Politics

The theme of Adams’ SOTC? He’s alive.

Published

2 years ago

January 9, 2025

New York City Mayor Eric Adams offered a message of resilience and defiance during his fourth State of the City address at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.

RISING FROM HIS GRAVE: Mayor Eric Adams’ State of the City address had a blaring message: I’m not just here — I’m thriving.

“Even dark moments are not burials, they’re plantings,” Adams said. “Allow your planting to happen and you’ll see the fruits of your labor. Mommy did it, and that’s why I’m mayor.”

The first New York City mayor in modern history to be indicted on criminal charges wants the world to know that the federal corruption indictment, the sinking poll numbers and the flurry of federal raids and mass resignations hasn’t chipped his self-belief one bit — lest there had been any doubt.

“Don’t let anyone fool you,” he said. “Don’t listen to the noise, don’t listen to the rhetoric. New York City, the state of our city is strong.”

“The ultimate measure of a man or woman is not where they stand in moments of comfort and convenience, but where they stand at times of challenges and controversy,” he also said, paraphrasing Martin Luther King Jr. as he thanked the members of his staff who hadn’t resigned.

He delivered the hourlong message of defiance after a brief 54 minutes of introduction that included a Christian prayer, a Muslim prayer, a Hindu prayer, a Sikh prayer, a Buddhist prayer, a Jewish prayer, the National anthem, God Bless America, the Black national anthem, two promotional videos, a youth drum line performance and some waiting.

The address, like all State of the City speeches, highlighted accomplishments — the City of Yes housing plan, the (partial) year-over-year drop in crime, the expansion of early childhood programs and the slowing of the city’s once unrelenting migrant crisis.

He also put two priorities for the upcoming legislative session in Albany front and center.

He wants fellow Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul to adopt his version of a bill that would allow chronically homeless individuals suffering from mental illness to be involuntarily removed from the streets. (She is set to announce her own plan on involuntary removals, but has also signaled she will work with him on it.)

He needs the Legislature to back him in completely eliminating city income taxes for families making up to 150 percent of the federal poverty line. The “Axe the Tax” plan has the backing of Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, who praised Adams in a pre-speech video. (Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie signaled Wednesday he might look to end state income taxes for lower-income New Yorkers.)

For the city, the mayor unveiled some key proposals:

He laid out his extremely ambitious plan to build 100,000 new homes in Manhattan, though the idea so far lacks some much-needed specifics. (We wrote about it this morning in New York Playbook.)

He pledged $650 million to combat homelessness, including a facility to serve as a shelter and treatment center for the vulnerable population.

He is opening schoolyards as community parks on weekends and summers for over 10,000 New Yorkers, and he’s adding more cleaning shifts to city parks.

He’s expanding free internet for low-income homes in Upper Manhattan and all of the Bronx.

He’s adding a financial literacy teacher in every school district by 2030.

He’s clearing student loan debt for city employees and their families.

He’s allowing rent payments from thousands of low-income New Yorkers to count toward building up their credit score.

And he continued to thank Hochul for their simpatico relationship — even featuring her in his promotional video.
“There were some who said, ‘Step down,’” Adams said. “I said, ‘No, I’m gonna step up. I’m gonna step up. That’s what life presents you.’”

Sen. Zellnor Myrie's new position as chair of the Codes committee could bode well for him on the campaign trail.

ZELLNOR-CODED: Brooklyn state senator and mayoral candidate Zellnor Myrie has been tapped to lead the Senate Codes committee — a well-timed appointment.

As he prepares for the June primary and begins his seventh year in Albany, Myrie will have a key role in shaping criminal justice policy in Albany while he and his challengers attempt to prove their preparedness on the campaign trail.

An October Siena poll found likely New York City voters identified crime as their biggest concern. Adams has already signaled public safety will again be the crux of his mayoral campaign and he’s likely to call out any left-of-center opponents for prior votes he views as soft on crime.

“I’m grateful the leader has entrusted me to chair this committee, particularly at a time where public safety is on the minds of every New Yorker,” Myrie told Playbook. “As someone who is from New York City, who takes our subways and our buses, who talks to neighbors, I can say confidently this is an issue that is prominent in their minds.”

