Democratic metropolis Comptroller candidates Mark Levine (prime, proper), Justin Brannan (prime, left), Ismael Malave (backside, proper), and Kevin Parker (backside, left).
Images by Lloyd Mitchell, John McCarten/NYC Council Media Unit, and NYS Senate Media Providers
The race to interchange Mayor Eric Adams has swallowed a lot of the oxygen within the lead-up to this yr’s June 24 Democratic main. However as New Yorkers start heading to the polls for early voting in a few weeks, there will probably be a number of different races on their ballots, together with the heated contest to interchange metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander.
The comptroller is town’s unbiased fiscal watchdog, charged with auditing the funds and efficiency of its businesses, managing its 5 pension funds, and inspecting its $115 billion funds. The comptroller oversees 800 workers, together with accountants and economists, in addition to funds, monetary, and funding analysts.
The position usually features as a verify on the mayoral administration, conducting audits that may expose points with town’s funds or inefficiencies in its businesses. Lander, who determined to vie for the mayoralty as a substitute of searching for one other time period as comptroller, has spent the previous three-plus years within the place, locking horns with Mayor Adams over points from Metropolis Corridor’s repeated funds cuts to its emergency contracting practices throughout the migrant disaster.
Now, two candidates are main within the Democratic main for comptroller: Brooklyn Metropolis Council Member Justin Brannan and Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine. The Manhattan beep has led Brannan within the restricted public polling that has come out to date, however each candidates have attracted their fair proportion of notable endorsements. A current Emerson School ballot confirmed almost 30% of voters are nonetheless undecided.
Brooklyn state Sen. Kevin Parker and Ismael Malave Perez, an worker of the Division of Citywide Administrative Providers, are additionally vying for the place.
Whereas Brannan and Levine are principally aligned on their coverage positions, they’ve traded blows over their respective approaches to Mayor Adams and the way they’d battle in opposition to President Trump.
Beneath ,New York News seems at every of the candidates operating on this yr’s Democratic main for comptroller.
Justin Brannan
Brannan has served in political workplace since 2018, after being elected to a southern Brooklyn Metropolis Council seat the earlier yr. His district covers areas together with Bay Ridge, the neighborhood the place he was born and raised, and Coney Island, which was added to it throughout a 2022 redistricting.
Previous to coming into politics, Brannan traveled the world as a punk rocker along with his band “Indecision.”
Throughout his time on the council, Brannan unsuccessfully bid to grow to be its chief—a place often called speaker—in 2021. He was then appointed chair of the physique’s highly effective Finance Committee, from which he has waged many heated battles with Mayor Adams over Hizzoner’s repeated metropolis company cuts.
Brannan — recognized for a brash, in-your-face fashion — says his expertise negotiating town funds and preventing Adams has ready him to each present oversight of town’s funds and battle again in opposition to looming funding cuts from President Trump. He’s campaigning on plans to divest town’s pension funds from the Elon Musk-owned electrical automotive firm Tesla, crack down on authorities corruption, and assist make free youngster care common.
The council member has raised $3.4 million in non-public donations and public matching funds mixed. He at present has $2.6 million in his marketing campaign account, in response to Marketing campaign Finance Board (CFB) data.
Mark Levine
Levine was elected Manhattan borough president in 2021 after spending eight years within the Metropolis Council. He represented District 7, which covers a part of the Higher West Facet up by West Harlem, and chaired the physique’s Committees on Parks and Well being.
As Manhattan beep, Levine has championed initiatives like figuring out websites throughout Manhattan the place new inexpensive housing will be constructed, partnering with the Hebrew Free Mortgage Society to supply low-interest loans to small companies, and launching a marketing campaign to plant a million extra timber in Manhattan — in response to his workplace’s web site.
Previous to coming into elected workplace, Levine was a bilingual math and science instructor within the South Bronx and based the Neighborhood Belief Federal Credit score Union, which serves households and companies in Higher Manhattan and the Bronx. Based on his marketing campaign, he speaks Spanish and Hebrew fluently and is studying Greek and French.
Levine, who has a extra reserved fashion, can also be operating on utilizing the comptroller’s workplace authority to deal with a number of the metropolis’s most urgent points. He has proposed plans to take a position $2.5 billion from town’s pension fund in constructing inexpensive housing, place a further $2 billion within the metropolis’s reserves as a safeguard in opposition to President Trump’s sweeping funds cuts, and audit the Division of Schooling’s use of outdoor consultants.
CFB data present that Levine has led the sphere in fundraising, having raised $4.8 million in non-public donations and public matching funds. He has $3.4 million money available.
Kevin Parker
Parker was first elected to Albany’s higher chamber in 2002. He represents central and southern Brooklyn neighborhoods, together with Flatbush, Midwood, Flatlands, Canarsie, and Mill Basin. He’s the Democratic convention’s majority whip and chairs the state Senate’s Power and Telecommunications Committee.
Parker claims on his marketing campaign web site to be the “most prolific” state lawmaker at present within the legislature, having handed over 70 payments throughout his time in Albany.
Previous to being elected to the state Senate, Parker held a number of jobs in state and metropolis authorities. He was a particular assistant to former Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger, an aide to former Metropolis Council Member Una Clarke, and a particular assistant to former Meeting Member Nick Perry.
In comparison with Brannan and Levine, Parker’s comptroller marketing campaign has barely been seen.
Parker’s marketing campaign web site lists pledges together with social worth investing, inexpensive housing, a NYCHA new deal, common after-school, an financial justice panel, and increasing public well being. Nonetheless, it doesn’t present any particulars on these proposals or how he would enact them.
Based on the CFB, Parker has solely raised $73,458 in non-public donations, has not obtained public matching funds, and has simply $16,164 in his marketing campaign account. He didn’t meet the matching funds threshold to qualify for both of the CFB-organized comptroller debates.
Ismael Malave
Malave is a long-time metropolis worker who at present works as an “administrative procurement analyst” on the Division of Citywide Administrative Providers, in response to his LinkedIn profile. He has labored for DCAS since 2014 and beforehand served within the metropolis comptroller’s workplace as a “senior investment analyst” and in its public affairs division.
Based on his LinkedIn, previous to becoming a member of town comptroller’s workplace, Malave labored as an government assistant for the state comptroller.
Based on Malave’s marketing campaign web site, he says he’ll use the comptroller’s workplace to root out “waste and inefficiency” in metropolis authorities, uphold town’s prevailing wage requirements, and repair points with its pension system.
Malave has raised $103,646 in non-public donations, however has not certified for public matching funds. He has $20,488 in his marketing campaign account and has not made the talk stage.
