to that of his own successful primary in 2013  despite running campaigns on fundamentally opposed messages. He noted Adams strength in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. He also added that elements of Wileys approach and coalition are reminiscent of what he did in 2013. "It worked in 2013, it appears to have worked for [Adams] here," he said. "It's not exactly the same coalition. Obviously I came out of brownstone Brooklyn, I had a lot of strength in brownstone Brooklyn. I had some strength in some other places, but I think what I saw at least preliminarily last night from Eric Adams' achievement is that it did mirror a lot of what we did in 2013." De Blasio ran on a message hostile to big business and real estate. Adams said during the campaign, "I am real estate," and touted a new partnership with business as the city's economy emerges from the pandemic. De Blasio was an avowed enemy of the charter school movement. Adams was an avowed ally. De Blasio ran on a message of ending the overuse of stop-and-frisk  a police tactic that disproportionately targeted Black and brown men. Adams ran on a message of expanding its use, when done within constitutional limits, as the city sees a surge in shootings. Adams had great success in the outer boroughs but did not fare well among Manhattan liberals, where de Blasio saw a lot of success in his first primary run. "No real comparison at all, despite the Mayors spin," tweeted Neal Kwatra , a prominent Democratic operative. "Even if there was some overlap in the coalition, these were very different campaigns. Manhattan results are Exhibit A of how different a race they ran."  Madina Tour and David  WILEY is not conceding anything in the mayors race. Despite Adams commanding lead in first-place votes, Wiley voiced confidence today that she could still pull out a win after all the votes are tallied. We must now count every vote. Every single person who showed up at these polls needs to know their vote counts, and to know that rank-choice voting is important to our democracy. Ranked-choice voting almost always ends up with the first-place vote-getter winning in subsequent rounds, but its also never been tried in a city as big  and weird  as New York. So when asked whether she would concede, Wiley said, Haha, no. We have every reason to believe we can win this race. It is not over. Every vote must be counted. Were excited that so many New Yorkers came out to vote, and rank the vote is going to tell us who the mayors going to be. Were excited to be in the number two spot right now, by the way doing better than any poll said we would. Polls do not determine races, the people of New York City do.  Amanda Eisenberg and David  TRUMP'S NEW YORK  VITO FOSSELLA has emerged from the depths of ignominy to have a real shot at becoming Staten Islands next borough president, after an endorsement from former President Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani. Trump did a robocall for the former congressman and described him as a powerful voice against crime and all other things going wrong in the city that we love in a statement published Saturday. Thats really why I decided to run for borough president  to be a real voice for the people of Staten Island, Fossella told The Staten Island Advance earlier this month. The city is just going backwards fast. Staten Island is once again becoming a forgotten borough.  Fossella has largely been out of the public eye since leaving office in 2009 after it emerged, in the wake of a DWI arrest, that he had a second family in Virginia in addition to his wife and three children back in Staten Island. He says he has since reconciled with them. So far he has been regarded as an underdog in the four-person Republican contest to replace term-limited BP James Oddo, but preliminary returns from the Board of Elections show a dogfight between him and Council Member Steve Matteo. Fossella won 42 percent of first-place votes in the Republican primary last night, to Matteos 41. Ranked-choice vote tallies will happen next week, and the race is fully a toss-up at this point. Scandal, however, has continued to plague Fossella as questions have emerged about his campaign spending. He was also previously fined by the FEC in 2011 for failing to refund donations to the reelection campaign he abandoned in the aftermath of his sex scandal.  Ta Kvetenadze  READ ALL OF POLITICOs coverage of the New York City mayors race. No outlet has covered more ground in the 2021 Democratic primary than POLITICO New York, and weve got all of the big scoops, analysis, policy and polls in one convenient location. Weve also included some candidate interviews from our colleagues in the news and civic arena. This page will be updated daily with all of the latest. On the Beats  Health: New York City reported a 20.25 percent decline in childhood lead poisoning from 2019 to 2020, according to a new report from the city health department. The city found 2,982 children under the age of 18 had blood-lead levels of 5 micrograms per deciliter of blood  the threshold for lead poisoning  in 2020, from 3,739 kids in 2019. The report, however, needs to be interpreted with caution due to "significant changes in health care utilization" like lead poisoning testing, according to the health department.  Amanda  AROUND NEW YORK   Sorry, its last call for alcohol-to-go. The search for civilization continues.  The Upstate Jobs Party is undergoing a rebranding in hopes of exerting more influence in state politics.  Trucking companies say theyve been overcharged by the Thruways E-ZPass system at Exit 55.  State workers will be heading back into the office soon.  Warren County wants to give away a bridge over the Schroon River.  SUNY Fulton-Montgomery Community College will be offering two new cannabis-related certificates. Follow us on Twitter Anna Gronewold @annagronewold    David Giambusso @giambusso