{"id":147191,"date":"2026-02-27T10:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T10:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/147191\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T10:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T10:38:09","slug":"brad-lander-is-building-a-united-progressive-front","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/147191\/","title":{"rendered":"Brad Lander Is Building a United Progressive Front"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last June, after a man named Edgardo wrapped up an immigration hearing at 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan, he was escorted out of the facility by a new friend: Brad Lander, then the New York City comptroller. Suddenly, ICE agents tried to impede them and take Edgardo into custody. Lander asked to see a judicial warrant, which is required for ICE to detain someone. In response, agents handcuffed Lander and arrested him instead<\/a>. He was released hours later.<\/p>\n

Lincoln Restler, who represents the city\u2019s 33rd District on the New York City Council, took notice. He told the Prospect that Lander usually flies under the media radar, which made his arrest all the more shocking.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not the flashiest guy or the most dynamic orator,\u201d he said, \u201cbut he just does consequential work that makes a real difference in people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more from James Baratta<\/a> | Emma Janssen<\/a><\/p>\n

In fact, Lander had been working on immigration issues long before his arrest. As comptroller in 2022, he spearheaded the effort<\/a> to expand health care coverage to undocumented New Yorkers. The \u201cCoverage for All\u201d proposal, as it was called, made it into both New York\u2019s Assembly and Senate budget bills, but wasn\u2019t included<\/a> in the final budget signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul.<\/p>\n

That proposal, and Lander\u2019s work battling ICE, comes out of a core belief about politics. \u201cPeople play team sports all the time, but elected officials or politicians? Not so much,\u201d Lander told the Prospect recently. Improving people\u2019s lives or protecting them from harm comes naturally when you see that person struggling as a teammate.<\/p>\n

This mentality could propel Lander into Congress this year. He is challenging<\/a> incumbent Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) in a race that is pitting New York City\u2019s old and new politics against one another. Lander has received substantial progressive support, including from Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whom he assisted during the mayoral primary<\/a> to ensure a ranked-choice victory, and who returned the favor with an \u201980s-infused endorsement video<\/a> this week. A little help from his friends has been how Lander has gotten into position to use his deep policy expertise and activist impulses to try to make life better for the people he served.<\/p>\n

WHEN LANDER MOVED TO NEW YORK CITY from Chicago in 1992, he was 23. But he had built many of the skills that have come to serve him in New York City. At the University of Chicago, he helped found a student organization called Partners in Community Development, which worked with other South Side organizations to improve public-housing conditions.<\/p>\n

He was also a member of an organization called the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, and worked for Larry Bloom, who was running for a local alderman seat (unfortunately, as Lander notes, Bloom turned out to be corrupt and went to prison).<\/p>\n

In an interview with his alma mater\u2019s student newspaper<\/a>, The Chicago Maroon, Lander discussed the driving question of his undergraduate studies: \u201cWhat is a person?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do we think about what a person deserves in the sense of human rights and dignity, and what is a person capable of in terms of contributing to democratic decision-making and the polity?\u201d he said in the Maroon.<\/p>\n

Once in New York, Lander found friends at the Working Families Party (WFP), \u201cmy political home for more than 25 years,\u201d he said. The electoral organization that has a ballot line in New York state supplied the infrastructure Lander used to advance the work of the Fifth Avenue Committee, a community development and advocacy organization where he served as executive director from 1993 to 2003.<\/p>\n

Lander is in position to use his deep policy expertise and activist impulses to try to make life better for the people he served.<\/p>\n

Lander grew the Fifth Avenue Committee from a small nonprofit into a major affordable-housing developer, revitalizing buildings abandoned at the height of the city\u2019s fiscal crisis in the mid-1970s. He took advantage of programs designed to transfer city-owned properties to nonprofit developers, often working with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development to convert buildings in Park Slope, Gowanus, and Red Hook<\/a> into affordable housing.<\/p>\n

Lander wasn\u2019t afraid to challenge power. In his first year at Fifth Avenue, he convened some 400 tenants to form the South Brooklyn Coalition to Save the Rent Laws<\/a>. The coalition of organizers fought to preserve tenant protections in the face of rising rents, gentrification, and redlining.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrad was a genius at playing the inside-outside game,\u201d Peter Dreier, a distinguished professor of politics at Occidental College who has known Lander since the 1990s, told the Prospect. \u201cIt\u2019s a set of skills that activists don\u2019t always learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Entering the New York City Council in 2009, Lander represented many of the same neighborhoods he labored to make more affordable and accessible to working families. \u201cAffordable housing has been the work of my whole career,\u201d Lander told the Prospect.<\/p>\n

