Will Keith Wright pick the right City Council candidate in Harlem?

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Manhattan Democratic Party leader Keith Wright may need a Yusef Salaam win in City Council District 9 to prove he’s still got juice. Wright helped recruit the criminal justice activist back home to Harlem from Georgia to run, and Wright’s son is managing Salaam’s campaign. Insiders – including those privy to internal polls – said he’s got a real shot at winning, though so does Assembly Member Inez Dickens. Assembly Member Al Taylor is running, and Council Member Kristin Richardson Jordan’s name will be on the ballot, though she stopped campaigning.

Wright has faced a number of political losses in recent years. He backed Athena Moore when Cordell Cleare became a state senator, state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal for Manhattan borough president and Brian Benjamin for city comptroller. And most notably, Wright lost to Rep. Adriano Espaillat for an open House seat in 2016, one battle in a long war between the two that has extended to this council race, where Espaillat and members of the Squadriano have backed Dickens.

Wright is up for reelection as county leader this summer, and there’s talk he could get challenged, likely from Espaillat’s camp. “Every day, Harlem loses more and more political power. You need that political grit to get things done, you definitely can’t fix things on hope alone,” said Corey Ortega, a former Wright ally from West Harlem who’s now aligned with Espaillat and Dickens’ political teams. “Because every time someone mentions Harlem’s best days, it was during the Gang of Four. But we don’t have them anymore, it’s just the county (leader) of one.”

So insiders said a Salaam win could go far to solidify Wright’s power, even in the notoriously fractured Manhattan party. Wright brushed off the talk – “This must be a slow, slow news week for you!” he told City & State. “You’re really overthinking this” – and may be fine either way. Insiders said the votes probably aren’t there to take him out, and even when there was a movement against him in 2019 for serving as chair and as a strategist at lobbying firm Davidoff Hutcher & Citron at the same time, he was reelected anyway.