20th Anniversary
New York’s 20 most influential politicians of the past 20 years
Through interviews, guest essays – and even a new COVID-19 mountain poster – we looked at the biggest names of our time.
Consider it an anniversary gift to our readers. Photo by Emily Assiran
2006 was a pivotal year in New York politics.
Andrew Cuomo was elected state attorney general, a stepping stone to his long reign as governor. U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, as Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chair, made his mark flipping the U.S. Senate that cycle. In New York City, Christine Quinn assumed the speakership of the City Council, a post she would hold for eight years. And in Central Brooklyn, little-known Hakeem Jeffries was elected to the Assembly, launching a political career that could result in him becoming the first Black House speaker.
Of course, 2006 stands out for another reason: That year, Publisher Tom Allon launched what’s now City & State. To mark our 20th anniversary, we identified the 20 most powerful politicians during this often turbulent two-decade span. We reached out to dozens of sources for input, and assessed a long list of contenders based on impact and longevity. All those who made the cut held public office, and all but one held elected office. Some were felled by scandal but had a political or policy record that outweighed their disgraceful demise. This exclusive list – presented in no particular order – recaps the careers of influential lawmakers, mayors, governors, prosecutors, a comptroller, even a president – in unique ways with some City & State flair that we hope will inform, educate and entertain.
Hakeem Jeffries & Letitia James: Rising through the ranks, together
Twenty years ago, the names Hakeem Jeffries and Letitia James would’ve only meant something to the kind of people who were excited about the launch of a new outlet, City Hall, covering New York City politics. And even then, they might not have known an aspiring Assembly member and a second-term New York City Council member.
Now, Jeffries and James are household names, as House minority leader who may be on the cusp of becoming the first Black speaker of the House, and state attorney general and anti-Trump resistance hero. But their names have long meant something to each other, as they rose together in politics from the same Central Brooklyn turf.
Opinion: Bill de Blasio’s record in addressing a Tale of Two Cities
Following 20 years of mayoral rule by Rudy Giuliani and Mike Bloomberg, Bill de Blasio struck a chord with his 2013 campaign promise to deliver policies to address New York City’s “Tale of Two Cities.”
Toward that end, he pursued policies such as universal prekindergarten, several years of rent freezes, housing investments, settling long-overdue municipal labor contracts and raising the minimum wage. He was fortunate to govern during a period of favorable macroeconomic conditions with low inflation and the city’s strongest sustained job growth in decades, but many of his signature policies focused on working-class and middle-income New Yorkers.
How Charlie Rangel won over Al Sharpton
The late Rep. Charlie Rangel liked to say that he “never had a bad day” after a Korean War battle in which he led men out of a harrowing skirmish with Chinese troops while wounded.
It wasn’t just a catchphrase lent to the title of his memoir spanning the pioneering Harlem Democrat’s life, 46-year tenure in Congress and ascent to chairing the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, becoming the first Black member to do so.
The motto was a “contagious” philosophy, said civil rights leader the Rev. Al Sharpton. “We had a mentality of ‘don’t cry in your milk, keep going.’ And we got that from Charlie,” Sharpton said of Rangel, who died in 2025 at 94 years old.
Zohran Mamdani isn’t ready to talk about the future
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is a unique member of City & State’s list of the 20 most influential New York politicians of the past 20 years. Sure he’s the youngest, a democratic socialist, etc. But he’s also, strikingly, been influential for the shortest amount of time in those 20 years. The most liberal estimate would put that number at six years, marking his election to the Assembly in 2020. The more conservative evaluation would put that at just two years, when he kick-started his history-making mayoral campaign.
When City & State pointed this out to him during an interview and photoshoot in late August, he merely chuckled.
Opinion: Jerry Nadler set an example for all studious Manhattan politicians
Stand with Rep. Jerry Nadler on a street corner or at a greenmarket or at the entrance to a subway station – as I did a great deal over the past year while running to succeed him in Congress – and you will meet one New Yorker after another who wants to thank him for his courage.
For enshrining the right to marry in federal law. For speaking out against reckless wars. For protecting the right to vote. For pushing and leading reticent House Democrats to impeach President Donald Trump. For his 25-year battle – finally just won – for the truth about air quality and health risks at ground zero. Because Nadler has been a clarion voice of conscience in Congress for 34 years, and in the Assembly for 16 years before that.
Opinion: How AOC is picking up the torch from the retiring generation
I first came to Congress in 1993, fresh off a victory over an entrenched and powerful incumbent. From the moment I stepped foot in the U.S. Capitol, it was clear that this institution was not built for people like me.
I had to fight to be taken seriously, whether it was because of my age (just 39, at the time), the way I spoke, or the simple fact that I was a Latina. I came to work every day determined to make sure my constituents’ voices were heard, even if I had to raise my own to make that happen.
Carl Heastie, on Prince, in his own words
I know I surprise absolutely no one when I say that Prince is my all-time favorite artist. His music is the soundtrack of my life. He was a musical genius, pure and simple, but he was also so much more than that.
Prince was a renaissance artist, constantly on the cutting edge of the industry – playing 27 instruments and writing and producing his own work – and he created sounds that no one could duplicate. His songs were timely, speaking to life growing up in a changing world.
My favorite Prince song has to be “Take Me with U,” but it was “Controversy” that was the first song to really move me. It was the quintessential ’80s song, combining funk and the emerging synth sounds that were such a hallmark of the time.
What people don’t often speak to is his consciousness and commentary on Black life and American life.