Throughout his city council tenure, he strived to strengthen tenant protections<\/a> through his Certificate of No Harassment<\/a> (CONH) pilot program, which was extended and expanded<\/a> in 2021.<\/p>\n

Lander also implemented one of the most ambitious land use plans<\/a> in New York City history. The Gowanus neighborhood, situated along a Superfund site, was rezoned with $200 million in city funds, rehabilitating over a thousand New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) units.<\/p>\n

Their organizing bore fruit; it also demonstrated the city could breathe life into public housing without transferring management to private operators<\/a>. \u201cThis plan did not start in a developer\u2019s office, or at City Hall,\u201d Lander wrote in a City Limits<\/a> op-ed<\/a> he co-authored at the time. \u201cIt started through community planning, a series of public conversations that generated core principles for what inclusive, sustainable growth in the neighborhood would require.\u201d<\/p>\n

THE COUNCIL\u2019S 47-1 APPROVAL OF THE PLAN came less than a month after Lander was elected New York City comptroller, where he strove to harness the office\u2019s power to materially improve New Yorkers\u2019 quality of life. Under his leadership, the city\u2019s five pension funds saw tremendous growth, peaking at 10.3 percent returns in 2025. But that wasn\u2019t his only concern. \u201cAs we\u2019ve earned those great returns, the pension funds have been able to help address some of these other broad economic issues,\u201d Lander told the Prospect.<\/p>\n

Housing, of course, was one of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe single investment I\u2019m proudest of was saving 35,000 affordable-housing, mostly rent-stabilized units that were put at risk when Signature Bank failed,\u201d he said. \u201cTheir mortgages were up for auction and could have been bought by bottom-feeders, who would have thrown those tenants out of their homes.\u201d Instead, Lander directed the New York City Employees\u2019 Retirement System (NYCERS) to invest $60 million<\/a> in a joint venture created to preserve those units. \u201cEvery unit is preserved as rent-stabilized housing, and they\u2019re delivering great returns,\u201d Lander said.<\/p>\n

The venture remains a core fixture<\/a> of the Economically Targeted Investments program, which seeks to generate strong, market-rate returns while preserving rent-stabilized housing across New York City, either by purchasing long-term mortgages attached to affordable-housing developments, or partnering with asset managers to acquire residential real estate loans on the secondary mortgage market.<\/p>\n

Lander also leveraged the authority of his office to engage asset managers on labor and climate issues in a meaningful way. As our colleague Robert Kuttner observed<\/a> in 2024, Lander persuaded private equity firm Apollo Global Management to adopt a labor peace agreement<\/a> for its Venetian Resort Las Vegas holding, the biggest non-union property on the Strip, in exchange for a follow-on investment from city pension funds.<\/p>\n

That peace agreement bore fruit, and the Venetian unionized. According to Lander, \u201c5,000 hotel workers have a good union contract because New York City\u2019s workers pensions invested in a responsible way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city pension funds demonstrated a rare form of engagement, one that goes beyond shareholder resolutions<\/a> and strongly worded letters. This was replicated by encouraging Starbucks and Amazon to institute safer workplaces. And Lander targeted net-zero emissions by 2040 in the pension fund investments he oversaw, hitting its targets \u201cone year ahead of schedule,\u201d a statement<\/a> from the comptroller\u2019s office explains, both decarbonizing the existing investments and growing allocations to climate solutions. In 2025 alone, the systems saw their exposure to climate solutions surge to nearly $12 billion, while still achieving solid returns.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was able to take what could be an accounting job and turned it into an advocacy job,\u201d Dreier told the Prospect.<\/p>\n

LANDER\u2019S UNSUCCESSFUL MAYORAL CAMPAIGN was marked by his policy expertise and, later, his work as a sort of connecting figure between Mamdani and New York\u2019s Jewish community. As progressive underdogs in the primary race, Mamdani and Lander joined forces, cross-endorsing each other in an incredibly charming video that featured the two of them rolling up on Citi Bikes and drinking from Greek coffee cups.<\/p>\n

Once Mamdani won the primary, Lander used his relationships with Jewish community leaders to help Mamdani build relationships among Jewish New Yorkers. In October, Lander told the <\/a>Prospect<\/a> that he mainly focused on securing Mamdani connections to these community voices.<\/p>\n

Lander identifies as a liberal Zionist, a position he fleshed out in an podcast interview<\/a> with Rabbi Ammi Hirsch in June 2025. \u201cI love, I\u2019m inspired by, I believe in the vision of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state,\u201d he said. \u201cNow, I\u2019m fiercely critical of this government and of the occupation and even of the way it has prosecuted and is prosecuting the war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout his mayoral campaign and now during his congressional race, Lander has walked a fine line in communicating his stance toward Israel. He has been an outspoken voice<\/a> against the mass starvation and killing of Gazans, and has called for anti-Zionists and liberal Zionists to join together<\/a> to speak out against what he now calls a genocide.<\/p>\n

