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The crowded Democratic mayoral primary includes three state lawmakers — who in addition to campaigning for Mayor Eric Adams’ job are also in the midst of negotiating New York’s mammoth state budget.
From January to June, they regularly travel nearly three hours to New York’s capital city.
“There’s a lot of close shaves with trying to make sure you can make it to your Amtrak in time,” Queens Democratic Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani said.
“My constituents are counting on me to deliver in this year’s budget while I’m making the case for new leadership at City Hall,” Queens Democratic state Sen. Jessica Ramos said.
“You gotta know how to multitask and that is something that we do well in this city,” state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, a Brooklyn Democrat, said.
But in some ways, the state Legislature has more power over the city than mayors.
City Hall can’t raise property taxes, control city schools or even expand its red-light cameras without Albany’s permission.
Endorsed by the city’s Democratic Socialists of America, Mamdani helped secure free MTA bus programming and tenants’ rights.
“The first promise we made in this race, which is to freeze the rent for more than two million New Yorkers who live in stabilized housing, who under Eric Adams, have faced rent hike after rent hike after rent hike,” he said in Manhattan outside of City Hall during a press conference Friday.
Critical of federal immigration policies, he’s also outspoken about the U.S.’s relationship with Israel.
Mamdani sponsors a bill that — if passed — would force New York charities to halt funding to the Israeli military and West Bank settlements.
Elected in 2018, Ramos and Myrie unseated longtime Democrats.
Now the powerful Labor Committee chair, Ramos backed minimum wage increases, prevailing wage and farm worker protections.
“I’ve got some temporary disability insurance reform which is really needed for injured workers, along with injured comp reform,” she told NY1 in an interview.
Her childcare proposals are also under active discussion.
“We want to do away with the minimum wage requirement in childcare. Right now, in New York State, you have to earn at least minimum wage to qualify for childcare subsidies,” she added.
Myrie chairs the coveted Senate Codes Committee, controlling criminal justice policy.
He authored the Clean Slate Act, allowing the automatic sealing of certain criminal convictions, plus gun control and voting rights measures.
“I’ve had really good relationships with my colleagues in Albany in my past seven years as a state senator. I plan to be counting on those relationships as the next mayor,” he told NY1.
“New Yorkers don’t care about politics in this moment. Are you going to make their lives better?” he added.
When it comes to showing up for work in Albany, since January, Mamdani has not missed a single session day so far.
Ramos has missed just two days. But it’s a different story with Myrie, who’s missed over half of all working days — 13 out of 23 total legislative session days.
“New Yorkers have an expectation that I can do multiple things at once, that I can do my job whether I’m at,” Myrie explained.
Trying to deny Adams another term and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo a political comeback, Mamdani says he’s considering cross endorsements with other candidates under the city’s ranked-choice voting system.
“I have said to other candidates that I am interested in the prospect of cross endorsements as we get closer to election day because it’s critical that we turn the page on disgraced New York leadership — whether that be Andrew Cuomo or Eric Adams,” he said.
But a new poll shows Cuomo and Adams are leading the pack.
“We should not replace one corrupt mayor with potentially another,” Ramos said.
There are 10 Democratic primary candidates in the field.
