NYC Comptroller Lander Announces Bid for Mayor Against Adams

(Bloomberg) — New York City Comptroller Brad Lander joined a growing list of candidates who plan to challenge Mayor Eric Adams in the Democratic primary next year.

Lander said Tuesday he would do more to fix the subways and crack down on illegal weed shops, according to a campaign video posted on X. A progressive, he’s expected to run to the left of Adams, a former police captain who campaigned on a platform of public safety.

Lander, 55, is one of a half-dozen candidates challenging or considering a run against Adams, who faces a federal probe of his campaign fundraising and record-low approval ratings in his first term. Former city Comptroller Scott Stringer, and Zellnor Myrie, a state senator from Brooklyn, have formally joined the race, and Queens state Senator Jessica Ramos is also expected to mount a run.

“Why does the city that means so much to so many have leadership that delivers so little for so few,” Lander said. “We can replace a leader when they fail the basic test of the job, to be honest with us, to keep our families safe.”

As steward of the biggest US city’s finances, Lander oversees roughly $270 billion in retirement assets for teachers, firefighters and other civil workers.

He recently supported legal challenges seeking to block Governor Kathy Hochul’s congestion pricing pause. In a pair of lawsuits filed in New York state court earlier in July, several advocacy groups asked that the state be forced to follow through on the plan, slated to be the first in the US and designed to curb air pollution and help finance billions of dollars in transit infrastructure upgrades for the city.

Lander has raised more than $651,000 in total for his comptroller reelection campaign, which will likely trigger $3 million in public matching funds, filings published earlier this month show. He can use money raised for his comptroller reelection bid for a mayoral campaign.

Adams’ reelection campaign had more than $2.5 million in cash on hand earlier this month, and Bloomberg reported that the campaign would disclose raising an additional $1 million over the last six months. When combined with his previous fundraising, the haul will ultimately total more than $8 million after matching funds are included.

–With assistance from Danielle Moran and Laura Nahmias.

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