Manhattan Councilwoman Julie Menin claimed victory Wednesday in the City Council speaker’s race after securing commitments of support from a super majority of her colleagues, putting an early end to the contest and teeing up potential tensions with incoming Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Menin’s grip on the powerful post wouldn’t be formalized until early January, when the Council’s 51 members will vote to elect the body’s new speaker.
But Menin, an Upper East Side Democrat who has positioned herself as the moderate candidate in the internal race, rolled out a press release Wednesday declaring she has locked in support for her speaker bid from 35 of her fellow Council members, putting her above the 26-vote threshold required for victory.
Among the members listed as backing Menin were all of the Council’s five Republicans as well as some progressive Democrats, including Manhattan Councilman Chris Marte, who was himself campaigning for speaker.
“As speaker, my top priority will be supporting all members of the Council as they work to serve their constituents; providing them with the resources they need to advocate effectively for their districts and working to improve the quality of life for New Yorkers,” Menin said in a statement. “In the weeks ahead, I look forward to continuing the conversations we have already begun about the affordability agenda we will put forward and the shared priorities we will advance ahead of the new session in January.”
New York City Council Member Julie Menin delivers remarks as 32BJ SEIU and Power to the Patients rally outside of New York-Presbyterian Hospital for more affordable and honest healthcare, Wednesday, May 29, 2024 in New York. (Jason DeCrow/AP Images for Power to the Patients)
If elected, Menin will become the first Jewish speaker in Council history. First elected to the Council in 2021, she previously worked as commissioner of the city Department of Consumer Affairs under ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio.
The other leading candidate in the speaker’s race, progressive Brooklyn Councilwoman Crystal Hudson, did not immediately provide comment on Menin’s announcement.
In contrast to Hudson, Menin didn’t endorse Mamdani for mayor and has in private pitched herself as someone who could as speaker serve as a credible check on the incoming democratic socialist mayor, unnerving some of the body’s progressives, as reported by the Daily News this week.
Specifically, sources told The News that Menin has vowed to not be a rubber-stamp on launching Mamdani’s Department of Community Safety and looked at increasing the use of the Council’s subpoena power in the context of oversight of mayoral agencies.
Still, in her statement, Menin said she plans to work closely with Mamdani, noting her broad coalition of supporters include left-wing allies of the mayor-elect, such as Council Progressive Caucus members Shekar Krishnan, Harvey Epstein and Pierina Sanchez.
“With this broad five borough coalition,we stand ready to partner with Mayor-Elect Mamdani’s administration and deliver on a shared agenda that makes New York more affordable through universal childcare, lowers rent and healthcare costs, and ensures that families across the City can do more than just get by,” Menin’s statement said.
A spokeswoman for Mamdani didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
Incoming mayors have traditionally been able to exert influence over the Council speaker’s race. But Mamdani and his team haven’t taken any steps to get involved, even though Hudson appears to be the candidate most ideologically aligned with him.
If Menin is indeed elected speaker, an early stress test for her relationship with Mamdani will come in February when the new mayor is expected to release his first proposal for the 2027 fiscal year budget, which will ultimately need to be approved by the Council.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams shakes hands with City Council Member Julie Menin at City Hall on Friday, June. 23, 2023, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/AP Images for Power to the Patients)
For the Republicans supporting Menin, they are likely to look for her to be a resource in pushing back against Mamdani’s agenda, which includes proposals to freeze the rent for stabilized tenants, divert certain mental health response responsibilities away from the NYPD, make public buses free and vastly expand subsidized child care.
“We will undoubtedly face challenges in the coming term, but I know that with Julie Menin leading this body, we will have someone who listens and understands all perspectives and will work to bridge the issues which have too often divided us,” Queens Councilwoman Vickie Paladino, one of the body’s most right-wing members, said in a statement included in the Menin team’s release. “I look forward to a fruitful working relationship serving the people of this city.”
Signs that Menin was close to clinching the speakership emerged late Tuesday night as news broke that the United Federation of Teachers, 32 BJ and the Hotel & Gaming Trades Council — three labor unions with significant sway in the race — were lining up to formally endorse her. Those three unions ultimately did endorse her as part of the press release Menin’s team put out Wednesday morning.
Still, DC 37, the city’s largest public sector union, remained on the sidelines as of Wednesday morning, with sources telling The News that its boss, Henry Garrido, was just a few hours before the Menin announcement urging Council members to hold off on committing support for any particular speaker candidate. DC 37 was an early endorser of Mamdani’s mayoral run.
Also Wednesday morning hours before Menin’s announcement, 1199SEIU, New York’s largest health care union, came out with an endorsement of Hudson’s speaker bid, saying she had the labor group’s support because she “always puts the needs of hardworking New Yorkers at the forefront of her advocacy.”
The internal race has played out because incumbent Speaker Adrienne Adams is leaving office at the end of the year due to term limits.
Besides Hudson and Marte, Bronx Councilwoman Amanda Farias and Queens Councilwoman Selvena Brooks-Powers have also campaigned for speaker. Neither Farias nor Brooks-Powers immediately reacted to Menin’s victory declaration.