Corey Johnson Elected City Council Speaker

NEW YORK CITY HALL — The City Council elected Councilman Corey Johnson as its new speaker on Wednesday, cementing his predetermined victory in a once eight-way race and making him the legislature's first openly gay, HIV-positive leader.

Johnson, a Greenwich Village Democrat, succeeds Melissa Mark-Viverito as the Council's leader, a post with influence over city policy and legislation second only to Mayor Bill de Blasio. Mark Viverito, of East Harlem, was term-limited out of her seat at the end of 2017.

Johnson was once among eight candidates — all men — to replace Mark-Viverito, who became the first Hispanic speaker in 2013. But most conceded two weeks ago after Johnson reportedly secured the requisite 26 votes two weeks ago at the behest of U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley and state Assemblyman Marcos Crespo, the powerful Democratic committee leaders from Queens and the Bronx.

Johnson's ascension coincides with the start of de Blasio's second term in City Hall. In recent interviews, Johnson has signaled he may diverge from the mayor in key policy areas, such as how to address homelessness and the subway crisis.

He supports the city giving more money to the MTA and reopening an Council investigative arm with subpoena power to strengthen the body's oversight capabilities, he told The New York Times on Tuesday.

In his acceptance speech, Johnson referred to an "affordability crisis" that's driving many longtime New Yorkers out of the city, forcing others into homelessness and shuttering small businesses as chain stores thrive. He pledged to lead "a strong, unified and independent Council to take on these challenges."

"These problems are incredibly complex and entrenched, but the future of our city depends on our ability to confront them, and confront them we will," he said.

The Council coronated Johnson with a 48-1 vote over Councilwoman Inez Barron of East New York, who ran a weeklong campaign to protest what she called the backdoor deals that marginalized black Council members.

In a speech nominating herself for the job, Barron compared the dominance of party leaders in the process to "chattel slavery" and the 20th century's racist Jim Crow laws. She referred several times to Shirley Chisholm, the late Brooklyn congresswoman who became the first black person to run for president in 1968.

"Today we have the opportunity to reject the status quo, the dictates of masters, the influence of cronyism," Barron said before casting the sole vote for herself.

Besides Barron, the field of speaker candidates included five members of color. Three of them — Robert Cornegy of Brooklyn, Ydanis Rodriguez of Manhattan and Ritchie Torres of the Bronx — seconded Johnson's nomination, praising his work ethic and commitment to diversity.

Several Council members applauded Barron as she finished her speech, but none seconded her nomination.

Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo of Brooklyn, who is black, said the Council's Black, Latino and Asian Caucus should have gotten behind a single candidate of color early in the race — echoing a point Barron made in an interview Tuesday.

Johnson's experience as a gay, HIV-positive man from a working-class family gives him perspective that will help him understand the problems of marginalized communities, Cumbo said.

"These are things that while many are saying he shouldn’t be a leader, in my estimation these are the reasons that he should be a leader," she said.

Johnson had a second opponent in Councilman Jumaane Williams of Brooklyn until Wednesday morning, when Williams bowed out. The third-term Flatbush lawmaker — who's said to have gubernatorial ambitions — skipped the vote and instead went to Albany for Gov. Andrew Cuomo's State of the State address, Politico New York reported.

In a statement, Williams said he'd received assurances from Johnson that he would address his and Barron's concerns about diversity at the upper echelons of city government. Like Barron, Williams had continued campaigning to resist political leaders' decision to put a white man in the powerful post.

"Having spoken at length with Council Member Johnson, he is acutely aware of those concerns, and has agreed, in a tangible and accountable way, to work alongside me on issues of equity, both in government and citywide, for people of diverse backgrounds across race, gender, sexual orientation, and more," Williams said in the statement.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the facet of Johnson's identity that makes his election historic. He is the first openly gay and HIV-positive speaker. Christine Quinn was the first openly gay speaker.

(Lead image: Councilman Corey Johnson appears at a committee hearing in March 2017. Photo by William Alatriste/New York City Council)