Rivals unite against Dan Goldman in NY-10 race: ‘A one-note Daddy Warbucks’

The free-for-all Democratic campaign for the congressional seat covering lower Manhattan and brownstone Brooklyn took a new shape Monday, as Dan Goldman emerged as the front-runner and faced intense criticism from his more progressive rivals.

The ultra-wealthy Goldman, a one-time federal prosecutor who helped impeach former President Donald Trump, led his closest rival by 5 percentage points in an Emerson College poll published Monday. The survey was conducted last week, before the New York Times editorial board endorsed Goldman.

The influential editorial board’s decision had come as a surprise to observers, and quickly rearranged the crowded race in New York’s 10th Congressional District, which stretches from the West Village in Manhattan to Bensonhurst in Brooklyn.

Early voting in the Aug. 23 primary started Saturday, and balloting has been sluggish. The Board of Elections reported 26,347 people voted this weekend in the city, which is home to some 3.4 million active Democratic voters.

In the new Emerson poll, Goldman picked up 22% support, Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou of Manhattan earned 17%, Rep. Mondaire Jones scored 13% and Councilwoman Carlina Rivera notched 13%. Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon, of Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill, picked up 6%.

The poll was conducted in English and Mandarin, but not Spanish, potentially undermining its credibility.

Goldman, heir to the Levi Strauss & Co. fortune, is aggressively self-funding and has moved quickly to leverage the Times endorsement. “The writeup really reinforced the message that we have been conveying to voters,” Goldman said outside his Park Slope, Brooklyn, field office on Saturday.

“We have run a positive campaign from Day One,” he said. “Every piece of our advertising has been about getting our message out.”

[ New York Voter Guide: What to know for the Aug. 23 primary ]

At the same time, the endorsement — and the new public poll — placed a clear target on Goldman’s back that figures to stay there through Primary Day next Tuesday.

In a highly unusual candidate team-up, Niou and Jones joined forces for a news conference outside City Hall on Monday afternoon, ripping into Goldman.

“We feel an urgent need to send a clear, unmistakable message,” said Jones, who moved to Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, after being drawn out of his suburban district north of the city. “Conservative Democrat Dan Goldman cannot be allowed to purchase this congressional seat.”

Last month, Goldman poured almost $2 million into his own campaign, according to campaign finance records, an enormous sum for a House primary race.

He also has been running to the right of his rivals on a range of issues. He has opposed expanding the conservative Supreme Court, waffled on whether he supports abortion bans after the point of fetal viability, and dismissed Medicare for All as a pipe dream.

“The working families of this district deserve a progressive champion,” Niou, of the Financial District, said at the news conference. She urged voters in the district to “see beyond our opponent’s multimillion dollar media blitz.”

Rivera did not join the news conference, but said in a phone interview that she appreciated its message, adding that Goldman has displayed a “stark” knowledge gap.

“No amount of money or elite relationships is ever going to prepare Dan Goldman to address the many issues revolving around women’s reproductive health,” said Rivera, of Manhattan’s Kips Bay, who recently led an abortion protections push in the Council.

Bruce Gyory, a Democratic political strategist, said he thinks the race remains open and questioned the outreach to minority voters in the Emerson poll.

“Goldman has momentum,” Gyory said, but he added he would take the survey with a “grain of salt,” calling it “interesting but not dispositive.”

Goldman, of Tribeca, rejects the premise that he is trying to buy the election and said Saturday that he has spent so much because he wants “to be talking to voters more than donors.”

But Rivera, who had a reported $213,000 in her campaign war chest at the start of the month, said she is worried that voters are unaware that Goldman has supercharged his campaign with his own cash.

“The district needs more than a one-note Daddy Warbucks in Congress,” Rivera said. “We are facing some of the most urgent issues of our lifetimes.”