Ocasio-Cortez Backs Insurgent Tiffany Cabn in Queens D.A. Race, Testing Her Influence in N.Y.

[Celerity]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s endorsement was perhaps the most sought after in the race, but it is also something of a risk for the first-term congresswoman.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/nyregion/tiffany-caban-aoc-endorsement-queens-da.html

It was only 11 months ago when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shocked the political world with a primary upset of Representative Joseph Crowley, the No. 4 Democrat in the House and a mainstay in the Queens Democratic machine. Then the youngest woman ever elected to Congress took Washington by storm, using her savvy social media skills to help achieve mainstream buy-in for ideas once deemed too far left for Democrats.

Now Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, 29, may be testing the extent of her influence back home: In a hotly contested seven-way Democratic primary for Queens district attorney, she has decided to endorse Tiffany Cabán, the candidate whose platform most echoes the first-term congresswoman’s.

“Our criminal justice system needs to change,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez told The New York Times in a statement. “New Yorkers deserve a seat at the table, and a champion who will fight to realign our priorities toward equal treatment under the law. If Tiffany Cabán wins, things are going to change.”

The Democratic primary on June 25 is seen as something of a referendum on whether a diverse borough like Queens is ready to embrace the liberal criminal justice reforms — aimed at ending the era of mass incarceration — that are sweeping the country.

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Ms. Cabán, 31, is only the second person Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has endorsed since being sworn in. This month, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Raul Fernandez, a candidate for the Brookline Select Board in Massachusetts. Mr. Fernandez, a friend from her time attending Boston University, won a three-year term. Now Ms. Cabán is hoping an endorsement from Ms. Ocasio-Cortez will help distinguish her in a crowded field.

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Caban's main opponent is Queens Borough President Melinda Katz

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Cabán staked her campaign on ending the use of cash bail for all crimes, not just nonviolent felonies. She was also an early supporter of the city’s No New Jails movement and opposed de Blasio’s plan to replace the Rikers Island jail by constructing four new jails. Katz previously wanted to eliminate cash bail only for misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies, but has since altered her platform to end cash bail completely. She supports closing Rikers and, until recently, supported de Blasio’s plan to replace the massive jail with four new borough-based jails. She now opposes that plan.

While Cabán would decline to prosecute sex work and recreational drug use, among other crimes, Katz said she would only decline to prosecute marijuana use and would want to “consider each arrest on its merits before declining to prosecute.”

In addition to distancing herself from policy proposals that fall short of the progressive standard Cabán is pushing, Katz has also tried to explain away her past support for conservative criminal justice measures. Katz said she only voted the death penalty while she was a member of the New York State Assembly on moral grounds after her mother was killed in a drunk driving accident. But during that race, where the Queens Daily News described her as a candidate “bucking the Queens Democratic machine,” Katz said she didn’t think the death penalty was a deterrent but that she supported it because of “the enormous cost of keeping someone behind bars for life.”

In her campaign for DA, Katz is also running on sentencing reform and reducing mass incarceration. But as a New York City council member, she sponsored legislation to increase penalties for minor offenses like graffiti and drag racing, and voted to create a new crime of gang recruitment despite expert testimony that such laws unfairly target young people of color who aren’t involved in crime.

Katz has raised over $1 million so far, and some of that includes funds left over from her citywide office accounts. She’s also taken a quarter of a million dollars from real estate developers and interests, while pledging to hold developers and construction companies accountable for workplace injuries. She’s the top real estate industry recipient in the race thus far, The City reported

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