In many places local elections are not partisan, from Mayors and School Boards to Stream Authorities and Sheriffs. There are rarely any barriers to be on the ballot in small towns, such is the case with most state and federal ballots requiring an established party to endorse you or to gain a butload of signatures on a petition. If they did require a party endorsement in the middle of buttfuck town nowhere county then it’s questionable if people would even qualify to run for office at all.

NYC is quite large, though, so that logic doesn’t apply to them.