| | | | |  | | By Nick Reisman, Jeff Coltin and Emily Ngo | | Presented by |  | | | With Timmy Facciola
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“I’m very concerned about every one of those workers,” Gov. Kath Hochul said Tuesday. | Susan Watts/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul | NEW YORK MINUTE: The New York City Council is expected to pass a bill today that would block landlords from charging renters broker fees. Mayor Eric Adams shared some of the real estate industry’s concerns Tuesday, POLITICO’s Janaki Chadha reports, but didn’t go as far as to say he’d veto the bill addressing a common tenant complaint. THE EARLY RACE: A rubber plant’s closure on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s home turf has become fodder for her Republican critics — and an early indication of how her looming reelection campaign could unfurl over the next two years. Sumitomo Corp. announced last week it will shutter its Erie County plant, resulting in the loss of some 1,500 jobs — a major blow for a region well acquainted with a manufacturing exodus. It’s a moment for Hochul, a western New York native who often talks about her working-class roots, to demonstrate a kinship with the state’s Rust Belt residents. “I’m very concerned about every one of those workers,” Hochul said Tuesday. “They did what they were asked to do, they showed up to their jobs every single day. This has been a real kick in the teeth.” But the job losses provided an opening to a potential Republican challenger. Newly reelected GOP Rep. Mike Lawler said the closure was a reason New Yorkers should vote Hochul out of office. “We’re bleeding manufacturing jobs upstate, having lost hundreds of thousands of them over the last few decades,” he wrote on X. “The only way we can change things for the better in our state is by changing governors. We must make that happen in 2026.” Lawler’s Hudson Valley House seat is nearly 400 miles away from the Sumitomo plant in Tonawanda. Weighing in on the economic blow for western New York helps raise his profile with a portion of the electorate he will covet as he ponders a run for governor — and make in-roads with working-class voters from the opposite end of the state who have probably never heard of him. The GOP lawmaker has been coy about whether he would launch a statewide campaign, though his path was cleared considerably when President-elect Donald Trump selected a potential party rival, former Rep. Lee Zeldin, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. And in an election that took out three of his GOP House opponents in New York, Lawler defeated his Democratic opponent by nearly 7 points. For now, Hochul is not engaging with Lawler. “I certainly do not,” she said when Playbook asked if she had a response to his criticism. It’s not clear to New York officials why the plant is closing or if any specific policy led to the decision. The company did not return a message seeking comment. “If something went wrong that we got to fix, we’ve got to fix it,” Senate Minority Leader Robert Ortt, who represents an area near the plant, told Playbook. Two years out, it’s unknown what issues will dominate the governor’s race. But Republicans expect to run a competitive race in New York after Zeldin’s strong performance against Hochul in 2022. A revival of the congestion pricing toll program in Manhattan, even with reducing the surcharge from $15 to $9 as first reported by POLITICO, could present an even greater liability for Hochul after Democrats have been hammered by voters over affordability concerns. Like all governors, Hochul has been eager to tout economic development, especially high-tech manufacturing jobs in parts of upstate New York that have struggled with population loss. But claiming credit for bringing jobs can cut the other way. “When you’re the governor you get all the credit when a company comes here,” Ortt said. “But you take the good, you take the bad. When 1,500 jobs leave your home area, you’re going to take criticism.” — Nick Reisman HAPPY TUESDAY: Got news? Send it our way: Jeff Coltin , Emily Ngo and Nick Reisman.
| | | | A message from Uber: Study Reveals Uber Drivers Make More than EMTs: NYC Uber drivers now earn an average of $52,900 annually after expenses, outpacing the salaries of many essential city employees, including EMTs and sanitation workers. Despite delivering vital services, these workers struggle with stagnant wages while Uber drivers have benefited from five TLC-mandated pay hikes since 2020. Read more on the wage disparity impacting NYC’s workforce. Learn More. | | | WHERE’S KATHY? In New York City. WHERE’S ERIC? Hosting a roundtable discussion with older adult community leaders and making a public safety-related announcement. QUOTE OF THE DAY: “I don’t want to be a dictator.” — Adams, on why he doesn’t unilaterally change the sanctuary city policies he frequently criticizes. The answer came in a press conference showing his optimism for immigration policy under Trump, POLITICO reports.