Myrie most recently helmed the Elections Committee, and his new spot leading Codes — which deals with all things criminal justice — has traditionally been viewed as the third most-powerful committee chair in the Senate. Nevertheless, Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins — who has a cool relationship with Adams — still wields near absolute power in the chamber, deciding with leadership what bills make it to the floor.

Sen. Jessica Ramos, another mayoral candidate, will remain chair of the Labor Committee. Zohran Mamdani, the other state lawmaker vying to lead City Hall, was not assigned a leadership position in the Assembly.

“We’re at a time where people are going to be using public safety as a political conversation, and I think that there needs to be a seriousness and sobriety in how we talk about actual solutions to this problem,” Myrie added, saying the committee will “be squarely focused on having actual solutions to city problems.” — Jason Beeferman

COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS ARE IN: Beyond Myrie, the Senate and Assembly announced all the other new committee leadership positions today, and that came with a host of changes, our colleague Bill Mahoney reported earlier in POLITICO Pro.

The Senate and Assembly announced their committee assignments today. | Provided by the New York State Legislature

The Assembly

Gary Pretlow will replace the retired Helene Weinstein as chair of the Ways and Means Committee.
Carrie Woerner replaces Pretlow to lead the Racing and Wagering Committee.
Marianne Buttenschon succeeds Woerner as chair of the Small Business Committee.
Ron Kim will succeed the retired Daniel O’Donnell as Tourism chair.
Rebecca Seawright will take Kim’s place as chair of the Aging Committee.
Angelo Santabarbara will succeed Seawright on the People With Disabilities Committee.
Bobby Carroll will become chair of Libraries and Education Technology, replacing Santabarbara.
Pamela Hunter is succeeding Jeff Aubry as speaker pro tempore.
Clyde Vanel will replace Hunter as chair of the Banks Committee.
Jonathan Jacobson will replace Vanel on Oversight, Analysis and Investigations.
Ed Braunstein will become chair of Corporations, Authorities and Commissions, replacing the retired Ken Zebrowski.
Pat Burke will take over the Cities Committee, succeeding Braunstein.
Jo Anne Simon will become Mental Health chair, following the retirement of Aileen Gunther.
Karen McMahon will take Simon’s place on Ethics & Guidance.
Billy Jones will replace the retired Fred Thiele on Local Governments.
Steve Stern will succeed the retired Kimberly Jean-Pierre on Veterans Affairs.
Alicia Hyndman will become chair of Higher Education, after previous chair Pat Fahy was elected to the Senate.

The Senate

Jamaal Bailey will take over retired Neil Breslin’s leadership of the Insurance Committee
Zellnor Myrie will replace Bailey on the Codes Committee
Kristen Gonzalez will take over for Myrie on the Elections Committee and remain chair of the Internet and Technology Committee.
Rachel May will lead the Consumer Protection Committee, which was vacated by Kevin Thomas.
Freshman Christopher Ryan will succeed May as chair of Cities II, a recently added committee that deals with cities north of the Bronx.
Freshman Pat Fahy will chair Disabilities, formerly helmed by John Mannion.
Freshman Siela Bynoe will lead Libraries, which had been chaired by Iwen Chu.

The field of potential successors to NY-21 Rep. Elise Stefanik continues to be narrowed.

THE WINNOWING: GOP leaders in the North Country House seat being vacated by Rep. Elise Stefanik will narrow the field of potential candidates by the end of the weekend, state party spokesperson David Laska said.

As Playbook reported this morning, Republican county chairs in the sprawling district met over Zoom with a dozen possible nominees. GOP officials expect to winnow that field of some 12 people to less than 10. Those preferred candidates will then advance to another round of vetting by Republican leaders.

