Hi friends,
I saw the devastating exhibition at the New Museum, Grief and Grievance: Mourning in America. It seemed like an appropriate way to spend part of a holiday weekend meant to memorialize that which we’ve lost. Yesterday, I spent some time with “What the Tulsa Race Massacre Destroyed.”
And I am mourning the lost hope of the Mayorales campaign, which was always a bit of a long shot. Maybe it is for the best and she’s just not ready for the job; maybe the internal doings of her campaign are a result of very young and idealistic people confronting reality and it’s not as bad as it looks. It’s probably some of each.
Carrying signs that said “Dignity, Care, Solidarity” and “Union Busting Is Disgusting” and “WTF Dianne?!” the protesters-slash-employees called on Morales to recognize their efforts to unionize and to rehire terminated staffers and to “create a grievance process to create a neutral avenue for reporting workplace misconduct.”
Good thing I’m ranking comptroller candidates today, and not mayoral candidates.
If you don’t remember what comptrolling is all about, please review here.
There are ten Democrats, so let’s pause to eliminate some options:
Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, who primaried AOC for her Congressional seat last year, has long experience as a journalist and financial analyst. She likely has the skills to do the job, and may in fact be better suited to the work of comptroller than Congressional representative, but I’m unenthusiastic. According to Wikipedia, she used to be a Republican. She’s a few years younger than I am, and I can find no excuse for being a Republican in my lifetime.
David Weprin, a former member of the city council and the NYS assembly, has a long record of public service and a political lineage (his father and brother held public office). He previously sought the job of comptroller in 2009 and has considerable relevant experience — as Deputy Superintendent of Banks, Secretary of the Banking Board for NYS, and on Wall Street. He opposed the congestion pricing program for New York City, which passed in 2019 and is set to be implemented this year. Weprin has also said that he regards Israeli bonds as “one of the best investments that the city pension funds have made” and that he intends to increase pension fund investments in Israel.
Caruso-Cabrera and Weprin are out. Don’t rank anyone you wouldn’t want for the job.
Kevin Parker and Brian Benjamin are state senators seeking the job of city comptroller.
Benjamin represents the Upper West Side and Harlem, where he was born and raised. He is the Chair of the Budget and Revenues Committee and holds degrees in public policy and business. He was behind legislation to divest New York's public pension funds from for-profit prisons. In his interview, he touted his investment experience as distinguishing him from other candidates. He spoke with authority and in some detail about the auditing process, particularly around NYCHA. He did answer for some irregularities pertaining to campaign donations involving bundled donations. His platform is fairly progressive, although Johnson, Lander, and Patel are on his left.
Kevin Parker, a Brooklyn native, is my senator. He worked for Carl McCall when McCall was state comptroller. On the endorsements page of Parker’s campaign website, McCall is conspicuously absent. (He has endorsed Benjamin.) Parker seems well-suited to the job of legislator, and it’s not clear to me that he’s running a serious campaign. I skipped his interview.
Here are the three candidates I’d never heard of until last week:
Zach Iscol’s website makes him seem like a resourceful, decent guy: he served as a Marine in Iraq and came back and started a mental health non-profit for veterans. Then he started an online hiring platform to help vets find employment in private businesses.
Iscol was running for mayor in the fall (who knew?) before reality set in. I need a realist in this job. Full disclosure, I only got halfway through his interview because he seemed like a financial lightweight compared to Reshma Patel.
Terri Liftin is an attorney and economic analyst. She has an impressive resume of financial know-how, but no discernible record of public service; the closest I thing I found was class mom for her son’s 7th grade class at a private school. I passed on her interview.
Alex K. Pan, 18, is a student who is running for comptroller. Say fiduciary.
So, back to Johnson and Lander, the likely frontrunners:
In his interview with Ben Max, Corey Johnson came across as entirely ready for the job. He pushed a reluctant de Blasio to create budget reserve of $475 million in 2019, which was key to the city’s survival during the crushing early months of the pandemic. He fielded all sort of questions about the various functions of the comptroller in a way that inspired confidence.
Then Max asked him about “right-sizing” the police force, which has grown larger and larger, with ballooning budgets. Johnson dodged the question by saying that “it’s about using the [police] force you have.”
Many of us recall the bruising budget battle last June. Johnson talked about the role of the speaker to find consensus. It was, to be sure, a very difficult situation. There are two things that I want to discuss related to Johnson and last year’s budget.
The first is that Johnson punished council members — including Lander — who voted NO on the budget because of inadequate cuts to the NYPD. I sent Johnson a postcard last summer to let him know that withholding discretionary funding as pay-back against dissenters would not win him progressive votes.
The second is that the real reduction to the NYPD’s budget last year, after shifting costs to other agencies, mostly resulted from cuts in NYPD overtime.
The cap on overtime, which previously stood at about $600 million a year, was slashed to $253 million for fiscal year 2021. Critics who waged a monthslong campaign to defund the police immediately criticized the budget cuts as smoke and mirrors. The budget hawks at the Citizens Budget Commission called the cap on overtime “unrealistic” and pointed out that it was only budgeted for one year.
The city’s Independent Budget Office reported that the NYPD exceeded the cap earlier this year and that overtime costs will likely be $388 million by the end of June, when the fiscal year ends. In short, Johnson didn’t even deliver on the meager cuts he promised.
In Brad Lander’s interview with Max, he said nothing to make me question the Working Families Party endorsement or his readiness for the job. He noted the importance of creating a rainy day fund with significant reserves in preparation for the next crisis. Part of his platform is a new approach to auditing, which he calls Auditing for Equity. Finally, he discussed his vision for social housing.
All my hours spent listening to interviews and reading websites for the comptroller candidates have made me more financially literate (there was, to be frank, lots of room for growth), but did not really alter my instincts. Was it a waste of time? Not if we learned something!
I admire Reshma Patel, for the reasons I discussed last week. One advantage of being a fresh face in the political arena is that one doesn’t have the baggage that more experienced folks have. One also doesn’t have the record.
If Lander’s continued support for investing in Israeli bonds is a deal-breaker for you, rank Patel #1.
My top three — Patel, Lander, and Johnson — are equal to the job. If I were voting tomorrow, I would probably rank Lander #1, Patel #2, and then Johnson #3. If there were someone dangerous in the race (meaning bad AND likely to win), I would rank Brian Benjamin #4; there is not, so I plan to stop at 3. I will let you know if anything happens to change my thinking before June 22.
Thanks for reading.
Have a great day!
with love,
L