Latimer and the left

Programming note: New York Playbook will be off Thursday (Happy Fourth of July!) and Friday. We’ll be back in your inboxes on Monday.

With help from Rich Mendez

George Latimer won his heated Democratic primary against Squad member Rep. Jamaal Bowman in a landslide.

But Latimer is still smarting over the caricature of him that was drawn by the left: A MAGA-lite Democrat who is squishy on abortion rights and opposed to affordable housing in the expensive Westchester County suburbs.

Now, Latimer is running for the seat outright in a general election that he is heavily favored to win.

He’ll be doing so without the backing of the Working Families Party, the left-leaning ballot line Bowman will retain in November. (Bowman’s team has said he won’t actively run — limiting the number of votes Latimer would potentially lose).

The clearest breaking point between Latimer and left-leaning activists was his staunch backing of Israel.

And as more moderate Democrats try to re-center the party’s politics in suburban swing areas of New York, the WFP is increasingly willing to withhold its support.

Latimer’s embrace of Israel — and Bowman’s criticism of the country — led the American Israel Public Affairs Committee to spend more than $14 million in the district. The unprecedented sum made it the most expensive House primary in the nation’s history.

Now neither Latimer nor the WFP are willing to set their differences aside.

“I’ve run on the Working Families Party line in every election since time began,” Latimer told Playbook. “But in this election, they turned on me pretty viciously. There were a lot of nasty things they said about me that really wasn’t warranted.”

WFP spokesperson Ravi Mangla said throwing the party’s support to Latimer in the fall is a non-starter.

“When it became clear that George Latimer planned to use racist dog whistles and hold fundraisers with GOP donors, we knew we couldn’t offer him our ballot line,” Mangla said.

Bowman allies have also noted the many attacks lobbed by Latimer and his affiliates during the campaign.

Both sides accused the other of racism in the final days of the primary.

Given the Democratic domination of the Westchester-Bronx House seat, GOP candidate Miriam Flisser is considered a long shot.

To that end, it was striking that Republican leaders — including former Rep. Lee Zeldin and New York GOP Chair Ed Cox — celebrated Latimer’s victory over Bowman last week.

Latimer rebuffed the effort to cast him as a Republican in a Democrat’s clothes.

He staunchly favors LGBTQ+ and abortion rights and backed sweeping gun law changes at the state and local levels — a record spanning his career as a state lawmaker and the Westchester County executive.

But Latimer also believes the district — which includes wealthy communities along the Long Island Sound and urban areas where Latino and Black residents are the majority — is not a hotbed of far-left activism.

“Westchester is a Democratic area,” he said. “But it’s not a radical Democratic area. This is not Astoria, not parts of Brooklyn.” — Nick Reisman

HAPPY WEDNESDAY: Got news? Send it our way: Jeff Coltin, Emily Ngo and Nick Reisman.

WHERE’S KATHY? In New York City and Washington D.C. for a meeting with Biden and Democratic governors at the White House.

WHERE’S ERIC? Making a public safety announcement at NYPD headquarters.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “How the sausages are made is not important. Do people have the vegan sausage to eat is more important to me.” — Mayor Eric Adams, responding to the City Council getting credit for restoring funding cuts in the new budget.

ABOVE THE FOLD

SHARP-ENING HIS MESSAGE: Mayor Adams eagerly shared a supportive Daily News op-ed from Al Sharpton Tuesday — signaling to an emerging field of rivals that prying away his Black support will not be easy, POLITICO reports.

“I really want to thank Reverend Sharpton,” Adams said at the beginning of his weekly, wide-ranging press conference. “He really just laid [it] out. When you read how this administration is covered, you’d think you’re living in a different city!”

He then launched into remarks celebrating his perceived successes as mayor.

The reverend praised the mayor’s management and said he needs to be treated better than the city’s first Black mayor, David Dinkins, who was denied a second term by Republican Rudy Giuliani during a crime wave in the 1990s.

Sharpton’s argument wasn’t new — one of the country’s top Black leaders, he has said the city should not be unfair to Adams like it was to Dinkins several times over Adams’ two and a half years in office.

But Sharpton’s op-ed this week coincided with Adams’ continued slump in public opinion polls and looming scandals, and as a handful of mostly white contenders consider running against him in the primary.

A person close to Adams called it a “not-so-subtle warning to (former Gov. Andrew) Cuomo and (City Comptroller Brad) Lander.”

History has been kind to Dinkins as more New Yorkers reassess his legacy. Meanwhile, Giuliani has gone from “America’s mayor” to a political punchline. An appeals court officially disbarred him Tuesday, hours after Sharpton’s op-ed was published. — Jeff Coltin

CITY HALL: THE LATEST

‘A GREAT PARTNER’: Mayor Adams praised Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar as a hard worker whose “omnipresence” at his events reminds him of the way he’d attend events all over as a state senator.

Adams, of course, went on to become Brooklyn borough president before ascending to the mayoralty. Rajkumar is similarly hoping that being by Adams’ side will position her for the 2025 run for city comptroller that she told NY1 she is “seriously considering.”

Adams was asked Tuesday if he’d back her campaign. That was hours after Rajkumar stood by him at a Brooklyn press conference on funding affordable housing in the city budget — something she, as a legislator representing Queens, had absolutely nothing to do with.

The Democrat standing alongside the mayor in one of her signature red dresses at events unrelated to her government role has become a frequent sight and a knowing meme among political insiders. But she’s rewarded with the chance to speak publicly, before crowds and cameras.

The mayor applauded her as “a great, great ally and a great partner” but made sure not to preempt any forthcoming political announcement. He said Rajkumar, Assemblymember Eddie Gibbs “and a few others” have helped the administration with legislation in Albany, like making Diwali a school holiday and expanding city powers over cannabis enforcement.

