DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY
Alvin Bragg and Tali Farhadian Weinstein ★ Dual Preference
Alvin Bragg Age: 47 Occupation: Attorney, former Chief Deputy for the New York State Attorney General Education: Harvard University (B.A.)
Tali Farhadian Age: 45 Occupation: Attorney, former General Counsel for Kings County District Attorney Education: Yale University (B.A. Humanities), Magdalen College School, Oxford (M.Phil), Yale Law School (J.D.)
To read the these candidates’ responses to CU’s questionnaire, click here (for Bragg), and here (for Farhadian Weinstein).
The race to succeed Cy Vance, who has served as Manhattan District Attorney since 2010, features two talented and extremely well-qualified candidates who stand out in this crowded field — Alvin Bragg and Tali Farhadian Weinstein.
Alvin Bragg served most recently as Chief Deputy Attorney General for New York State, where he prosecuted Harvey Weinstein and challenged the Trump administration over the citizenship question that it attempted to include in the 2020 census. Previously, Bragg served as Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division of the Southern District of New York, under Preet Bharara, and as the Chief of Litigation & Investigations for the New York City Council. Bragg is currently a Visiting Professor of Law and the Co-Director of the Racial Justice Project at New York Law School, and a Sunday school teacher at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem.
Bragg says that his foremost priority – if elected District Attorney – will be to end racial disparities and mass incarceration. He intends to pursue those objectives by changing the structure, policies, and culture of the office to increase transparency and accountability. Bragg’s other priorities include creating new sex crimes and police accountability units, which will report directly to the District Attorney, be “victim-centered and trauma-informed,” and publish real time public data to monitor their success; as well as stopping gun violence by tracking the origins of guns used in shootings.
Bragg has put out a plan to reform the Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU), which has underperformed in comparison to its counterpart in Brooklyn. He says he will abolish the current CIU and start a new unit, which will be monitored by an independent review board and have total independence. Bragg also intends to make “alternative sentencing,” rather than incarceration, the “default” outcome for most cases prosecuted by the office. As he puts it, “incarceration will become the ‘alternative.’” Bragg has shown a strong understanding of community concerns through the district, and a thorough and cogent policy platform, particularly on dealing with police accountability and misconduct.
Tali Farhadian Weinstein served most recently as General Counsel to Kings County District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, where she supervised the nation’s first Post-Conviction Justice Bureau. Previously, she spent six years as an Assistant U .S . Attorney in the Eastern District of New York, and three years as counsel in the office of Attorney General Eric Holder, after clerking for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Farhadian is currently an Adjunct Professor of Law at NYU Law School.
Farhadian’s three central priorities are combating gender-based violence, reducing gun violence, and furthering post-conviction justice. She intends to establish a new Bureau of Gender Based Violence, which will house the Sex Crimes and Domestic Violence units, as well as the units handling human tracking, elder abuse, stalking, and gender-based hate crimes. In terms of gun violence, Farhadian proposes a new “Gun Violence Coordinator,” who will work across divisions and bureaus, directing and monitoring firearms-related cases and initiatives. Finally, Farhadian says she will draw on her experience in the Brooklyn DA’s Office to reform Manhattan’s Conviction Integrity Program–which will include walling it off from the rest of the office and adding specific defense and exoneration experts. Farhadian views incarceration as a “last resort,” and says she will both instruct prosecutors to seek the minimum sentence as a default rule, and require them to receive supervisory approval to go beyond that minimum.
Citizens Union believes both Bragg and Farhadian Weinstein are talented and extremely well-qualified candidates, with impressive backgrounds as experienced prosecutors at multiple levels of government. Bragg emphasized that he would pursue fundamental reforms in the criminal justice system and address community concerns, including safety. Farhadian Weinstein emphasized that she would focus on public safety as the core mission of the office, sees it as essential to the city’s recovery, and is also committed to ensuring fairness. For these reasons, Citizens Union issued a rare dual-preference for the Democratic nomination for Manhattan District Attorney.
Tahanie Aboushi
Age: 35 Occupation: Human Rights Attorney at The Aboushi Law Firm Education: St. John’s University (B.A. Legal Studies), Syracuse Law School (J.D.)
To read this candidate’s responses to CU’s questionnaire, click here.