Jockeying to replace Stefanik, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as United Nations ambassador, has been underway for the past two months. A Republican candidate is expected to be heavily favored in a special election — likely to be scheduled for mid-April — given the party’s enrollment advantage in the largely rural seat. — Nick Reisman

— SALT SLOWDOWN: Members of New York’s GOP delegation, once promising a full repeal of the cap on State and Local Tax Deductions, are now tempering expectations as they signal a full repeal is unlikely. (NY1)

— THE WHEELS ON THE TRAIN GO ROUND AND ROUND … EXCRUCIATINGLY: There’s a mysterious defect on the subway tracks of lettered train lines that’s causing subway wheels to be worn down more quickly than ever. (Daily News)

— TOP NY COURT BUCKS TRUMP: The Court of Appeals denied a request to delay Trump’s sentencing in the “hush money” case. (Times Union)

Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.

Politics

Farm-state Republicans are having a cow over Trump’s beef imports as Election Day approaches

Published

6 hours ago

September 19, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Farm-state Republicans don’t support President Donald Trump’s move to import cheap beef — but they’re still getting grilled for it.

Trump’s plan to combat sky-high beef prices by introducing discounted, tariff-free foreign beef has been widely condemned by ag-state Republicans who are concerned it will undercut the domestic beef industry and hurt ranchers, a normally reliable constituency.

And their opponents see an opening to paint Republicans as unconcerned about voters’ pocketbook concerns.

“Our ranchers and our farmers keep getting kicked in the teeth, and we have politicians that keep telling us that everything’s great, that we’re the hottest country,” Dan Osborn, an independent running for Senate in Nebraska, said in an interview. “And to be quite frank, I’m pretty pissed off about it.”

Osborn’s state is one of the top four top cattle-producing states — along with Texas, Kansas and Iowa — all of which have more-competitive-than-expected Senate races this cycle. And Trump’s controversial plan to remove tariffs from 300,000 metric tons of imported beef, sold at 25 percent below current market prices, is doing Republicans no favors.

Osborn’s campaign went on air with a pun-filled ad this week in which he says the import plan is “selling out American farmers and ranchers,” and blasts Congress for being “too chicken to stand up to the corporations who bought them off.” The campaign says it plans to spend at least six figures airing the spot. It’s the first major spending from a campaign focused on the beef import plan. But it plays into a larger economic argument Democrats are pushing to break through with farmers and ranchers: Trump and Republicans have turned their backs on rural America, as a worsening farm crisis and spiking fuel and fertilizer prices pinch agricultural communities.

“It’s part of a wider frustration,” said an adviser to one of the farm-state GOP senators, granted anonymity to speak openly. “I don’t think it sways anyone’s vote, but it isn’t a great look. … It isn’t fun for me to read the headline. It’s frustrating.”

Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), Osborn’s opponent, said in a statement he has a record of standing for his state’s agriculture community, “no matter who is president — from fighting Biden’s 30×30 plan to opposing this beef import plan.”

“Ranchers know the difference between a senator who delivers and a candidate reading a script his socialist ad agency wrote,” Ricketts said.

Farm-state Democrats and independents believe beef imports provide a window to speak to rural voters who have skewed red for decades but suddenly look more competitive amid Trump’s plunging political standing. A strategist working on Osborn’s campaign, granted anonymity to discuss strategy, said Osborn’s ad “codes as non-partisan in a way that running ads about taxes or healthcare doesn’t.”

Trump’s overall unpopularity is hurting Republicans across the map, but this policy could be especially problematic in a quartet of once-sleeper Senate races that could hand Democrats control of the upper chamber.

Spokespeople for the GOP nominees in Iowa and Kansas declined to discuss the issue, pointing to their candidates’ statements in August, when Trump’s plan was announced: Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa) called Trump’s plan a “bad idea,” while Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) said the priority should be growing the U.S. cattle herd, “not flooding the market with imports.”

Last week, during a debate at the Kansas State Fair, Democratic nominee Adam Hamilton slammed the import plan as “a slap in the face of all of our cattle ranchers,” earning a raucous response from fair-goers, and hit Marshall for “tepidly respond[ing] to it as opposed to shouting like hell that this is not okay.”

In Iowa’s agriculture-heavy first district, Democrats have been on the air since June with an ad hammering Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks for record-high beef prices” and other cost-of-living increases under the Trump administration. The Republicans who were already getting hammered for high prices before now are now hobbled by a proposed remedy — one that has infuriated their own base.

