10 minute read
FIRST READ
Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio dropped out of the race for the 10th Congressional District, saying that his time in electoral politics was at an end.
BYE BYE BILL
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The race for the 10th Congressional District in New York City just got a little bit smaller with the exit of former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. In a video posted to Twitter, de Blasio said that he decided to suspend his bid for Congress – and exit electoral politics altogether. After a failed presidential campaign and a run for governor that never even got off the ground, de Blasio seemed to come to the conclusion that his time in the sun had ended. He won races for the New York City Council, public advocate and mayor in the past, but since leading the Big Apple, de Blasio’s popularity plummeted, and his attempts at running for other offices suffered. Shortly before he announced he was dropping out of the 10th District race, a poll found that half of undecided
NO SMALL FEAT
Forming the first union of Amazon warehouse workers in the United States was just the beginning of Chris Smalls’ journey. The Amazon Labor Union founder and president hopes to unionze every Amazon warehouse in the country. But Smalls still has his work cut out for him on Staten Island, where Amazon is challenging the results of JFK8’s historic election and is certain to do everything it can to impede the union’s progress on reaching a contract.
– New York City Mayor Eric Adams, misattributing that lyric to Jay-Z when it had previously been sung by Liza Minnelli, Frank Sinatra and others
– retiring Rep. Chris Jacobs, on former President Donald Trump, via The Buffalo News voters would not be open to voting for him. That and other polls also had de Blasio near the bottom of the pack of candidates, trailing far behind the likes of Council Member Carlina Rivera and Assembly Member Yuh-Line Niou. But now, he might be able to use the campaign cash he’s raised to help pay off some of his past debts and legal bills.
MONKEYPOX ON THE RISE IN NYC
Not content with just one infectious disease spreading in the five boroughs, the number of monkeypox cases in New York City have been increasing. Rates doubled over the course of less than a week, and the state leads the nation in the number of cases. After red tape at the federal level led to delays in getting vaccines to the state, the city announced that it received 26,000 doses in the past week with the newly available appointments getting snapped up very quickly. The city and state are set to receive nearly 760,000 more vaccine doses that had been held up in Denmark until recently.
LEE ZELDIN ATTACKED
A man attacked Rep. Lee Zeldin, the Republican nominee for governor, during a campaign event in Rochester Thursday evening. The man approached Zeldin on stage with a pointed weapon and brought him to the ground before
others helped to subdue the attacker. Zeldin was unharmed in the incident, and prosecutors charged his attacker with second-degree attempted assault. A judge released him without bail, leading to Zeldin and other Republicans denouncing New York’s bail reform law.
REPUBLICANS TAKE ON SAME-SEX MARRIAGE AND CONTRACEPTION
The House voted to approve legislation codifying samesex marriage at the federal level amid fears that the U.S. Supreme Court may overturn the ruling that found it to be a constitutional right. Every Republican in New York voted in favor, with one exception. Rep. Claudia Tenney of the Mohawk Valley went against every other member of the New York delegation to vote against the bill, which would also codify interracial marriage. Tenney called the move a “cheap political stunt” by Democrats, though said she agreed with the the court ruling on the right to gay marriage. The House also passed a bill codifying the right to contraception over similar concerns about the court. This time, more Republicans from New York voted against the measure, including Zeldin, who is running for governor.
Rep. Claudia Tenney was the only New York representative to vote against a bill to codify same-sex marriage rights.
Eric Adams’ campaign cash from outside NYC
New York City Mayor Eric Adams raised a whopping $850,077 for his reelection campaign since January – though more of that came from donors living outside the city than from his own constituents. New York City donors gave $421,417, according to Adams’ first campaign finance report as mayor, while those with addresses outside the city gave $428,660.
Citing a consultant briefed on the campaign’s plans, The New York Times reported last month that Adams’ hoped to max out his fundraising by the end of the summer – bringing in enough money that, with the help of the city’s 8-to-1 public matching funds program, he would have enough money to spend up to the $7.9 million limit for the 2025 primary. If so, Adams has a long way to go. He claimed just $83,917 eligible for matching, which would qualify him for an additional $671,336 in public funds.
That relatively low number was due to the fact that so much of Adams’ haul came from outside the city and because so many donations exceeded the $250 limit to be eligible for matching funds. The campaign reported 699 contributors giving an average donation of $1,216. For a candidate participating in the matching funds program, like Adams, the maximum allowed contribution is $2,100, which is meant, in part, to limit the influence of any individual donor.
Adams was actually off to a slightly slower fundraising pace than the first six months of 2018, when he was launching his campaign. He brought in more than $915,000 that period, though at the time he was accepting donations at the previous limit of $5,100.
