Central Harlem City Council Race: Who Will Succeed Bill Perkins?

HARLEM, NY — One of this year's most competitive City Council races is happening in Harlem, where incumbent member Bill Perkins is eligible to run again but has given no indication that he will.

A whopping 12 candidates are running in the 9th District, which covers Central and northern Harlem, as well as parts of East Harlem and Morningside Heights.

Perkins, 71, has represented the district since 2017, when he won a special election to succeed Inez Dickens. Before that, he served in the State Senate and served an initial stint in the City Council starting in 1998.

In recent years, though, Perkins has been barely present as a public figure. Last year, he was ranked the city's worst lawmaker by City & State magazine, which cited his poor attendance record in the City Council, his low number of bills passed, and his office's unresponsiveness to constituent emails.

In 2019, he was hospitalized after neighbors called police to say he was acting erratically in his Harlem apartment. Perkins blamed the incident on "health issues," and colleagues told the Daily News that they feared his cancer treatments had affected his behavior.

The candidates

Perkins has yet to raise any money for this year's June 22 Democratic primary, and his office did not immediately return a request for comment about his future plans.

Even if he does run again, he will face a crowded field — here are the 12 candidates running:

William Allen

• Money raised: $13,213
• The founder of the Uptown Democratic Club, Allen has also worked as the National Crisis and Service Director at the National Action Network. He has served as a Democratic district leader in Harlem and worked for the city Board of Elections.

Cordell Cleare

• Money raised: $31,699
• Cleare formerly served as Perkins's chief of staff in the State Senate and founded the Michelle Obama Community Democratic Club. She ran for City Council in the 2017 special election, coming in third place.

Joshua Clennon

• Money raised: $14,308
• Clennon is a manager for the property management firm UMDI, is treasurer of Community Board 10, and served as executive director of the Uptown Democratic Club.

William Council

• Money raised: $17,170
• Council has worked as an administrator at the nonoprofit rehabilitation center Phoenix House, has worked as a youth basketball coach and co-founded the A.A.U basketball program The Rens and the nonprofit CouncilHim.

Pierre Gooding

• Money raised: $7,245
• An attorney, Gooding also identifies as a libertarian. He works as general counsel at the Scholar Athlete Fund and formerly worked for Success Academy Charter Schools.

Kristin Richardson Jordan

• Money raised: $55,690 (plus $160,444 in public matching funds)
• Jordan is an author, poet, teaching after and activist in Harlem. She founded the independent publishing house Pens Up Press, runs the Uproar Poetry Group and has held poetry workshops at a Harlem school and senior center.

Alpheaus Marcus

• Money raised: none
• Marcus ran for State Assembly in the Bronx in 2018, as a Republican. He founded the Urban Nonprartisan Club and is CEO of AMX Consultants, a political firm.

Ruth McDaniels

• Money raised: $11,776
• Before her retirement, McDaniels worked as a peace officer at city schools, a supervisor at the NYPD's school safety division and a police sergeant for the city's human resources administration. She is now a tenant association president and is vice president for an NYPD community council.

Bernadette McNear

• Money raised: none
• McNear has been a tenant leader at NYCHA's Rangel Houses and works as an administrative assistant at Lantern Group.

Mario Rosser

• Money raised: $47,963
• Rosser is a partnership manager at LinkedIn, and formerly co-chaired the New York Young Leadership Board.

Sheba Simpson

• Money raised: $9,859
• A special education teacher, Simpson also founded the Central Harlem Merchant Coalition to Save Small Businesses.

Keith Taylor

• Money raised: $20,377
• A longtime member of Community Board 10, Taylor is an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He worked for decades in the NYPD and served as an assistant commissioner for the Department of Corrections.

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