The Check In: The Crowded Race for Manhattan’s Next DA

City Limits’ editor Jarrett Murphy catches us up on the ongoing Manhattan District Attorney’s race. At least eight candidates are running, several of whom have announced policies that could greatly reshape the office’s role.

While the mayoral race may be the undisputable headliner of New York’s 2021 elections, the race for the next Manhattan District Attorney is equally important: Past DAs have held the position for long stretches, sometimes for decades at a time, and whoever fills the seat can play a major role shaping the city’s criminal justice policies. 

It’s not known yet whether current Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance plans to run for another term, but plenty of others have thrown their hat in the ring so far, among them Alvin Bragg, Diana Florence, Tali Farhadian Weinstein, Eliza Orlins, Liz Crotty, Lucy Lang, Dan Quart and Tahanie Aboushi.

Several of the candidates have introduced policy proposals that could greatly reshape how the DA’s office approaches certain crimes, like wage theft and elder abuse, while others have pledged to hold police officers, prosecutors and landlords more accountable for bad behavior. 

In this week’s episode of The Check In, City Limits’ newsroom podcast, executive editor Jarrett Murphy discusses his reporting on the race so far and what voters should know about the contenders in the run-up to June’s primary.

Listen to the full conversation below.