|  | ABOVE THE FOLD | | | 
Jesse Hamilton is a longtime friend of Mayor Eric Adams. | Mike Groll/AP | HOLD UP: City Hall has stopped a questionable real estate contract from being awarded to a mayoral donor, following POLITICO’s reporting on the deal. Earlier this year, top mayoral aide Jesse Hamilton overruled an internal bidding process at the Department of Citywide Administrative Services to steer a lucrative lease deal to Alexander Rovt, a prominent contributor to New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ campaign and legal defense fund who owns a landmarked office building at 14 Wall St. On Tuesday, three members of the City Council said that the lease agreement for a new Department for the Aging headquarters is being paused as City Hall investigates the contours of the deal, POLITICO’s Joe Anuta reported Tuesday night. “Credit to First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer for hearing our concerns and pausing DCAS’ fishy lease agreement at 14 Wall St.,” Council Members Lincoln Restler, Keith Powers and Chris Marte said in a joint statement. “New Yorkers deserve to know that taxpayers are getting the best deal — not rewarding the Mayor’s donors with a multimillion lease.” After POLITICO revealed the questionable leasing decision in late October, the trio asked pointed questions about the deal at a hearing a week later. While the council itself opted not to nix the lease, the elected officials wrote to Torres-Springer asking her to take a closer look at the pending transaction — a request that was subsequently granted. — Joe Anuta and Jeff Coltin
| | | | The lame duck session could reshape major policies before year's end. Get Inside Congress delivered daily to follow the final sprint of dealmaking on defense funding, AI regulation and disaster aid. Subscribe now. | | | | | | | CITY HALL: THE LATEST | | | | 
A rep for the mayor also said Eric Adams can’t read Hebrew. | Courtesy of Yossi Farro | NEW YORK’S CHABADNIK MAYOR: Adams made an incognito, late-night stop to one of the holiest sights to Lubavitch Jews around 1 a.m. on Tuesday. Wearing a baseball cap to cover his head, the mayor was captured in a photo posted to X intently hunched over the pages of a Jewish prayer book, studying its wisdom. The mayor’s office confirmed the picture was taken at The Ohel, the resting place for the revered founder of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. It’s unclear what he was praying for. A rep for the mayor also said no, Adams can’t read Hebrew, but yes , he has been to the Jewish holy site before. It’s not his first late-night visit with the Jewish community to go undisclosed on his public schedules. “Mayor Adams has visited the site numerous times to pay respects and seek inspiration in his private capacity,” mayoral spokesperson Kayla Mamelak Altus said in a statement. “While he’s not converting to Judaism, he is the mayor of the city with the largest Jewish population in the world outside of Israel and he honors many of the traditions of Judaism.” — Jason Beeferman More from the city: — Turkish billionaire Sezgin Baran Korkmaz, “Businessman-3” in the Adams indictment, may be a CIA asset and is expected to take the stand in the trial. (Los Angeles Magazine) — Adams blames Democrats with a “far-left agenda” for the waning support in New York City that allowed Trump to gain ground. (Daily News) — A seven-year fight over whether a shadow-casting apartment building can rise across the street from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden is expected to be resolved this week. (Crain’s New York)
| | | | A message from Uber:   | | | | | NEW FROM PLANET ALBANY | | |  Assemblymember Amy Paulin told Playbook she wants to pursue gun laws that are meant to curtail suicides. | Hans Pennink/AP | GUN POLITICS: Democratic state lawmakers are weighing gun control legislation. Suburban legislators on Tuesday announced they will push for a bill next year to require police officers to take custody of guns when responding to domestic violence calls. The measure largely affects communities outside New York City, where police departments do not have affirmative rules for temporarily possessing firearms in domestic violence cases. “We heard from … advocates and some police departments that not all police departments were doing this,” Sen. Peter Harckham told Playbook in an interview. “It was creating an uneven playing field in terms of safety planning.” The measure’s co-sponsor, Assemblymember Amy Paulin, told Playbook she also wants to pursue gun laws that are meant to curtail suicides. Provisions like extending a waiting period to obtain a gun or allowing