| | | | |  | | By Jason Beeferman, Nick Reisman, Jeff Coltin and Emily Ngo | | Presented by |  | | | With Timmy Facciola
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“I didn’t talk to him about tonight,” Rev. Al Sharpton insisted of Eric Adams, bristling as reporters pressed him on the scandals enveloping the mayor. | Courtesy of the Office of Gov. Kathy Hochul | New York Minute: Mayor Eric Adams’ first off-topic news conference since he was indicted on federal corruption charges is set to take place today at City Hall. It will be one to watch. PARTY TIME: Under one roof, a who’s who of New York politics hobnobbed Monday night, kibbitzing and drinking as they celebrated one man: Al Sharpton, the Black political leader and pastor, turning 70 years old this week. But as the reporters covering the high-profile bash huddled around the birthday man, it was clear the main character of the night wasn’t at Columbus Circle. In fact, he wasn’t even in the same borough. “I didn’t talk to him about tonight,” Sharpton insisted of Adams, bristling as reporters pressed him on the scandals enveloping the mayor. “Tonight is about the honorees, the three honorees, and about my birthday,” Sharpton said, noting the event doubled as an awards ceremony for the Black social justice organization National Action Network, to fete Robert DeNiro and Gladys Knight, among others. — But, indeed, Adams was on everyone’s minds. So as hundreds watched Sharpton dance around a cake to the tune of Happy Birthday, his longtime friend and fellow Democrat was in Queens with Latino faith leaders, opting once again to retreat to his political comfort zone. “It’s time to pray,” he was heard saying. Less than an hour later, it wasn’t clear if the praying had worked. Timothy Pearson, a mayoral aide facing a string of sexual harassment lawsuits, announced plans to step down by week’s end. Pearson, who had his cell phone seized last month, will be the fifth top City Hall official to do so in recent weeks. POLITICO reported on Sunday that Pearson pushed the fire department to ink a contract with a technology company, Remark Holdings, while he had a close personal relationship with a consultant for the firm. Two weeks ago, Lisa Zornberg, the mayor’s chief counsel and a vocal defender, resigned out of frustration that the mayor hadn’t forced Pearson out the door. Adams praised him in a brief statement Monday. “Tim has had a long career in both the public and private sectors, where he has spent over 30 years keeping New Yorkers safe,” Adams said. “We appreciate Tim’s decades of service to this city and wish him well.” — Back at the birthday gathering, NAN — an organization Adams helped found three decades ago — was forced to party on without him while the governor, Senate majority leader, House minority leader and leaders of state and city government showed face. “He’s the mayor of the city of New York and he’s dealing with some complicated things in his life,” said the Rev. Franklyn Richardson, chair of NAN. “Maybe he decided not to be here because he thought it’d be distracting. I don’t take it as a negative.” Sharpton and Adams go way back. Thirty-two years ago, Adams was Sharpton’s bodyguard. Today, Sharpton frequently advises the mayor in City Hall. But as Adams is in crisis, Sharpton, a leader in the Black communities key to Adams’ support, has staked out a middle ground. He has told those thinking of pressuring Adams to resign — including Gov. Kathy Hochul — to back off. But, with Adams notably absent last night, he wasn’t exactly projecting confidence in the mayor either. “Do you think he’s demonstrated his ability to lead in this?” Sharpton was asked. “I have no opinion yet,” Sharpton said. “I don’t know.” — Jason Beeferman
| | | | A message from Uber: New York City Uber riders pay $700 Million in taxes and fees annually* That’s more than the entire budget for New York City Parks Department. *Based on trips originating from NYC in 2023. Learn more. | | | HAPPY TUESDAY: Got news? Send it our way: Jeff Coltin, Emily Ngo and Nick Reisman. WHERE’S KATHY? Making a transportation announcement at JFK Airport. WHERE’S ERIC? Meeting with Director of Rodent Mitigation (AKA the “Rat Czar”) Kathleen Corradi, and hosting a reception celebrating the culture and heritage of the African community. QUOTE OF THE DAY: “What now? Should we talk about how I got the mayor indicted or …” — Pop star Sabrina Carpenter at her Madison Square Garden concert on Sunday night, an apparent reference to federal scrutiny of the Catholic priest in whose Brooklyn church she filmed part of a music video, as Playbook has reported.
