Name: NYC mayoral candidate Andrew Yang and the challenges of running during the COVID pandemic
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NYC mayoral candidate Andrew Yang and the challenges of running during the COVID pandemic

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AdvertisementBy New York Daily NewsFeb 07, 2021 at 5:01 pmCampaigning for mayor in New York City has never been easy, but doing it in the age of COVID is proving all the more politically perilous.So far, in the contest to become the Big Apple’s next mayor, at least three candidates — Scott Stringer, Maya Wiley and Andrew Yang — have had to quarantine after being exposed to someone with COVID or testing positive for the virus.AdvertisementSuch in-person timeouts have logistical implications for campaigns seeking to reach broad swaths of the city — but they also raise ethical dilemmas and questions of transparency.The latter became apparent last week after Yang, who’s regarded by many as the race’s front-runner, announced he tested positive for the virus and would begin isolating at home.AdvertisementThe former Democratic candidate for the White House turned local politician has already come under fire on the transparency front for requiring campaign workers to sign — a position he after it was reported in the Daily News. And he has weathered harsh criticisms for spending the height of the pandemic at his family’s second home in upstate New Paltz, while most New Yorkers had no other choice but to remain in the city.Last month, Yang and his campaign announced that he began isolating Jan. 19 after having contact two days before with a staffer who tested positive.But questions about how he handled the first quarantine still linger despite some of the tortured responses offered by Team Yang.After several exchanges with his campaign run by Tusk Strategies, the consulting firm that worked on Mike Bloomberg’s 2009 mayoral campaign, it was confirmed that three members of the campaign had to quarantine as a result of the first staffer’s positive test result and an additional three colleagues were forced to quarantine as a result of Yang’s recent positive test. Details as to how Yang handled his first isolation remain unclear.Yang campaign spokesman Eric Soufer told The News that his boss began isolating from his family on Jan. 19, the same day he found out he’d been in contact with his staffer, and the same day he announced he was going into isolation.But videos of Yang that appeared on television during his time in quarantine depict him seated in what appears to be his living room, presumably a common area in his apartment, several times.When asked to explain this, Soufer appeared to reverse his initial response that Yang isolated himself from his family.Advertisement“Of course he saw his family while he was isolating,” Soufer wrote in an email to The News. “The fact that he did doesn’t mean that they too need to isolate.”Later, another Yang spokesman, Jake Sporn, offered a slightly different answer, saying that Yang isolated from family members “as best as possible.”Christina Greer, a Fordham University political scientist, said the campaign’s “take-my-word-for-it” approach could serve as a prelude to how Yang might operate in City Hall.“The questions may seem nitpicky, but they should be answered because how you behave in the campaign phase is a window into how you’d behave in the governance phase,” she said. “We’ve had five or six years of take-my-word-for-it, and that just hasn’t always helped New Yorkers.”During the last day of his first quarantine, Yang also raised eyebrows when he — “It’s snowing,” he wrote — leading some observers to speculate he had broken quarantine. Sporn pushed back on that notion, saying that the photo, while posted by Yang, had been taken by his wife, Evelyn.AdvertisementIt’s snowing. — Andrew Yang🧢🗽🇺🇸 (@AndrewYang)Yang was in contact with the staffer who tested positive for COVID “for most of his four-borough campaign kickoff” that began on Jan. 14, according to The New York Times. His wife also attended Yang’s kickoff, which potentially could have exposed her to the staffer.“Everyone followed the public health guidance to the letter,” Soufer said. “No story here.”AdvertisementYang’s campaign maintains that Evelyn “was not in close contact” with the staffer. Dr. Dara Kass, Yang’s public health adviser said definitively that Evelyn “didn’t have contact with the staffer.”Yang continues to recover at home and “when the time is right, I look forward to once again hitting the campaign trail and advancing a positive vision for our city’s future,” he said. Advertisement

AdvertisementBy New York Daily NewsFeb 07, 2021 at 5:01 pmCampaigning for mayor in New York City has never been easy, but doing it in the age of COVID is proving all the more politically perilous.So far, in the contest to become the Big Apple’s next mayor, at least three candidates — Scott Stringer, Maya Wiley and Andrew Yang — have had to quarantine after being exposed to someone with COVID or testing positive for the virus.AdvertisementSuch in-person timeouts have logistical implications for campaigns seeking to reach broad swaths of the city — but they also raise ethical dilemmas and...

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NYC mayoral candidate Andrew Yang and the challenges of running during the COVID pandemic

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