{"id":340237,"date":"2026-09-07T22:30:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T22:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/340237\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T22:30:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T22:30:11","slug":"exclusive-nyc-council-speaker-menin-launches-pac-to-aid-state-dems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/340237\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive | NYC Council Speaker Menin launches PAC to aid state Dems –"},"content":{"rendered":"

City Council Speaker Julie Menin<\/a> has launched her own statewide PAC to boost Democrats in November \u2014 fueling speculation she may be trying to spread her tentacles for a potential run for higher office.<\/p>\n

Menin, 58, filed her \u201cNew York Rising PAC\u201d with the State Board of Election last week, a move that political sources told The Post is an obvious way for the increasingly powerful New York City pol to \u201cadvance to the next step.\u201d <\/p>\n

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin announced a handshake agreement on the Fiscal Year 2027 budget on Tuesday, June 30, 2026, at City Hall in New York. James Keivom for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cMenin is redefining what it means to be an activist speaker by helping Democrats in other parts of the state and planting IOUs in the future,\u201d said a knowledgeable Democratic source who knows Menin well.<\/p>\n

Veteran political strategist Hank Sheinkopf added of Menin\u2019s funding mechanism, \u201cIt\u2019s a `making friends\u2019 PAC. <\/p>\n

\u201cNothing makes better friends than writing a candidate a check from your PAC,\u201d he said of her potential to donate thousands of dollars to other Democratic candidates, which could pay dividends for her should she potentially mount a run for higher office in the future \u2014 possibly for mayor, governor or senator.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very smart. It boosts her exposure. She\u2019s using her <\/a>political muscle to advance to the next step.\u201d<\/p>\n

The creation of the political action committee comes as Menin, the daughter and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, scored a recent major public victory by successfully fighting against the <\/a>tone-deaf Metropolitan Museum of Art honoring convicted antisemite fashion designer John Galliano.<\/p>\n

As council speaker, Menin has also served as a counterweight and check on democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani. <\/p>\n

The council held hearings on the Mamdani administration\u2019s botched rollout for administering the pied-a-terre tax <\/a>and its rocky response to the recent Legionnaires\u2019 disease <\/a>outbreak on the Upper East Side.<\/p>\n

New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin speaks during an announcement of funding for 9\/11 educational programming in New York, New York, on Thursday, September 3, 2026. ZUMAPRESS.com<\/p>\n

Council Speaker Julie Menin attends a hearing at City Hall on Thursday, June 11, 2026. William Farrington for The NY Post<\/p>\n

The panel of pols also will soon grill the mayor\u2019s office for using a secret, encrypted <\/a>messaging channel to peddle positive coverage to nearly 200 social-media influencers.<\/p>\n

Menin is already a featured speaker at a Sept. 15 White Plains event in Westchester County to help raise funds for the Democratic Majority Action Committee. <\/p>\n

Among other things, Menin is expected to discuss \u201ccombating extremism\u201d including antisemitism, according to an invitation obtained by The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cA Conversation with Julie Menin, New York City Council Speaker. Winning in an era of of political extremes: How Democrats build coalitions that deliver,\u201d the invite says. \u201cJoin Democratic leaders for an important conversation about strengthening our party, combatting antisemitism and building the broad coalitions we need to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Menin, whose council tenure is term-limited in 2029, insists she created the NY Rising PAC only to support fellow Democrats, not to strengthen her statewide ties for a potential run for higher office down the road.<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Julie Menin speak to the press at City Hall regarding the NYC budget gap in New York on Tuesday, April 28, 2026. Lone Pine Press for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cSpeaker Menin opened NY Rising PAC to support Democrats up and down the ballot in this fall\u2019s midterm elections,\u201d said Menin spokesman Max Kramer.<\/p>\n

Sheinkopf noted that former council speakers have fizzled in their campaigns for New York City mayor, such as Peter Vallone, Gifford Miller, Christine Quinn <\/a>and Corey Johnson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the previous council speaker, Adrienne Adams<\/a>, is Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul\u2019s running mate for lieutenant governor this fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s bucking history \u2014 the best way to buck history is to start early,\u201d Sheinkopf said of Menin.<\/p>\n

But if the council speaker is eying the mayor\u2019s job, Mamdani is up for re-election in 2029, and it\u2019s difficult to topple an incumbent. <\/p>\n

The last mayor to lose re-election was Democratic incumbent David Dinkins <\/a>in 1993.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"City Council Speaker Julie Menin has launched her own statewide PAC to boost Democrats in November \u2014 fueling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[446,127735,127736,19077,57,9,24,55,54,56,58,82],"class_list":["post-340237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-adrienne-adams","tag-christine-quinn-politician","tag-corey-johnson","tag-julie-menin","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-us-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}