The race is part of a generation reshaping New York City politics, long dominated by borough machines and now in flux after the election of Ocasio-Cortez in the Bronx and Queens and Jumaane Williams as public advocate. That followed a prior upset win, when Bill de Blasio beat back an establishment opponent in 2013 to become mayor, even as he’s since disappointed some on the left since then. On Monday, Bronx Rep. José Serrano announced his retirement, opening a new seat that could be claimed by the progressive wave. In 2018, insurgent challengers in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx unseated longtime state senators, producing the most progressive Albany legislature in generations and upending power dynamics in the city. Electing a progressive prosecutor would put an exclamation mark on that shift.

Critics of outgoing DA Dick Brown say his office was behind the curve on implementing reforms that his colleagues across the country were quicker to adopt, like declining to prosecute low-level, nonviolent offenses like marijuana use or fare evasion, or establishing units to review and overturn wrongful convictions. Those are among the issues that the seven candidates in the crowded field have been most vocal about.

But unlike last year’s DA races, the Queens election is not so much a referendum on Brown’s tough-on-crimedoctrine as it is a test of who can “out-Krasner Krasner,” as one strategist close to the race put it.

There’s a fear that the potential for truly radical change in the DA’s office will be lost in a field of candidates who may sound the same, but whose visions of reform are vastly different, those involved with the race told The Intercept.