Manhattan District Lawyer Alvin Bragg (l.) faces only one challenger within the 2025 major: legal professional Patrick Timmons.
Pictures by Max Parrott
Manhattan District Lawyer Alvin Bragg received a wild Democratic major 4 years in the past towards greater than a half-dozen opponents en path to turning into the borough’s chief prosecutor. He’s again for an additional major, although this time, there are far fewer challengers.
In truth, just one different has emerged to Bragg: Patrick Timmons, a civil litigator, former Bronx prosecutor and an adjunct regulation professor at John Jay Faculty of Felony Justice.
Not that it issues a lot with two candidates on the poll, however the major for Manhattan DA — not like the contests for citywide posts on the poll June 24 — is not going to be determined by way of ranked-choice voting. You may solely make one choice within the Manhattan District Lawyer’s contest as a result of the seat falls underneath the state authorities’s purview.
Bragg will finish his first time period in workplace as one of many highest-profile district attorneys in America, largely resulting from his case towards President Donald Trump. However whereas he could also be often called the one prosecutor to have received a felony conviction towards Trump, Bragg maintains that his focus is native.
A rising price of homicides and shootings as Bragg took workplace in 2022 buoyed right-wing assaults on him as soft-on-crime. All through his tenure, he’s responded by taking a tough line on violent crime. In an interview with amNY Legislation, Bragg described the town’s public security as his “North Star,” citing his efforts to curb violence and road crime.
With a steadily declining price of shootings and murders over the previous three years, however that citywide ranges haven’t hit pre-pandemic lows, Bragg has cultivated a results-driven response to his critics.
“Now we’ve had a body of work that shows, for example, Manhattan has had two years in a row of index crime being down, and the beginning of this year, following course,” he mentioned.
Timmons, however, sees issues just a little in a different way. He believes the DA must do extra to focus on “bullies and bad guys.”
“I kept looking around at what I’m seeing — I raised my kids here — and decided this is really a bad time in New York City in Manhattan for crime, for subway crime and street crime,” Timmons mentioned.
The place Bragg has declined to prosecute fare evasion as a standalone offense, Timmins desires to pursue it as a deterrent. In Timmins’ estimation, Bragg’s coverage has resulted in a rise in subway assaults.
Whoever wins the Manhattan DA major will face Republican challenger Maud Maron within the November normal election. If the demographics of Manhattan are any indication — Democrats outnumber Republicans right here by a 7-1 margin — the competition might not be a lot of a contest.