Manhattan DA Cy Vance’s re-election bid faces uncertainty as fundraising falters
Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance still has not said if he’s running for re-election — and by the looks of his latest campaign finance filing, he could be a big longshot if he does.
Although he’s an incumbent, Vance only raised a paltry $2,101 during the state Board of Elections’ most recent campaign finance filing period which ended on July 15, records show. Since winning his last re-election bid in 2017, he’s raised just over $51,000.
Unfortunately for him, his opponents fared much better over the most recent filing period.
Former federal prosecutor Alvin Bragg raised $353,431, the most of anyone running during the most recent filing period.
New York State Assemblyman Dan Quart (D-Manhattan) took in $82,515, and civil rights lawyers Janos Marton and Tahanie Aboushi raised $54,995 and $329,647, respectively.
Add to that the newly announced candidacy of Tali Farhadian Weinstein, a seasoned prosecutor who’s worked for the Brooklyn DA’s office and as a clerk to Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor — as well as a number of scandals during Vance’s tenure — and the current Manhattan DA’s path to victory appears even more uncertain.
Farhadian Weinstein so far hasn’t raised any cash for her campaign, according to campaign finance filings, but she brings an impressive resume and is hoping to take some of the criminal justice reforms she helped enact in the Brooklyn DA’s office to Manhattan.
“I reject the notion that there’s a tension between pursuing fairness and safety,” she said. “That’s the heart of the matter.”
If elected, she plans to beef up enforcement of domestic violence cases, to overturn wrongful convictions and jail those convicted only as a last resort.
Farhadian Weinstein complemented Vance on some of his victories, describing his battle against the Trump administration to view the president’s taxes as a “tremendous victory.”
But Vance has had his setbacks as well.
Sexual assault survivors have called for him to resign over the lenient plea deal he hammered out with a gynecologist who was accused of sexually abusing patients. Elected officials, like Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and several members of the City Council, have followed suit.
A re-election campaign promises to be even more bruising.
“His 11 years have been marked by corruption, incompetence and failure,” Quart said.
Vance spokeswoman Anna Durrett acknowledged that her boss “hasn’t determined yet whether he is running or not,” but said he’s been “focused on continuing to make New York City’s justice system fairer for all New Yorkers.”
“Vance has ended the criminal prosecution of tens of thousands of low-level offenses, built Manhattan’s Family Justice Center for victims of domestic violence and invested hundreds of millions of financial crime forfeiture dollars into Manhattan communities,” she added.