Hi, I'm Dan Premat and welcome to Axios Recap, where we dig into one big story.

Today is Wednesday, June 9th.

Temperatures are up, U.S. COVID deaths are down, and we're focused on the next mayor of America's largest city.

This Saturday, New York City voters will be asked to begin picking their next mayor via early

voting. Actually, they'll be asked to pick the Democratic Party's nominee for their next mayor,

but according to most experts, that might as well be the same thing. Why it matters is that New York

isn't just America's biggest city by population. It's also the world's financial hub.

It's media hub, the place whose mayors often go on to major nationwide political prominence.

So four things to know before the votes begin getting tallied. One, the incumbent, Bill de Blasio,

isn't running because of term limits. But even if he could run, no one really thinks he would have won.

Two, this will be the first time New Yorkers have ever been asked to use ranked choice voting,

which is very different than just checking the box of your favorite candidate. It could make

the results take longer to tabulate and may mean the person leading after round one doesn't

ultimately end up in Gracie Mansion.

Three, you probably know at least one of the candidates, Andrew Yang, who ran for president

in this past cycle, but his name recognition doesn't make him anything close to a sure bet to win.

In fact, there arguably isn't a real frontrunner.

Four, the top issue right now appears to be

crime and policing with COVID abating. So today we want to speak with Dana Rubinstein,

a Metro reporter at the New York Times who's been covering the race about what to know about

the candidates, the switch over to rank choice voting, and what to watch heading into

this weekend's early voting. That conversation

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