\"Rep.Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) speaks during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day event in Harlem last month. Credit: Ron Adar\/SOPA Images\/Sipa USA via AP Images<\/p>\n

According to Track AIPAC<\/a>, which tallies political donations from the pro-Israel lobby, Goldman has received over $1.5 million from AIPAC-affiliated groups and mega-donors. In his campaign launch video, Lander spoke out against AIPAC.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m running for Congress,\u201d Lander said. \u201cBecause the challenges we face can\u2019t be solved with sternly worded letters or high-dollar fundraisers. And not by doing AIPAC\u2019s bidding in a district that knows our safety, our freedom, our thriving is bound up together.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2023, in his role as comptroller, Lander made the decision to let the city\u2019s longtime pension fund investments in Israel lapse<\/a>, drawing criticism from then-Mayor Eric Adams. Now, Mark Levine, Lander\u2019s successor as comptroller, has pledged to reinstate those investments. Both Mamdani and Lander have voiced their opposition to that decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrad stands by his decision to cease purchasing Israel bonds. It was a decision rooted in his fiduciary duty as Comptroller, not in his political opinions. NYC\u2019s pension funds hold no other foreign sovereign debt, and he believes they should not make an exception to that rule to favor Israel,\u201d a spokesperson for Lander\u2019s congressional campaign said in a statement to the Prospect.<\/p>\n

But Lander\u2019s decisions as comptroller have also raised some ire from the left. One story from amNewYork highlighted his expansion of investments in Palantir<\/a>, which has partnerships with ICE. Others have condemned investments in polluting firms and private equity. Critics have referred to Lander as \u201cBlackRock Brad<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

BlackRock did make gestures toward a net-zero mandate during the Biden administration, although that was rejected when Trump entered office. \u201cI hope that BlackRock will get back to recognizing that climate risk is financial risk,\u201d Lander said.<\/p>\n

Lander is hoping that the visibility he garnered from his mayoral campaign and work as a Mamdani surrogate will give him an edge against Goldman, who has already gained a number of crucial endorsements. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Gov. Kathy Hochul<\/a>, Comptroller Levine, and the liberal Zionist group J Street have all endorsed Goldman (though J Street also designated Lander as a \u201cprimary-approved\u201d candidate<\/a>, which means donors can still give to his campaign through the organization\u2019s website).<\/p>\n

In late January, though, state Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Pearlman threw a wrench into the race that has changed Lander\u2019s campaign strategy. Pearlman ruled in favor of an election law firm aligned with the Democratic Party, deciding that New York City\u2019s only congressional district represented by a Republican must be redrawn<\/a>. Pearlman affirmed the argument that the district\u2019s current composition dilutes the votes of Black and Hispanic residents.<\/p>\n

That district, New York\u2019s 11th, is represented by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis. On February 12, Malliotakis filed an emergency application for stay<\/a> with Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. The Supreme Court hasn\u2019t given a decision yet.<\/p>\n

If the redraw is allowed to move forward, it may leave Lander running unopposed in the Tenth District and pit Goldman against the more conservative Malliotakis. Lander has said that he\u2019s currently pulling punches against Goldman as the legal arguments play out, \u201cbecause as many problems as I have with Dan Goldman, he\u2019s a lot better than Nicole Malliotakis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goldman\u2019s campaign rejected the idea that Lander is taking the political high road. \u201cNow he\u2019s looking for an off-ramp for his sputtering campaign,\u201d Goldman spokesperson Simone Kanter wrote on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With only a few months to go until the Democratic primary, Lander remains hopeful that his organizer mentality and burgeoning grassroots support will lead him to victory\u2014and his supporters are too.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s very earnest and kind of dorky,\u201d Restler told the Prospect. \u201cBrad is an exceptionally good policymaker, and we need more of those in Washington.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tRead more<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Brad\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tBrad Lander Is Building a United Progressive Front<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The former New York City comptroller and councilmember is running for Congress. To unseat incumbent Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman, he\u2019ll have to consolidate the progressive left. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"A\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tA New Age for Houston Politics?<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The Democratic primary for Texas\u2019s 18th Congressional District pits two generations of politicians\u2014represented by Christian Menefee and Al Green\u2014against each other.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"AI\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tAI Goes to Bat for Valerie Foushee<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

A super PAC funded by Anthropic, makers of Claude, is spending nearly $1 million to get the North Carolina congresswoman, who sits on a key AI commission, re-elected.<\/p>\n

\t\t