All about the numbers: Tom DiNapoli’s impact on New York
State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli isn’t one of New York’s outsized political personalities, but he’s one of its institutions. The 72-year-old politician, who once made history as the state’s youngest elected official, is now one of its most senior. Here’s a rundown of the key numbers that illustrate his longevity, popularity and impact.
Opinion: Andrea Stewart-Cousins’ state Senate has been professional and productive
Integrity. Discipline. Pride. Achievements.
These are words often used to describe the state Senate majority since 2019. And if there is one person most responsible for the praise we received, it is state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins. Ironically, the stability she has ushered in masks the historic nature of her accomplishments. Already the longest-serving Democratic majority leader in our state’s history, Stewart-Cousins has presided over the largest Senate majorities New York has ever seen from either party.
Opinion: Kathy Hochul has always been a tireless worker
I first learned of Kathy Hochul from a newspaper article in 2011, when she was first running for Congress in a district everyone said a Democrat couldn’t win. What really caught my attention was how quickly people decided she couldn’t do it. She was a woman. She was a Democrat running in a Republican district. The experts called her “unelectable.”
I knew that word pretty well.
People said the same thing about me when I first ran for Congress. So I called her up and told her she was going to win.
Reporters share their favorite Sheldon Silver stories
The late former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has a complicated legacy, to put it lightly. The impact of more than two decades of leading his chamber as a feared and powerful figure didn’t simply dissipate after his 2015 arrest on corruption charges. During his time in the chamber, Silver loomed large, both in his influence and in his personality. Few know that better than the journalists who covered him. Here are a couple of their stories.
Christine Quinn shares what it was really like to work with Mike Bloomberg
Few people know what Mike Bloomberg was like during his years as mayor like Christine Quinn, who sat opposite him in negotiations as speaker of the New York City Council. Despite their political differences, the two were largely seen as more in lockstep than the typical mayor-speaker relationship, yet she’d still override his vetoes. For a time, many saw Quinn as Bloomberg’s clear successor and the person who would break the glass ceiling and become the first woman to lead the city, but her mayoral campaign was undone in part by that very closeness to the mayor. She knew Bloomberg well – both professionally and personally. Years later, she has much to say.
Opinion: Michael Gianaris’ transformation of the state Senate shouldn’t be overlooked
When thinking about Michael Gianaris’ influence over New York over the past 20 years, I immediately thought about the seemingly doomed, quixotic battles he took on and won.
When Gianaris got to the state Senate, the Republicans had controlled the chamber for all but three years since Pearl Harbor. All the monied interests and many allegedly smart people in Albany believed that was the way it always would be. But after he became Democratic Senate Campaign Committee chair, not only did the party win a majority of seats in the next election, it won a majority of seats in six of the next seven cycles.
Donald Trump was a Queens boy
Perhaps in another universe, the Donald Trump story would’ve turned out differently. A private school kid growing up in Queens starts out at his father’s real estate company, which is focused on building middle-class housing in the outer boroughs. But the son has bigger dreams.
Chuck Schumer is still traveling, and sticking it to Al D’Amato
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has been visiting all 62 counties in New York annually for longer than City & State has been around – by almost a full decade. After pledging to visit every last New York county during his first U.S. Senate election against Al D’Amato in 1998, Schumer has made good on the promise for 27 straight years. This year will make 28.
“D’Amato had said to the people in upstate, ‘If Schumer’s elected, you’ll never see him west of the Hudson,’” Schumer recently recalled to City & State. And thus a tradition was born out of Schumer’s desire to prove his Republican opponent wrong. “The first year I did it, I loved it. I learned so much,” he said.
Andrew Cuomo’s COVID-19 mountain poster, recreated
“I love history. I love poster art.”
Then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared this in a COVID-19 briefing just six years ago. It was a political lifetime ago.
At the height of his power, Cuomo was swimming in adoration for his handling of the pandemic. Criticisms of his policies at nursing homes hadn’t reached a critical mass, and the allegations of sexual harassment – which ultimately led to his begrudging resignation a year later – had yet to drop.
With COVID-19 cases starting to fall, Cuomo unveiled an original work of art to mark the state’s progress.
In one of the 56th governor’s favorite mediums, we present the history of Cuomo’s climb to power and his precipitous tumble from the mountaintop.
Comparing every New York City Council speaker of the past 20 years
The Christine Quinn era certainly had its low points. A slush fund scandal. Her infamous flip-flop on term limits. A disappointing mayoral bid.
But she has wielded more power than any council speaker who came after her. And while she never became mayor, she still shapes policy as the leader of Win, the city’s largest family shelter and supportive housing provider.
Curtis Sliwa has a lot in common with Eric Adams
Eric Adams learned the ways of New York City as a young cop, riding the subways late at night on patrol. Curtis Sliwa was there too, in his own uniform.
Several decades later, after running for mayor against each other – twice – the Guardian Angel is still riding the rails every night. “I LIVE on the subways,” he said. “That’s why a lot of the Gen Zers call me the night mayor. Because I’m nocturnal.”
So City & State joined Sliwa on the No. 2 train to the No. 4 train, past 10 p.m., to reminisce about Adams. And while Sliwa patrolled car to car, greeted like a celebrity with selfie requests, we talked about their parallel lives, why he loved Adams’ bedroom search video and the worst thing he ever did.
Preet Bharara’s rogues’ gallery
During Preet Bharara’s tenure as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2009 to 2017, his crusade against public corruption made him one of the most feared men in New York. Here’s a list of the key political figures he toppled – and how their cases concluded.