But Adams’ fundraising efforts immediately upon taking office dwarf those of his predecessor Bill de Blasio. He brought in just $44,000 in his first six months in office, and just $8,000 in the six months after that – choosing to focus more on boosting state Senate Democrats rather than his own reelection campaign. Adams, by contrast, made fundraising a personal focus, even holding events in Los Angeles and Chicago.
“This filing shows strong support for Mayor Adams and his plans for the city,” Adams’ campaign counsel Vito Pitta said in a statement provided to City & State.
Adams reported a balance of $747,000 – a cushion that helps establish the mayor’s formidability as a candidate in 2025, when he is expected to stand for reelection to a second term. – Jeff Coltin
THE WEEK AHEAD
THURSDAY 7/28
Democratic candidates for the 4th Congressional District in Nassau County join a virtual debate at 5 p.m. hosted by PoliticsNY. FRIDAY 7/29
City & State New York’s “New York Women in Government Talk Series” presented by Spectrum features Secretary to the Governor Karen Persichilli Keogh and others in an 11 a.m. webinar. INSIDE DOPE
This is the last day to register to vote ahead of the Aug. 23 primary elections, but if you’re reading this, you’re probably already registered. MONDAY 8/1
Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney and state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi debate at a 7 p.m. virtual forum hosted by the League of Women Voters for the 17th Congressional District Democratic primary.
A TALE OF TWO PRIMARIES By Rebecca C. Lewis
THE DEMOCRATIC RACES FOR GOVERNOR AND LG WERE A BATTLE BETWEEN THE HAVES AND HAVE-NOTS.
In recent years, some candidates in New York managed to overcome the odds and defeat incumbents who outspent them by huge margins. But there’s outspending, and then there’s completely dwarfing the competition. And let’s just say in the June Democratic primary, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado spent big bucks. The governor put her money to good use, spending about $47 per vote, while her running mate spent a more reasonable $13 for each of his votes. Rep. Tom Suozzi didn’t get nearly as much bang for his buck, with each vote costing him over $86 despite his third-place finish. The other candidates for governor and lieutenant governor at least didn’t end up spending big just to come up short – Jumaane Williams spent just $3 per vote and still managed to place above Suozzi.
$30,000,000
$25,000,000
$20,000,000
$15,000,000
$10,000,000
$5,000,000
GOVERNOR
$8,000,000
$7,000,000
$6,000,000
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR
$5,000,000
$4,000,000
$3,000,000
$2,000,000
$1,000,000
A Q&A with state Sen. KEVIN PARKER
DSA and Working Family Party-backed candidates didn’t have much success in the June primary. David Alexis, one of your opponents, has support from both of these groups. Has this had any impact on your confidence going into the primary? My confidence is all predicated on the work that I’ve done for almost 20 years for this community. I am not just a long-term legislature, but I’m one of the most prolific lawmakers. We’ve passed over 100 laws over the last 20 years since I’ve been there. I’ve helped flip this body from a Republican-held body to a Democratic Party, not once, but twice. We’ve built a great deal of community service work – everything from job fairs and prom dress giveaways to book bags giveaways and flu shots. We also gave away tons of food and personal protective equipment during the pandemic. This is all what I’m going to lean on. I think if people want the kind of leadership that is hands on, that is looking out for them, that has increased the amount of money for education and that has addressed the issues of climate change, then they’ll vote for me.
What’s the most pressing thing New York needs to do to move towards a climate-friendly energy grid? We need to make the regulatory environment more conducive for clean energy so that we get more clean energy generation into the ground. There’s also three other things that people are not talking about that I think are important. One that I’ve mentioned is to demand a response and teach people in our communities about when’s the best time to use energy and when is the worst time, so they can make informed decisions about when they’re running a washing machine or an air conditioner. We also have about 2.5 million vehicles in the state of New York that need to be replaced to either low-carbon vehicles or to electric vehicles. We need to start that process, and people need to be aware of that. Third, we are an old state, and we have old buildings. We need to retrofit a ton of old commercial and residential buildings. That’s not as sexy as some of the other things, but it’s certainly something we need to pay attention to.
You were the lead sponsor of the Build Public Renewables Act, which passed in your chamber but failed in the Assembly. What do you think needs to change in the next couple of years to make the Assembly more receptive to that? I think we are in a process of education around all of these things, and I think that the speaker and others need to be convinced that this is part of what gets us to a Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act goal. I think that it is part of it, just like I think utility scale renewables are part of what we do, having the National Environmental Policy Act do more, sustainable energy is part of it – I take an all-of-the-above approach. – Sahalie Donaldson
