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Farhadian Weinstein Unleashes "Fear-Mongering" Attack Ads On Two Male Rivals For Manhattan DA
By
Gwynne Hogan
Published Jun 17, 2021
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Tali Farhadian Weinstein's campaign Facebook
By
Gwynne Hogan
Published Jun 17, 2021
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With a week left in the primary race that will most likely elect Manhattan’s next district attorney, candidate Tali Farhadian Weinstein has unleashed a series of television, digital, and printed ads that single out two opponents for attack, former federal prosecutor Alvin Bragg and Assemblymember Dan Quart, accusing them of enabling domestic abusers.
One ad on Instagram showed photos of Bragg and Quart with the question, “Do you want a District Attorney Who Protects Domestic Abusers?” A television commercial echoes the same message, with a woman who says she’s a survivor of domestic abuse obscured dramatically in shadow, saying, “They would put women and families at risk of further abuse.”
One of the ads on Farhadian Weinstein's Instagram
Farhadian Weinstein defended the negative ads in a written statement, pointing to pledges Quart and Bragg made in a candidate questionnaire to dismiss what’s known as cross-complaint cases if neither party wants to go forward.
“I've spoken with many women—including survivors, advocates, and experts—who believe that mandatory arrests and careful investigation of cross-complaints save lives,” she said.
The negative ads are part of a more than $5 million ad buy Farhadian Weinstein’s campaign made in the final weeks before Primary Day on June 22nd. Recent polling from Data for Progress shows her and Bragg in a tight race for frontrunner, each with 26% of voters’ support.
“Ms. Farhadian Weinstein has resorted to filling our mailboxes and airwaves with fear-mongering and lies about Alvin Bragg,” said Richard Fife, a spokesperson for Bragg’s campaign. “Alvin Bragg has a proven record and a deep-seated commitment to delivering justice for survivors.”
Kate Smart, a spokesperson for Quart’s campaign, also dismissed the attacks. **“**Quart’s position on domestic violence is survivor centered, while Farhadian Weinstein’s is paternalistic,” she said.
During a lightning round of a May forum both Bragg and Quart said they did not support the state law requiring police to make an arrest in domestic-abuse cases that rise to felony charges. So did Tahanie Aboushi and public defender Eliza Orlins, candidates for DA not named in the recent attack ads. Candidates Lucy Lang, Diana Florence, Elizabeth Crotty, and Farhadian Weinstein all said they supported the state law.
Flyers that arrived at the doors of Manhattan voters this week showed a picture of a lock and key on one side and the words, “Alvin Bragg and Dan Quart will NOT put women’s safety first.”
The printed ad goes further saying “Bragg’s policies are ‘unfair to rape victims,’” pulling a quote from the Daily News endorsement of Farhadian Weinstein that referred to Bragg’s commitment to reexamine cases handled by Linda Fairstein, the controversial former head of the sex-crimes unit in the DA’s office. The editorial board of the New York Times endorsed Bragg.
The negative ads shocked some survivors of sexual assault. Marissa Hoechstetter, an activist who’s pushing for changes in the sex crimes unit, said Farhadian Weinstein was “using survivors as pawns in this negative campaign against other qualified people.”
Hoechstetter has endorsed Bragg, though her group Reform the Sex Crimes Unit previously greenlit Farhadian Weinstein's and Florence’s candidacies as well.
“To me [the ads] really come across as a page from the Willie Horton playbook,” said Hoechstetter, referring to a 1988 campaign ad run by George W. Bush ran against opponent Michael Dukakis that relied on the racist trope of sexually dangerous Black men.
“Frame this Black man as being unsafe for women. That’s what I thought at first,” she said. (Bragg is Black; Quart is white.) “This negativity, outright lies and fear-mongering is really unsettling.”
Other critics saw a similar connection.
“It just struck me as really underhanded,” said Sheila Zukowsky, a retired teacher and Democratic voter who said she was aghast when the flyer arrived at her Washington Heights home. “Why would somebody be sending something like this?”
Farhadian Weinstein has come under media scrutiny for her immense wealth and personal connections to investors and bankers, the very people the DA’s office is supposed to regulate. She pumped $8.2 million dollars into her own campaign starting late last month, as reported by Gothamist/WNYC. According to the most recent records, through June 7th, she spent $9.7 million or $11.18 per voter, seven times as much as any other candidate.
And, despite having millions in expendable income to drop into her DA campaign, and reporting $107 million in income in 2011 with her husband Boaz Weinstein, founder of a $2.7 billion hedge fund, the couple reportedly paid no federal income tax in four of the past six years, according to a ProPublica report. They paid just $6,584 in 2014.
The couple told the Associated Press they paid $124 million in state, federal and local taxes on an income of $246 million since 2010. The years they didn’t pay or paid relatively little had to do with large losses at Weinstein’s hedge fund Saba Capital Management, according to the Associated Press.
Sonia Ossorio, with NOW-NYC, a group that advocates for women and survivors of sexual violence, has endorsed Farhadian Weinstein. She said she didn’t see the ads in a negative light.
“I do see them a window into how Alvin Bragg and Dan Quart [will act as District Attorney],” she said, dismissing concerns that there were racial undertones to the ads. “It’s playing the race card and we’re talking about people’s lives.”
Tagged
manhattan da
Tali Farhadian Weinstein
Politics
election 2021
manhattan district attorney's office
Gwynne Hogan
Gwynne Hogan is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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