During those brief gaps between political forums, greeting residents or meeting with members of her advisory council, Manhattan District Attorney candidate Lucy Lang takes a seat in her office or at her Harlem home after she puts her kids to bed, and pens scores of personalized thank-you notes to staffers, supporters and prospective voters.
The notes, written on weighty white stationery in her neat but not-too-tidy script, are embossed with her full name yet simply signed “Lucy” — an intimate approach to campaigning in a race that, due to social distancing, has mostly been run in the digital sphere.
“This campaign was largely conducted through screens, and so I have been looking for every way I can to connect with people in a more human way. Handwritten notes are one way to do that,” Lang told the Daily News, adding that her note-writing hasn’t slowed down with early voting underway and just over a week until the June 22 Democratic Primary.
“I said to my partner Scott [on Friday] when we were heading home [that] we just have to find joy in these last days because who knows exactly how this is going to go, and whether we’ll ever do anything like this again? What a joy to be able to have the privilege of asking people to get behind me and support the things I believe in…That joy is part of the note-writing process, to remind me about the human connection.”
Lang, 40, a former Manhattan assistant district attorney and the former director of the Institute for Innovation in Prosecution at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, has sent out thousands of letters since she launched her campaign in August.
Her note-writing began in childhood, when her mother stressed the significance of showing gratitude through pen and paper. The steady practice later led her to write one life-changing letter to federal Judge Jed S. Rakoff, a speaker at her commencement at Swarthmore College whose speech reaffirmed her decision to go to law school.
“Bearing in mind my mother’s advice, I wrote him a note thanking him for his graduation remarks, and telling him how important it was for me to receive that wisdom the day I graduated,” Lang said. “And he wrote me back, and said he had a summer legal internship program and invited me to apply, which I did. And I ended up at my first legal job.”
The experience — including watching the retrial of a death penalty eligibility case — played a huge part in her decision to become prosecutor, Lang explained.
Rakoff then introduced her to the late Judge Robert Katzmann, the former chief justice of the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and both men encouraged her to apply to the Manhattan DA’s Office.
“I very much credit that first thank-you note with the fact that I have had this career… and I have tried to incorporate [this sense of] gratitude into this campaign,” she said.
Investing in relationships has also been a cornerstone of Lang’s run against seven other Democrats to replace incumbent Manhattan DA Cy Vance Jr., her old boss who is stepping down in the fall.
She keeps in close contact with dozens of formerly incarcerated students who took a college-in-prison course she taught at several state facilities. Many of them have either donated to or volunteered for her campaign.
Other supporters have also taken up her practice of letter-writing, including her late grandparents’ neighbors who sent out postcards to their building tenants, friends and family encouraging them to choose Lang.
“I am the person in the race who is best suited and equipped to take on every case pending in front of that office, right from the very first day, while also implementing the overdue policies necessary,” Lang told The News after a long morning of canvassing at the Upper West Side 77th/79th Street Greenmarket, where some voters likely received one of her quintessential notes.
“I want them to see I’ve run a mission driven campaign that is supported and informed by the people most directly impacted by the system,” she said. “My commitment has been and will always be to make sure I can effectively and fairly oversee every case pending… I’m ready.”