What will NYCs mayor-in-waiting do with six months from election to office?
Gothams 10 days of voting for mayor started on Saturday. Even in a close race, we will know the winner by early July. The June primary is an oddity. For 44 years, New York has selected its Democratic mayoral candidate in September. In September 1977, New Yorkers chose comparative moderates Ed Koch and Mario Cuomo out of a field that, up until this years race, at least, was the most eclectic ever. Left-wing Rep. Bella Abzug, Bronx Rep. and Puerto Rican trailblazer Herman Badillo and civil-rights activist and Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton were among the losers. If that race had been held in June instead of September, it might have had a different outcome. Koch was the tough-on-crime candidate who crested, really, after the July 1977 blackout and attendant looting scared New Yorkers into hard-headedness. In 2012, New York lost a federal lawsuit over its equally long-standing September primary date for national primaries. The feds charged that the September date didnt leave enough time for overseas military voters to receive absentee ballots before the November general. In 2019, the state Legislature and Gov. Cuomo decided to hold all future races at once, on the fourth Tuesday in June. But presidential races are drawn-out affairs. Between spring and November, each partys winning candidate has to barnstorm the whole country multiple times. With New Yorks nearly 7-to-1 Democratic registration, its highly unlikely this months Democratic primary winner has to worry too much about a GOP opponent. Yes, Republicans have won before. In 1993, though, Rudy Giuliani was the perfect candidate: A young, energetic prosecutor with high-profile victories against corrupt politicos, the Mafia and insider traders under his belt, he could credibly run on the two issues plaguing the city: graft and violent crime. In 2001, Mike Bloomberg had Giulianis backing, a stellar business career and tens of millions of dollars to spend. Democratic mayoral candidate Scott Stringer arrives to a news conference in New York on June 9, 2021. AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File  No such Republican candidate is on the horizon now, although the winning Democrat will still have to debate either Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa or Fernando Mateo, a bodega and taxi-driver advocate. A short vacation might be in order, except for the fact that leaving the five boroughs is perilous for goodwill. Brooklyn beep Eric Adams can never leave Brooklyn again, or it will show up on his E-ZPass; Andrew Yang had better not spend too much time at his upstate house. This is especially true, because, while the risk of losing to a Republican is low, its never zero (see: Trump, Donald). A long, hot summer of crime  which is, unfortunately, what we seem about to get  makes the Dem candidate a sitting duck for swing voters fed up with the one-party status quo. Setting up a cabinet is probably a good idea  except that it doesnt take that long. Adams already appears to know who his (female) police commissioner would be; Garcia knows every experienced deputy department head who might move up to chief. But nobody wants a constant critic: The new almost-mayor-elect, if he or she abuses the bully pulpit too much before being sworn in, risks ending the honeymoon before it even starts. The best option may be a quiet, five-borough, 59-neighborhood tour: an immersive semester of learning what New Yorkers want. The winner should certainly use his or her six months interregnum more wisely than did the last June primary winner who went on to become mayor: Abe Beame, in 1973, who proceeded to lurch the city close to bankruptcy. Nicole Gelinas is a contributing editor of City Journal.