|  | ABOVE THE FOLD | | | | 
Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Monday it’s too soon to know what the final numbers will look like. | Seth Wenig/AP | THE MTA’S A$K: The MTA needs a lot from Albany: $49 billion for infrastructure upgrades. Transit officials are already starting to hone their pitch to Gov. Kathy Hochul and lawmakers around the state as they look for money to repair and upgrade the sprawling bus and rail systems. There’s a $15 billion hole in the agency’s five-year capital plan after Hochul nixed congestion pricing, putting some projects on hold. The MTA said Albany needs to help it find another $33 billion for its next five-year plan. Hochul said on Monday it’s too soon to know what the final numbers will look like. But we can already see how MTA CEO Janno Lieber and his team are framing their asks, setting up what could be a major part of next year’s state budget negotiations. Appeal to decency: MTA officials say they trust Hochul and legislative leaders will fill the congestion pricing hole. “We’ve said again and again we do take her at her word,” Lieber said. The summers of hell: Lieber is haunted by the 2017 summer of hell. Now, he’s suggesting that, while the MTA has learned from its past and is determined not to repeat it, it needs money to make it so. At a recent press conference, he made that part of his case for why the MTA needs money for power system overhauls, which are necessary to prevent electrical hiccups that could strand hundreds of thousands of commuters the same way Amtrak and New Jersey Transit did — again — this summer. “We need to make sure the power systems, which look like the land that time forgot, don’t fall apart like they have in New Jersey, which has been, you know, cruel to New Jersey Transit and Amtrak passengers,” Lieber said. “We have to make sure we don’t hurt riders by letting the system fall apart.” Jobs: Even though regular commuters in and out of New York City obviously benefit most from a healthy MTA, the agency argues its spending supports jobs across the state, including workers in the Hudson Valley, further upstate, in Western New York and the Southern Tier. Case in point: Lieber recently visited a New Flyer bus factory in Jamestown and rail parts near Rochester. — Ry Rivard
| | CITY HALL: THE LATEST | | | | 
“If you want to find ways to help, why would you not want to pursue them?” Former Assemblymember Michael Blake told Playbook. | Mary Altaffer/AP | MAYORAL POSITIONING: Former Assemblymember Michael Blake is considering running for mayor, he tells Playbook, hoping to continue New York’s “history of Black citywide excellence” after the politically damaged Adams. He’s not the only one. Some top Democrats are pushing Attorney General Tish James to run for mayor, the New York Post reported. And if Adams steps down and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams becomes mayor, he’d likely run in the ensuing special election, City & State reported. Williams beat Blake in the crowded 2019 special election for public advocate. The Bronx Democrat then gave up his Assembly seat to fall to Ritchie Torres in a 2020 congressional race. Since then, he’s run his public affairs firm, backed Maya Wiley’s 2021 run for mayor and got ordained as a reverend. “Some of us actually care about religion, as opposed to talking about reigning,” he said in a dig at Adams. Why keep running? “If you want to find ways to help, why would you not want to pursue them?” Blake told Playbook. He’d consider running in both a special election or a June primary and is lining up support. — Jeff Coltin LAWYERS DON’T COME CHEAP, PART 1: Among all the investigations, the Adams administration hasn’t been clear about which top officials are getting city-funded legal representation. So, first in Playbook, City Council Oversight and Investigations Chair Gale Brewer sent a letter to the Law Department Monday, pushing for answers. “Will Mr. Pearson keep the attorneys who represent him in four different sexual harassment lawsuits filed by his former subordinate?” Brewer said to Playbook following Adams aide Tim Pearson’s resignation. “Will the Law Department pay for outside counsel if he's indicted by the Southern District of New York? The public deserves to know the answers.” Brewer lists 17 current and former public servants tied to criminal investigations and asked if they’re represented by the Law Department, or have outside lawyers paid for by the city. A spokesperson for Acting Corporation Counsel Muriel Goode-Trufant said the department would respond to Brewer’s letter ”soon.” — Jeff Coltin LAWYERS DON’T COME CHEAP, PART 2: Taxpayers are not covering celebrity lawyer Alex Spiro’s defense in Adams’ federal case, nor his PowerPoint presentations, City Hall says — so presumably they’ll be covered by the mayor’s legal defense fund, which had raised $1.7 million through June. Monday was the end of the quarterly reporting period, and Adams will have to report before Oct. 15 all his raising and spending in the last three months. His team wouldn’t say Monday whether he’s seen an influx of donations since the indictment. City Council Member Susan Zhuang, meanwhile, also formed a defense trust for her cop-biting case, but her lawyer Jerry Goldfeder told Playbook it hasn’t raised any funds yet. — Jeff Coltin More from the city: — A trio of lawmakers has asked the comptroller’s office to audit city technology contracts following a POLITICO investigation into an AI company’s efforts to push its way into the Adams administration. (POLITICO) — The response from business leaders to Adams’ indictment has been a deafening silence. (THE CITY) — Antonio Reynoso, the Brooklyn borough president and Adams’ successor, said he declined or returned gifts from Turkey and met with FBI officials who said to be wary of such gifts. (New York Times)
