New York Politics By The Numbers
And the musical chairs of city races next year
Hi All,
The national GOP just picked their number two; Democrats are debating if theirs should get a promotion to the top of the ticket. Here in New York, politicos are looking past November to next June—and yesterday’s announcements of money raised through July 11 gave us a lot more information about who’s viable in our 2025 races.
Judging by fundraising numbers, Eric Adams will be facing serious challenges in his bid for a second term. He’s raised $2.9 million towards his reelection before matching funds, but his rivals are putting up serious numbers too. Comptroller Brad Lander hasn’t formally announced, but he’s already raised $674K ($3M after matching); former comptroller Scott Stringer has raised $425K ($2.1M); and State Senator Zellnor Myrie took in $326K ($1.3M) as he works to introduce himself to a citywide audience.
Lander’s launch will tee up a game of electoral musical chairs, as he won’t be able to seek reelection to comptroller. Assemblywoman Jennifer Rajkumar, an extremely close ally of Eric Adams, is going to run; so too may two abundance champions, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine and Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso. Their runs will open up BP positions drawing council-members and state legislators—a shakeup unfolding alongside 2025 races for every city council seat (though ~80% of those races feature an incumbent running for reelection).
We’ll be watching all of these races closely and keeping you informed about how they’re shaping up—and how we should be entering the fray ourselves to ensure the best folks are seated in positions of power after the music stops.
In the meantime, read below for more key numbers in New York—and add to the number of folks turning out for our July happy hour tomorrow by RSVPing today!
Ryder
🌱 2033: The year New York might actually hit the required threshold of generating 70% of our power from carbon-free sources, though the law mandates we do it by 2030. Delayed renewables projects are impeding our climate progress, adding to the climate damage of Kathy Hochul’s congestion pricing delay and Eric Adams’s weakening of Local Law 97 (which reduces emissions from city buildings).
🚗 127: The number of New Yorkers killed by cars in the first half of 2024, demonstrating that cars are a deadlier threat than guns in the Big Apple (82 New Yorkers were killed in shootings over the same period). Hopefully legislators will turn attention to cracking down on this violence in addition to (legitimate) attention to far less deadly e-bikes.
👶 18%: The reduction since 2020 in the number of kids under 5 living in New York, as rising childcare and housing costs push families with young kids out of the city.
🏘️ 15: The number of Community Boards who have passed pro-City of Yes for Housing Opportunity resolutions. Sure, 35 have come out against the city’s plan to legalize a little more housing in every neighborhood, but this ratio is very encouraging given the expectation that the notoriously anti-change Boards would uniformly buzzsaw the plan—and it’s partially due to BP Mark Levine’s great work ensuring Boards are a little more representative of their communities.
👮 $14 million: The cost of changing the slogan decals on 10,000 NYPD patrol cars, replacing “Courtesy, Professionalism, Respect” with “Fighting crime, protecting the public.” So long, CPR.