people with mental illnesses to affirmatively put themselves on “do not sell” lists will be considered, she said. New York Democrats have taken an aggressive approach to gun regulation: Hochul muscled through an expansion of the red flag law in order to keep guns away from people deemed to be too dangerous and has sought to limit where people can carry firearms. A decade ago, the SAFE Act — a package of gun measures approved after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre — created a political rupture between then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republicans. But Democrats are less concerned with the political fallout from supporting gun control. Hochul, after all, once had a sterling rating from the National Rifle Association when she was a House member from a conservative western New York district. As governor, she’s pressed for a crackdown on illegal guns flowing in the state as part of a broader anti-crime effort. — Nick Reisman IT AIN’T OVER TILL IT’S OVER: Democrat Joey Cohen-Saban thinks mail-ins and affidavits will overcome his 270-vote gap on election night with GOP Assemblymember Michael Novakhov and flip a seat that voted heavily for Trump. The Board of Elections is picking up the count for the southern Brooklyn seat today and Playbook will be following. And on Long Island’s North Shore, disbarred Republican Assemblymember Ed Flood is hoping to make up his 211-vote difference on election night with Democrat Rebecca Kassay. — Jeff Coltin More from Albany: — Attorney General Tish James is pushing back against a sweeping court ruling that — if upheld — would strike down the state Voting Rights Act. (Gothamist) — Democrats are worried their support in New York has started to erode. (City & State) — P’Nut the squirrel was not positive for rabies and may have been marked for death. (New York Post)
| | KEEPING UP WITH THE DELEGATION | | | 
Rep. Pat Ryan won a decisive victory in his Hudson Valley swing district last week. | Hans Pennink/AP | FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan will send a letter today asking Trump to begin bipartisan talks for a standalone bill to lift the cap on the amount of state and local taxes, or SALT, that Americans can deduct from their federal income tax. Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey also signed it. “While we disagree on many of the issues facing our great nation, we are eager to capitalize on this stated common ground and swiftly overturn this double taxation,” Ryan wrote to Trump and his transition team. “I was encouraged to see that during your campaign, you came to the conclusion that this policy needs to be reversed.” The letter undermines House Speaker Mike Johnson’s plan to address the SALT deduction through Republican support for the tax bill next term — which he told Playbook he planned to do two weeks ago. The proposed bill from Ryan fully lifts the cap on SALT deductions. Trump imposed a $10,000 cap on SALT in 2017 — to the discontent of both Democrats and Republicans in the Empire State. But he vowed on the campaign trail to lift the cap again and deliver for the New York GOP in his second term. In high-tax areas like Westchester and Long Island, SALT is a political boon to both parties — but neither has been able to rally enough internal support to lift the deduction cap with their own power. Centrists from both parties have been the provision’s biggest proponents, but they’ve faced obstacles from their respective left and right flanks, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, who said during Build Back Better negotiations that it would be a gift to wealthy homeowners. He eventually came around to eliminating the deduction cap for families earning less than roughly $400,000, but it was of no use after Sen. Joe Manchin killed Build Back Better. Last cycle, Johnson could not persuade Freedom Caucus members like Rep. Matt Gaetz to get on board with what would have been a massive reward to the New York Republicans who gave the GOP their majority. — Timmy Facciola SCHUMER SPEAKS: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, whose party will relinquish control of the chamber to the Republicans next year, congratulated Trump and others who won Tuesday while also commending Kamala Harris and Tim Walz on their campaign. And he pledged to learn from Americans who rejected Democrats throughout the country. “It’s natural and appropriate to feel deep disappointment, grief and even anger in this moment,” he told voters devastated by the results in remarks from the Senate floor. He then said Democrats will study the election outcome. “You listen to what voters are