Tahanie Aboushi is a founder and partner at The Aboushi Law Firm where she has been practicing civil rights law for over 10 years. In response to President Trump’s 2017 Muslim Ban, Aboushi co-led a legal team at JFK Airport which offered assistance to Muslims who had been affected by the ban. For this work, Aboushi was awarded the Shirley Chisholm Women of Excellence Award. Aboushi’s firm has also sued the NYPD on behalf of Muslim women who had been forced to remove their hijabs when taking mugshots, and again sued the Department after an officer pushed a woman during the Black Lives Matter protests in March 2020. Beyond her legal work, Aboushi is an active community member, serving on the board of the New York Civil Liberties Union, the president of the Muslim Democratic Club of New York, and is a member of Manhattan Community Board 10. Aboushi has pledged that her top priority as District Attorney would be to dramatically reduce prosecutions stemming from social inequities and stop the office’s criminalization of poverty. Aboushi has stated that as District Attorney she
would devote increased resources to prosecuting white collar crimes, sexual assaults, and police misconduct. Aboushi hopes to dramatically reduce the number of incarcerated New Yorkers by establishing a conviction review board, eliminating charges for most low-level offenses, and investing more resources into communities. Citizens Union commends her for her career fighting for justice and her inspiring campaign.
Elizabeth Crotty
Age: 50 Occupation: Crotty Saland PC, Partner Education: Fordham University School of Law (J.D.)
To read this candidate’s responses to CU’s questionnaire, click here.
Elizabeth Crotty is a criminal defense lawyer and former Manhattan Assistant District Attorney who has more than 20 years of experience working in New York’s criminal justice system. As a partner and founder of the law firm Crotty Saland PC, Crotty represents people on crimes ranging from grand larceny, fraud, assault, DWI, and weapons possession. Prior to starting her own firm, Crotty worked for six years in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, where she served in both the Trial Division and the Investigation Division. Crotty also serves as a board member at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Association, and is on the New York City Bar Association’s Judiciary Committee. As District Attorney, Crotty has stated her first priority would be to devote increased resources to the white collar crimes and major economic fraud units, and streamline the process by which New Yorkers can report economic fraud and business-related crimes. Crotty also promises to “rationalize” bail laws, by making more offenses, such as hate crimes, bail-eligible. Finally, Crotty has pledged to reform the conviction review unit to prevent conflicts of interest in the office.
Lucy Lang
Age: 40 Occupation: Inside Criminal Justice Teacher, Center for Justice Education: Swarthmore College (B.A. Political Science and History)
To read this candidate’s responses to CU’s questionnaire, click here.
Lucy Lang served from 2006 to 2016 as an Assistant District Attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office under Robert Morgenthau and current office holder Cyrus Vance, and from 2016 to 2018 as the office’s Special Counsel for Policy and Projects. From 2018 to 2020, she directed the Institute for Innovation in Prosecution at John Jay College. Lang’s proposed priorities include directing increased resources towards investigations into large scale white collar crimes, creating a new Worker Protection Unit, and taking a proactive approach to violent crime, which will include the formation of a specialized gun court. She has additional plans to create a new Public Corruption Unit to proactively investigate criminal conduct by public officials and law enforcement; and she promises that, if she is elected, her office will not prosecute crimes of poverty or consensual sex between adults.
Eliza Orlins
Age: 38 Occupation: Staff Attorney at the Legal Aid Society Education: Fordham University School of Law (J.D.)
To read this candidate’s responses to CU’s questionnaire, click here.
Eliza Orlins is a staff attorney at The Legal Aid Society, where she has represented more than 3,000 indigent criminal defendants over the past twelve years. She is the only public defendant in the race. If elected, Orlins’ top priority would be to reduce the footprint of the District Attorney’s Office, which she aims to accomplish by declining to prosecute the majority of misdemeanors. (Reducing the office’s footprint would free up resources that could then be directed towards external community organizations and other city agencies.) Another priority for Orlins is to revamp the Conviction Review Unit, which would be reorganized to “proactively suss out wrongful cases” and focus on data collection systems (which will be made available to the public online). Orlins also intends to create an Environment Justice Unit, in order to protect New Yorkers from corporate pollution. Citizens Union commends her for her career fighting for justice and her inspiring campaign.
Diana Florence
This candidate was not available for an interview
Dan Quart
This candidate was not available for an interview