When asked how Republicans should message the beef plan back home, Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.), chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, acknowledged there’s “certainly a lot of concern amongst our cattle producers.”

“I think they understand what’s going on. They’re just not pleased with it,” Boozman said. “We’re in contact with the administration, a lot of members are in contact, helping them understand the unintended consequences of it. We’d like to lower prices, but again, we don’t want the unintended consequence of lowering cattle futures significantly.”

That leaves ranchers worried that the import plan will undercut their struggling industry.

“President Trump wants to lower the price of beef, I think that’s where it’s coming from,” said Ben Menges, a cattle rancher in Arizona’s battleground 6th District. “The best way that President Trump can do that is by lowering the cost of fuel, not by importing a bunch of beef.”

Some Republicans have looked to turn the conversation into a culture war issue — hitting their opponents for past stances on meat consumption or veganism.

Vice President JD Vance, during a visit to Iowa Friday — which Hinson did not attend — slammed Hamilton, the pastor-turned-Democratic nominee for Senate in Kansas, for having a “kind of a ‘gee whiz, I’m a nice pastor’ vibe” who tells his congregation to “repent for their white privilege while eating beef.”

It’s an attack Marshall made at last week’s debate, hitting Hamilton for a sermon he delivered on climate change and the impact of meat consumption.

“I think the senator needs to repent for not standing up for the beef industry,” responded Hamilton.

Politics

The Blue Light News Poll Electability Experiment

Published

8 hours ago

September 19, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Respondents presented with 2 choices of candidates with various traits. Results represent the estimated impact of each trait on likelihood of selection.

Politics

‘States should have a say’: Candidates for governor race to take on AI regulation

Published

8 hours ago

September 19, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Gubernatorial candidates across the country are racing to stake out positions on AI as the battle over regulating the technology intensifies.

They’re watching as sitting governors of both parties turn the rapidly evolving technology into a political priority, from Gavin Newsom in California to Ron DeSantis in Florida and Kathy Hochul in New York.

Now they’re starting to join the chorus, calling for more state-based action to put guardrails on AI — even if they don’t know what that would look like yet.

Blue Light News reached out to more than 18 Republican and Democratic gubernatorial candidates on their plans and received responses from eight. Nearly all said they want states to take the lead on AI, signaling a frustration with Washington’s inaction and acknowledgement that — if they eventually secure the governor’s mansion — they can’t dismiss the growing warnings.

Candidates said they were motivated by different concerns including fraud, job displacement and children’s safety. Their lack of detail on just how to address AI also reveals a tricky pivot these gubernatorial candidates are facing: To date, much of their campaign messaging on AI or the technology race with China has focused on data centers’ impact on energy prices.

Now, with less than six weeks until Election Day, they’re attempting to talk about AI in a more existential — and more far-reaching — manner.

“The federal government has failed to lead on this issue, and we cannot trust the billionaires profiting off of AI to self-regulate,” said Gina Hinojosa, Texas’ Democratic nominee for governor, in a statement. “State government has the most direct impact on our day-to-day lives, and at a time when Texans are more uncertain and concerned about AI than ever, it’s critical that we put the needs of Texans before corporate profits.” (GOP Gov. Greg Abbott, Hinojosa’s opponent, did not respond to a list of questions.)

Former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, a Democrat who’s heavily favored to succeed Newsom in California, is in conversations with tech industry leaders and economists on the path forward. He will “work to set firm guardrails to prevent the threat of real harms to workers, to children, to our privacy rights, to public safety,” spokesperson Jonathan Underland said in a statement. “California is the birthplace of modern AI, and California will lead the way in making it safe.”

Becerra’s longshot Republican opponent, Steve Hilton, told Blue Light News that there’s a place for narrow regulation on AI — even though he thinks some of the warnings are overblown and “preposterous.”

“California should lead on this because we are leading on the technology, and therefore we should lead on the regulation,” Hilton said. “I would prefer to see both the Congress and politicians in other states back off and stop talking about something they don’t understand.”

