By Carla Zanoni
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER MANHATTAN — Northern Manhattan was alive with the sound of politicking Sunday afternoon as two motorcades drove up and down Broadway looking for last-minute votes ahead of Tuesday's primary.
In one motorcade was state Senate hopeful Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat and the candidate he wants to replace him in the 72nd District, Guillermo Linares. In the other was Espaillat's main rival, Mark Levine.
“We do it to motivate the Hispanic people to come out and vote,” Espaillat organizer Rafael Osorio said of the more than three-block-long motorcade. “By encouraging the community to vote we can get better resources for the community."
The Espaillat-Linares motorcade was a lavish affair that looked almost like a parade, complete with police escort, massive sound systems and a truck that carried at least a dozen people cheering and waving flags. A similar truck was the subject of some controversy in the neighborhood last month, after one local grew so frustrated with the blaring noise coming from a parked campaign vehicle that he disconnected the speaker and sparred with campaign workers.
Dozens of livery cab drivers also participated in the event, taping campaign posters to the outside of their cars, in a nod to Espaillat's ongoing support for those workers.
Levine’s caravan for his 31st State Senate District race wound its way through the neighborhood later in the afternoon, and featured a much smaller, quieter procession that had to contend with steady rain.
Levine's motorcade began outside of his campaign headquarters in Inwood and traveled south along Broadway and north on St. Nicholas Avenue in Washington Heights.
City Councilman Robert Jackson was among a group of friends and volunteers who joined the caravan. Levine’s children and wife, Ivelisse Suarez, who is featured in a new campaign commercial released earlier on Sunday, also participated.
“We’re like mailmen today,” Levine organizer and tenant organizer, George Fernandez, said about the rainfall as they geared up for the caravan to begin its route. “We are up against the machine and this means more exposure for Mark.”
Campaign workers have defended their truck-based campaigning, telling critics of the noise that it's the best way to reach voters during election season. Linares' team has also defended the tactics as a "traditional Latino" approach to campaigning.
Washington Heights resident Kenneth Williams said he enjoyed the trucks in Washington Heights and thought most people in the neighborhood liked them as well.
“I think it’s a very good thing, they have these kinds of things all the time,” he said as he watched the caravan for Espaillat and Linares pass by.