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“I have turned the New York State Democratic Party into something that it should have been all along: a powerhouse,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said. “Nobody harnessed that energy.” | Mike Groll/Office of Gov. Kathy Hochul | POWER SURGE: Hochul doesn’t just want to help her party regain control of the House. She wants to build a bench. The governor on Monday joined a gathering of politically influential union leaders — 1199SEIU, the New York State AFL-CIO and the Teamsters among them — and touted her efforts to remake the state Democratic Committee in order to help down-ballot candidates. And beyond helping House Democrats, Hochul told the labor leaders she wants to expand the party’s “farm team.” “I've crawled my way up through every level of government,” she said. “I want to invest in races and help them as well. But this year it's all for everything.” The state party apparatus has long been a tool of governors and revolved around their needs. Hochul this year has expanded the party’s infrastructure to aid House candidates after she was blamed two years ago for an underwhelming campaign that led to down-ballot losses. “I have turned the New York State Democratic Party into something that it should have been all along: a powerhouse,” she said. “Nobody harnessed that energy.” But this support from Hochul for Democratic candidates can cut both ways. Republicans have been using the governor’s likeness in TV ads — including spots in a hotly contested Syracuse-area House seat and competitive races in the Hudson Valley — to knock Democrats over issues like the migrant crisis. Hochul has, in turn, blamed Republicans for failing to get behind a package of immigration and border security measures earlier this year. But the governor remains on unsettled political ground. Only 29 percent of voters approve of the job Hochul is doing, according to an Emerson College poll released Monday. — Nick Reisman More from Albany: — The so-called Green Light Law is coming under Republican scrutiny amid concerns over border security. (WAMC) — New York’s commission assessing potential reparations for slavery will hold meetings today in Syracuse and New Rochelle. (LoHud) — Opponents of the pending equality amendment to the state constitution are ramping up their criticism. (New York Post)
| | KEEPING UP WITH THE DELEGATION | | | 
Democrat John Mannion is vying for a hotly contested House seat. | Bill Mahoney/POLITICO | DEBATE NIGHT IN NY-22: Tonight isn’t just the vice presidential debate — it’s also the first general election debate between battleground New York House candidates. It pits central New York Rep. Brandon Williams, one of the country’s most vulnerable House Republicans, against Democrat John Mannion. The 7 p.m. faceoff is hosted by syracuse.com and will be streamed live on the website as well as on its Facebook page from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Mannion, a state senator, told Playbook he’s ready to discuss issues important to families in the region, “including protecting women’s reproductive rights, creating good-paying jobs, protecting Social Security and Medicare, strengthening the border, and keeping our communities safe.” Williams recently posted on X some of his priorities: “We must tackle inflation, grow our economy and take steps to ensure parents and students are at the center of our education system.” Williams and Mannion have agreed to four total debates before the Nov. 5 vote. — Emily Ngo A GEOGRAPHIC PUZZLE: Count Democrat George Latimer among the House candidates calling for a full repeal of the $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions. Latimer, who is running to represent a district where the voters pay some of the highest property taxes in the country, acknowledged that getting rid of what’s known as the SALT cap won’t fall along the usual Republican-versus-Democratic lines. After all, swing-seat Democrats and Republicans in New York want to see the cap repealed. Former President Donald Trump — who wants to make New York at least appear competitive in the presidential race and aid down-ballot GOP candidates — signaled he is in favor of a SALT cap repeal, undoing a provision of a 2017 tax package he signed. “Something can happen because this has not been a pure partisan issue,” Latimer told Playbook in an interview. “The Republicans in New York have also expressed opposition two years ago.” But it could be a different story for lawmakers in other parts of the country. The SALT cap largely affects high-tax states like New York, New Jersey and California. Lawmakers from states where property taxes aren’t an issue have not embraced a repeal. Still, New York House members next year will likely argue taxpayers from their state pay an outsized share of federal taxes. “For 100 years this is a fair deduction that helps New Yorkers who are contributing money,” Latimer said. — Nick Reisman
| | NEW YORK STATE OF MIND | | — Byron Brown resigns as Buffalo's longest-serving mayor to take OTB job. (Buffalo News) — Voters in Suffolk County are considering a sales tax increase. (Newsday) — A wrongful death lawsuit against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo over a state directive that forced nursing homes to accept Covid-19 patients was tossed by a judge. (New York Post)
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Learn more. | | | | | SOCIAL DATA | | Edited by Daniel Lippman MAKING MOVES: Michael Starr Hopkins is joining Rep. Joe Morelle’s office (D-N.Y.) as communications director. He is CEO of Northern Starr Strategies. WEEKEND WEDDING – Nicole Ginis, a producer at Newsmax, on Saturday married Thomas G. Del Beccaro, an author, historian and political commentator who ran against Kamala Harris in 2016 for a California U.S. Senate seat. The couple were married in Cape May, New Jersey, at the historic Congress Hall, which was a retreat for U.S. presidents in the late 1800s. They met at the premiere of his acting debut in the movie “Sweetwater.” SPOTTED: Bianca de la Garza, Katrina Szish, Bob Brooks and Steve Moore. Pic ... Another pic HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) … veteran advocate Joe Bello … Tusk’s Jake Sporn … WSJ’s Ben Pershing … Jose Del Real … CNN’s Brian Todd and Evan Semones … Alex Gleason of the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies … Fenway’s Ben Krauss … Nayyera Haq … Michael Knopf … (WAS MONDAY): NYC Council Member Chris Banks … Fran Drescher ... David Herszenhorn … Gilad Erdan Missed Monday’s New York Playbook PM? We forgive you. Read it here. | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
