Politics & Government
Manhattan Lawmaker Mulls Challenge Against DA Cy Vance
Dan Quart, whose district spans the Upper East Side, Midtown and Murray Hill, will decide on a DA run in the next months.
NEW YORK, NY — Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance could be facing multiple established challengers from his own party in 2021 after more than a decade as Manhattan's top prosecutor.
Manhattan State Assemblymember Dan Quart is considering mounting a challenge for the District Attorney seat and is expected to make an official decision sometime in the next few months, Quart's Press Secretary Aleksandra Wolan confirmed with Patch. Quart, a former Legal Aid lawyer, has often clashed with Vance on issues such as legalizing gravity knives and is an outspoken critic of how Vance runs the office.
Quart teased his potential run this week in light of new federal charges brought against convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein for sexually abusing dozens of girls at his Upper East Side mansion and other places in a yearslong sex-trafficking conspiracy. In response to a tweet by progressive activist Shaun King urging "strong candidates to challenge Manhattan DA Cy Vance," Quart tweeted three "hand waving" emojis.
Find out what's happening in Upper East Sidefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
The legislator has previously criticized Vance for the DA's use of forfeiture money on hotel rooms and first class plane tickets and a lack of reform on issues such as prosecuting low-level crimes such as marijuana possession and turnstile jumping. Quart has also called out Vance on a number of occasions for giving preferential treatment to well-connected people such as Epstein, Harvey Weinstein and the Trump family.
News reports in 2017 said that Vance got big campaign contributions from lawyers for the Trump family and Weinstein around the time that he closed probes into their clients. The revelations sparked a write-in challenge from the civil rights attorney Marc Fliedner, which Vance easily survived.
Find out what's happening in Upper East Sidefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Vance is only the second District Attorney to serve Manhattan since 1975. He won an election in 2009 to succeed longtime DA Robert Morgenthau, who endorsed Vance as his successor.
New York Law School Professor and former prosecutor Alvin Bragg has already launched a challenge against Vance.
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