Even allies of Warren’s primary opponent, City Councilmember Malik Evans, acknowledged that his bid to unseat her was an uphill battle. His campaign, defined by the motto “we can do better,” had registered barely a blip on the political Richter scale. It had been four months since Evans announced his candidacy, and the only proposal he had released was a youth jobs initiative to curb violence. “She has served two terms as mayor, the city knows her well, she is loved and deeply respected by large numbers of voters in the city, and she has proven resilient and popular across two campaigns so far,” Gerald Gamm, a professor of political science at the University of Rochester and longtime friend and supporter of Evans, said of Warren before her husband’s arrest. “Lovely Warren is not one to underestimate,” Gamm said. “She is a talented and skilled political leader.” But her husband’s arrest has changed his perception. “I think there will be a critical mass of voters, who have voted for her in the past that will say, ‘Enough is enough,’” Gamm said later. Political observers are viewing the arrest of Warren’s husband as a potentially game-changing event. Timothy Kneeland, a political science professor at Nazareth College, said a few days prior to the arrest that the race was heavily leaning in Warren’s favor. After the arrest, he thought the scandal could doom her, even if she manages to win the Democratic primary. Evans has committed to see the race through November as a candidate on the Working Families Party line regardless of the outcome of the Democratic primary. “Over time, details are going to come out, and those details may ultimately exonerate her,” Kneeland said. “But when you put all of these pieces together, and all of the things voters have seen in the past year, this makes it a far more difficult race for her.”
Party and among constituents of faith, and an organization that has proven its ability to get them to get to the polls. Her machine rose to prominence in 2013 when she stunned Democrats by ousting Mayor Tom Richards in the primary. The Saturday following her husband’s arraignment, Warren took to the microphone on the steps of City Hall for a Pentacost Sunday celebration and belted out a soulful rendition of the Miami Mass Choir’s “It’s For Me” before breaking into tears and being embraced by a small crowd of onlookers. “What God has for me, it is for me,” she sang.
WARREN IS DOWN. BUT IS SHE OUT? Throughout her two terms as mayor, Warren has been a polarizing figure. She has high-profile detractors, but also fiercely-dedicated allies in the Democratic
City Councilmember Malik Evans is challenging Warren in the Democratic primary. PHOTO BY JACOB WALSH
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