New York City

The tectonic shift facing NYC government in 2021

Suri Kasirer, the president of the lobbying firm Kasirer, is already considering the massive turnover in New York City in 2021. In an interview, she weighed in on what it means, the impact of terms limits, and why the next public advocate could become more influential than ever.

New York City Hall

New York City Hall Alon Adika/Shutterstock

Suri Kasirer is the founder and president of Kasirer, the top-ranked lobbying firm both in New York City and in Albany. Like any good lobbyist, one of her strengths is planning ahead – and with a lot of change on the horizon in New York City in a few years, she is already considering the potential shifts in the landscape.

In an interview with City & State, she weighed in on massive turnover in elected offices, the impact of terms limits, and why the next public advocate could become more influential than ever.

Is it too soon to start thinking about 2021 in New York City?

We all feel so steeped in the Bill de Blasio, Corey Johnson, Scott Stringer world, but it’s all going to look different with people in different places. I think it is the first time that this will be as significant. Obviously we had a big change in 2013, but it wasn’t as big as it will be. There were 31 new elected officials in 2013, and there will be 44 now. There were 22 new council members that were elected in 2013, but there will be 36 members that are termed out. So there will be a much, much smaller number that will be left out of the 51. In addition to that, we’ll have a new council speaker, all five borough presidents will be up, the mayor, the comptroller. Obviously we’ll have a new public advocate in the next few weeks, but that person will have to run again once that term is finished up. Presumably there will be a district attorney in Queens by January 2020. Whatever we have going on now will be completely different.

Any other examples?

Suri Kasirer
Suri Kasirer
In Brooklyn, there will be 13 out of 16 council members term-limited out. So there will only be three council members that will still be around. So the question of who’s there now that’s not term-limited out, that’s going to be the next potential speaker? But that group that comes into the council, basically, with the exception of the public advocate, there will be no incumbents citywide. Those people could be the gray hair, so to speak, who have more experience than anyone, which will be interesting. We are down significantly on the number of women, and there’s obviously that organization that Liz Crowley and I know Helen Rosenthal has been working on that, trying to get more women elected, because we lost in the last election a significant number of women council members. You have so many people who are currently in office running for very few jobs – what is it, eight or nine jobs, that 36 council members and five borough presidents and a controller looking at eight or nine jobs, which is sort of crazy. That puts a lot of chaos on the system because all of those people are currently in office, over 40 of them, and are looking for their next gig, which means it’s hard for anyone to focus for the next three years on their current gig.

Is that like in Albany now, where the state Legislature saw a lot of turnover in the last election?

Just like in Albany, some of these new members … had no experience in public office before, people were not necessarily part of the party system, people who were fairly independent, very liberal, you have the potential for all those people to be running for all of these seats. So it’s hard to even figure out. You can maybe try to figure out who’s going to be the next mayor, who’s going to be the next speaker, but in many of the districts to figure out who’s going to win those local offices. In many cases, you have lots of people starting to think about Jumaane Williams’ district, for example. But a lot of them are not up for three years. These people have not opened campaigns, and they’re not even there yet. You don’t even know who the potentials are.

And the new public advocate?

It’s going to be quite interesting that the public advocate, whoever that person is, will be in a situation of being a senior person in citywide office – perhaps one of the first times the public advocate will be tasked with keeping in check more than one mayor, because it’s a relatively new position. There are people talking about abolishing the public advocate, but the public advocate in 2021 might be a very significant person in the City of New York.

Is this an argument against term limits?

It is what it is. It’s a huge shakeup. It’s just a lot of change at once. Even if someone is for term limits, the question of having such a sea change at once, it’s a lot. And there’s not a lot of institutional memory, institutional history. One could argue that staff is increasingly important, but people come in and they bring in their own staff. You no longer have situation where a lot of the people have been in staff positions for 25 years. People come in, they want to clean house, they want to bring their own people in. Maybe they want some people who have a little experience, but you bring in your own team. As always, it takes a long time for people to get up to speed.

But a lot of voters appreciate new, younger politicians.

When you see what happened in the Joe Crowley seat, or what happened in some of the state Senate races, in a strange way, people find it refreshing to bring somebody in who has no political experience. There’s definitely a feeling of disillusionment and anger and skepticism toward people who are in government and in politics for a long time – but on the other hand, there’s a lot to be said for experience. If you’re someone with experience, you’ve got to figure out how to position yourself.  

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.