Acquitted “Central Park Five” member Yusef Salaam is poised to win a seat on the New York City Council on November 7, marking a stunning turnaround for a political newcomer who was wrongly imprisoned as a teenager in the infamous rape case.
Mr. Salaam, a Democrat, will represent a central Harlem district on the City Council after running unopposed for a seat in one of several local elections taking place in New York state. He won his primary in a landslide.
The victory will come more than two decades after DNA evidence was used to overturn the convictions of Mr. Salaam and four other black and Latino men in the 1989 rape and assault of a white jogger in Central Park. Mr Salaam was imprisoned for almost seven years.
“For me, this means that we can truly become the wildest dreams of our ancestors,” Mr. Salaam said in an interview before the election.
Elsewhere in New York City, voters will decide whether to re-elect Queens’ district attorney and cast their ballots in other city council races. The council, which passes legislation and has some oversight powers over municipal agencies, has long been dominated by Democrats and the party is certain to retain firm control after the election.
Local elections on Long Island could offer clues about how the city’s suburbs might vote in next year’s congressional elections.
The races for Suffolk County executive and North Hempstead supervisor were the most prominent, although the races are expected to have low turnout because they take place in a year with no federal or statewide candidates on the ballot.
“Keeping an eye on Long Island, which has been a bit counterintuitive in recent years in election results with a mix of state and local issues, gives you a chance to see what’s going on in a typical suburb that isn’t much different of those in Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, Virginia, Arizona, Nevada and other places where both parties believe they have a role,” said Lawrence Levy, executive dean of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University on Long Island.
Democrats lost in all four of Long Island’s congressional districts last year and have committed significant resources to the region for 2024. Republicans, who are beefing up campaigns with a focus on local issues such as crime and migrants, are aiming to keep seats next year.
In the city, Mr. Salaam’s candidacy is a reminder of what the war on crime can look like if it goes too far.
Mr. Salaam was just 15 years old when he, along with Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise, was arrested and charged with attacking a woman who was jogging in Central Park.
The crime dominated headlines in the city and raised racial tensions as police rounded up black and Latino men and boys for questioning. Former President Donald Trump, then just a brash real estate executive in the city, took out large ads in newspapers imploring New York to reinstate the death penalty.
The teenagers convicted of the attack served between five and 12 years in prison before the case was re-investigated.
A serial rapist and murderer was eventually linked to the crime through DNA evidence and a confession. The Central Park Five’s convictions were vacated in 2002 and they received a combined $41 million settlement from the city.
Mr. Salaam campaigned to alleviate poverty and fight gentrification in Harlem. He often mentioned his conviction and imprisonment along the way — his place as a symbol of injustice that helped galvanize the predominantly black district and propel him to victory.
“I really am the ambassador for everyone’s pain,” he said. “In many ways, I lived through that for our people so that I can now lead them.”
A more competitive City Council race on Nov. 7 pits Democrat Justin Brannan against Republican Ari Kagan in an ethnically diverse district in southern Brooklyn. The race has heated up as the candidates approach election day, with the pair sparring over the war between Israel and Hamas and New York’s migrant crisis.
In a move that symbolized the tension between the two men, Mr. Brannan recently tweeted a photo of a ribbon-cutting ceremony he and Mr. Kagan attended, but the image blurred Mr. Kagan’s face.
Statewide, New Yorkers will vote on two ballot measures. One would eliminate the debt limit imposed on small-town school districts by the state constitution. The second would extend an exclusion from the debt limit for sewer projects.
This story was reported by The Associated Press.