Playbook also reported that Rajkumar hosted a campaign fundraiser for Adams at Manhattan’s swank Zero Bond last month — one of his favored night spots.

“Public service and hard work are in my blood, and I’m proud to be everywhere to lift up all New Yorkers,” Rajkumar told Playbook. “More to come.” — Jeff Coltin

MEANWHILE, IN BRAZIL: Former Mayor Bill de Blasio campaigned for São Paolo mayoral candidate Guilherme Boulos and met President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, he posted on X.

More from the city:

— City officials are significantly expanding a program that distributes debit cards to migrant families staying in city-funded hotels. (New York Times)

— Apartment construction is grinding to a halt in the city, with developers filing the fewest permits for multifamily buildings in a decade, excluding the period of Covid lockdowns in 2020. (Bloomberg)

— As a candidate, Adams promised that at least 1 percent of the city budget would be dedicated to parks. But the latest financial plan moves in the opposite direction. (THE CITY)

NEW FROM PLANET ALBANY

SUMMER IN NY: Tourists <3 New York, but the tourism industry is still struggling to find workers.

A report released Tuesday by Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s office found employment in the tourism industry stands 4.3 percent below levels seen before the Covid pandemic.

This is especially troubling not just for New York City, but upstate communities that rely heavily on tourism dollars for their local economies.

New York’s economy lost nearly $11 billion due to the pandemic. But the industry bounced back by 2023.

State park attendance shot up by 9.1 percent last year compared to 2020, DiNapoli’s office said. — Nick Reisman

More from Albany:

— A look at 10 battleground state districts influenced by last week’s primary results. (POLITICO Pro)

— After just 15 percent of eligible voters participated in the primaries, there are new calls for state lawmakers to open up to more New Yorkers. (State of Politics)

— A body armor ban in New York could face a challenge from a gun-rights organization. (Times Union)

KEEPING UP WITH THE DELEGATION

BIDEN, BORDER, BATTLEGROUND: Vulnerable GOP Rep. Marc Molinaro on Tuesday accused his rival Josh Riley of “trying to rewrite his own past” when Riley slammed fellow Democrat Joe Biden for inaction on the border.

“From day one, he has been 100 percent in lockstep with President Biden’s abandonment of the southern border,” Molinaro said at a news conference, again labeling his challenger as a “D.C. insider.”

The House freshman was responding to Riley’s remarks days earlier ramping up a line of attack that lumps Molinaro and Biden together as “career politicians” failing to fix the immigration system.

The bipartisan rejection of Biden reveals just how politically toxic the president’s border policies have become in the upstate battleground — one of about six competitive New York House races.

Riley had held his news conference criticizing Biden the day after the president’s dismal debate performance turbocharged skepticism about the 81-year-old’s cognitive acumen.

And while he knocked Molinaro for opposing the bipartisan Senate legislation that the GOP member had argued doesn’t secure the border, Molinaro noted that Riley as a Washington attorney had filed briefs in the Supreme Court to “undo Trump border security policies.”

The Democratic challenger has been vocal about challenging Trump’s ban on travelers from some Muslim-majority countries. — Emily Ngo

More from Congress:

— Latimer pledged to run “a vigorous” campaign for the seat in the fall. (WAMC)

— House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Democratic leaders endorsed Squad member Rep. Cori Bush in her Missouri primary. (POLITICO)

NEW YORK STATE OF MIND

WAIT, IS THAT BRIAN LEHRER: The iconic voices of WNYC are hitting the New York City subway.

The beloved public radio station is turning 100 and, to celebrate, straphangers will hear WNYC personalities Brian Lehrer, Michael Hill and Brooke Gladstone making subway announcements.

The messages will run for three days starting next Monday.

The hosts will be heard on the L train as well as on platforms in more than 350 stations. — Nick Reisman

More from around New York:

— The Republican running for Westchester County district attorney is trying to project a law-and-order posture. (LoHud)

— A top BOE lawyer got unjustified sick leave while he was under investigation for making interns wrestle shirtless with him, a city investigation found. (Gothamist)

— City officials are warning the public about a text message scam seeking to trick people into paying a fine that most New Yorkers find laughable: a $2.50 parking ticket. (Gothamist)

— Four Columbia University administrators dismissed concerns about antisemitism in an explosive series of texts during a recent alumni event, according to transcripts. (Daily News)

SOCIAL DATA

Edited by Daniel Lippman

MAKING MOVES: Vice president of policy and community engagement at the Center for Policing Equity Max Markham is joining the NYU School of Law’s Policing Project as executive director. Current executive director Freya Rigterink is stepping down to move abroad but will remain a senior advisor … Inna White and Scott Wilson have joined the board of directors at United Way of New York City. Wilson is the head of U.S. capital markets at CIBC and White is senior vice president and private wealth adviser at Wells Fargo.

MEDIAWATCH: Kathryn Meyers has been promoted to coordinator producer at Fox Business.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD: City Hall Deputy Press Secretary Kayla Mamelak Altus and Adams Altus, partner at Sier Capital Partners, gave birth Monday to baby Abel Mak Altus. At 19.75 inches, Deputy Mayor Fabien Levy dubbed Abel “a future NBA star.”

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: New York City Council Member Linda Lee … Sandra Lee … WaPo’s Lally Weymouth … Rick Powell … AFP’s Shaun Tandon ... POLITICO’s Heidi Vogt … CNN’s Lindy Royce-Bartlett ... Andrew Peek … Mariana Quevedo Vallejo … James Lightbourne … (WAS TUESDAY): Larry David … Richard Axel

Missed Tuesday’s New York Playbook PM? We forgive you. Read it here.

CORRECTION: An item in this newsletter was corrected to reflect that the bipartisan Senate border bill never made it out of the Senate and on to the House for a vote.