A competitive race becomes slimmer in candidates as the days go by for the City Council speakership. Since Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras-Copeland announced she was not seeking re-election, including her ambitions for the speakership, it’s now come to a male dominant race. This demographic change has caused some controversy that was no one’s control. Although the speakership race is dominated by white male contenders, minority competition still plays a role in breaking the glass ceiling. Before both Councilwoman Christine Quinn and Mark-Viverito, all of the council’s speakers had been white males.

This slate of male contenders has changed campaign strategy in order to secure support for their candidacies for the speakership. A lot of these candidates have major support in all sorts of areas as a result of their contribution to policy, committees, and alliances they’ve created. The life experiences of candidates have also played a role in the passion they have in order to acquire the speakership, helping them garner additional support. Lastly, Mayor de Blasio’s role in the race is open, now that he has to make a choice in who he will support. It’s very unclear who he wishes to claim the seat because he focused and favored on Ferreras-Copeland’s original plans to take over Mark-Viverito’s place as speaker, which he also played a vital role in. County chairs and borough politics are expected to weigh-in more heavily than the Mayor’s influence, this election cycle.