Recent warnings from top AI leaders about the technology’s potential apocalyptic trajectory roiled Democrats and Republicans both in Washington and on the campaign trail. According to a new POLITICO Poll, a majority of voters now think that AI poses an existential threat to humanity and a plurality want to see a pause in development of advanced models.

“There is a lot of education that’s needed here, and people are navigating an issue that they weren’t even really thinking about six months ago beyond the beyond ‘Should we have data centers’?” said Alyssa Cass, a Democratic strategist who has worked with Alex Bores, a New York state lawmaker who gained national attention in his failed campaign for Congress for opposition to unchecked AI.

“They’re talking about it,” she added. “That’s a meaningful difference.”

The National Governors Association, which convened a working group on AI’s impact on the workforce earlier this year, plans to release a policy roadmap for governors in November on how states can take action.

“We have 39 gubernatorial elections happening in November, and at least 21 new governors will be sworn in in January,” said Sophia Yager, the NGA’s policy director for workforce development and economic policy. “So we wanted to have a resource available not only for incumbent governors who are thinking and working on this issue, but for all of the new governors coming in, wanting to have something available for them from the jump in November.”

So far, Democrats have taken the sharpest aim at the Republican-controlled federal government for its inaction on establishing safeguards against AI.

“While regulation is strongest and most effective at the federal level, President [Donald] Trump dismisses the need for even the most basic guardrails, and we know it can take time for Congress to act,” said Federico Araujo, a spokesperson for Oregon’s Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek, who’s locked in a tightening battle for reelection. “States, in the meantime, must act with more urgency and do everything possible to manage how AI impacts our economies, energy prices and natural resources.”

David Crowley, the Democratic nominee in Wisconsin, told Blue Light News in a statement that AI safety is “an issue Wisconsin can address” but “we need strong leadership and partners in Washington who are looking out for us at home.” Still, he didn’t offer specifics, and much of his battle with GOP nominee Tom Tiffany — and even the Democratic primary — has been focused on data centers’ proliferation in Wisconsin.

Tiffany did not respond to a request for comment.

The calls for action on state-based regulation have not been limited to Democrats alone. Republicans — including some Trump allies — signaled a willingness to create safe buffers for the technology at the state level, following the lead of governors like DeSantis and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, who have long advocated for states’ abilities to install guardrails amid federal inaction.

“States should have a say in how AI is regulated,” said Dan Capodilupo, spokesperson for Iowa GOP gubernatorial nominee Zach Lahn. “Zach is committed to protecting states rights.” State Auditor Rob Sand, his Democratic opponent, did not respond to a request for comment.

In Georgia, Garrison Douglas, a spokesperson for GOP nominee Rick Jackson, stopped short of calling for local regulations but said that the health care executive “supports efforts to ensure that new models are tested for risks and that safety standards are established. He added that Jackson is “committed” to working with the state legislature on protecting consumers from AI-driven scams.

Georgia’s Democratic nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump has labeled concerns about AI’s existential threat a “HOAX” and derided efforts to regulate the technology, and his White House has pushed preemption of state-level regulation. In February, the White House urged Utah legislators to abandon an AI transparency bill; the administration has similarly gone after state-level legislation in Colorado and in California.

A POLITICO review of state-level legislation found 18 laws in 13 states, led by both Republicans and Democrats, that contradict the White House’s preemption framework.

These candidates’ calls for state-based action mirror some early actions that both red and blue state executives are taking from their statehouse perches, explicitly defying Trump’s hands-off approach to regulating the nascent but powerful industry.

This week, Cox urged Washington to “establish a consistent national framework for the development of frontier AI,” and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, in a speech at an AI-focused conference in Pittsburgh, called for the “federal government to step up and regulate the AI industry just like they do for nearly every other industry that significantly impacts our lives.”

Shapiro — who’s up for reelection in the battleground state this year and is considered a 2028 presidential contender — outlined what he sees as the stakes of slow-walking protective measures.

“By the time Congress comes back into session after the election, we could be dealing with a whole new generation of generative AI, and more scary examples of AI agents going rogue,” he said.

Lisa Kashinsky contributed to this report.