Brannan sees a path to victory that relies on support from electeds in high-turnout parts of Brooklyn and other outer boroughs – establishment figures like Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie among them as well as among more left-leaning members of the party. Though he’s not a card-carrying leftist, Brannan’s surprise endorsement by the Working Families Party will certainly boost his support among progressives in the city. He’s also picked up the first union endorsements in the race, including from firefighters, transit workers and sanitation workers. Levine has since won his own labor support, including from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.
But each candidate has also made forays into territory outside of those strongholds. Brannan has picked up endorsements from a couple Manhattan Democratic clubs, including the Downtown Independent Democrats, while Levine nabbed Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso. Levine has also won endorsements from Asian American elected officials in Manhattan, Southern Brooklyn and Queens – including Assembly Member Grace Lee and City Council Members Susan Zhuang, Shekar Krishnan and Linda Lee –and sees that support as a pillar of his campaign. Translating endorsements to votes, Yang noted, requires on-the-ground, in-language campaigning in those communities where Democrats have fallen short in recent years.
Other major unions have yet to pick sides, and Queens County Democratic Party boss Rep. Greg Meeks has not weighed in, though Brannan picked up endorsements in Southeast Queens.
Levine, who is giving up a glidepath to another term as borough president to run for comptroller, is putting more on the line than Brannan, who is term-limited in the City Council at the end of this year. Asked whether they’d consider running for mayor in the future, both Levine and Brannan said the same thing: They would have run for mayor this year if they wanted to. Denying that they’re running for comptroller to use it as a stepping stone to later run for mayor, both took the typical politician’s approach of declining to totally shut the door on the possibility. “I don’t rule anything out,” Brannan said. “But I’m not running for comptroller to tee me up for anything, I’m running for comptroller to be the comptroller.”
“I don’t know if I would go so far as to rule it out, but it’s certainly not currently in the plans,” Levine said, calling comptroller a “dream job.”
Despite every past comptroller in recent decades reaching for the top post in City Hall – not to mention sitting Comptroller Brad Lander – it hasn’t proven a winning strategy since Abe Beame. Still, it’s a natural progression, consultant Eugene Noh suggested. “If you’re the guy who is the criticizer-in-chief of the mayor every step of the way, you inevitably, of course, believe that you will do a better job than he is
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