saying, and you find ways to make government responsive to those wants and desires, those dreams, those needs,” the senior New York senator said. — Emily Ngo CONCESSION COMES: Upstate Rep. Marc Molinaro thanked his supporters, volunteers and GOP leaders including Trump and Johnson in a statement Tuesday that also conceded the race to Democrat Josh Riley, who the Associated Press declared the victor a week ago. “Josh ran a tough race, and the people of this district have placed their faith in him,” the outgoing Republican said while noting that the challenger and his allies outspent Molinaro by $8 million. "So today, let’s look forward. Let’s keep working, keep building, and keep lifting each other up,” Molinaro went on. Playbook has reported that Molinaro, via a spokesperson, has not ruled out running in an eventual special election for a neighboring seat that Rep. Elise Stefanik would vacate when she is confirmed, as is expected, to be Trump’s U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. — Emily Ngo More from Congress: — House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries says Democrats will have a “family conversation” to figure out what happened on Election Night. (CBS News) — Former Rep. Lee Zeldin knows how to defend Donald Trump, but will he defend the environment as EPA administrator? (New York Times) — Rep. Brandon Williams, who lost his bid for reelection to his Syracuse-area seat, is on the shortlist to be Trump’s labor secretary. (New York Post)
| | | | A message from Uber: Study Shows Uber Drivers making over $52k while NYC Heroes Get Left Behind
A new study reveals a growing wage divide in New York City: Uber drivers are making an average of $52,900 a year after expenses, while city employees like EMTs and sanitation workers starting salaries are below $44,000. Since 2020, rideshare drivers have received five pay increases through TLC mandates while many frontline city workers face stagnant wages amid rising living costs. This gap underscores an evolving dynamic in NYC’s workforce, where gig workers see consistent earnings growth while essential city roles lag behind. This pay disparity is raising questions about the city’s priorities and the need for equitable wages in public service amidst the affordability crisis.
Read the full story to see how gig work earnings are reshaping NYC’s labor landscape. Learn More. | | | | | NEW YORK STATE OF MIND | | FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Jewish voters are becoming a swing demographic — and campaigns are trying to figure out how to win them over. The TEACH Coalition, an organization that focuses on turning out Jewish voters, will hold a two-day conference starting Thursday in Florida with Republican strategist Kellyanne Conway and Democratic consultant James Carville. The focus will be on two closely watched races next year: The New York City mayoral campaign and the race for New Jersey governor. The event underscores how central Jewish support could be for campaigns. Exiting polling conducted by the group found Jewish voters in battleground House districts have become more politically engaged over the last year — and would have been more likely to support Vice President Kamala Harris had she selected Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate. The TEACH Coalition provided voter mobilization efforts in Democratic Rep.-elect George Latimer’s primary against Squad member Jamaal Bowman and in GOP Rep. Mike Lawler’s reelection. — Nick Reisman — New York has put a statewide burn ban in place amid efforts to douse Hudson Valley fires. (LoHud) — The office market downturn is forcing some of New York City's multigenerational real estate families like the Rudins to break the cardinal rule: never sell. ( Wall Street Journal) — Ken Jenkins, deputy Westchester County executive under George Latimer, kicked off his own campaign to fill Latimer’s seat. (Yonkers Times)
| | SOCIAL DATA | | Edited by Daniel Lippman MEDIAWATCH: Former WNYC reporter Beth Fertig has joined student journalism nonprofit Press Pass NYC as deputy director … POLITICO Magazine’s Kathy Gilsinan has joined Puck as a senior editor. MAKING MOVES: Melissa Crutchfield has joined The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust as program director for its Vulnerable Children in Sub-Saharan Africa program. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: NY1’s Bobby Cuza … AG Merrick Garland … Daniel Alonso … Harry Hurt III … CNN’s Eric Bradner … Jonathan Topaz … Nicole (Nikki) Blank … Julia Thompson Missed Tuesday’s New York Playbook PM? We forgive you. Read it here.
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