Winners & Losers
This week’s biggest Winners & Losers
Who’s up and who’s down this week?
This week's biggest Winners & Losers. City & State
Not only is there life beyond the New York City Council for the dozens of term-limited members who were left unemployed at the end of 2021, but there is hope for members who lost reelection bids last year too. Brooklyn’s Alicka Ampry-Samuel may have lost the Democratic primary last year, but that doesn’t necessarily mean her political career is over. President Joe Biden officially appointed Ampry-Samuel to serve as regional administrator for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development this week, and we know a certain former mayor who used the position to his political advantage.
Bernard Adams -
The city’s Conflicts of Interest Board decided to okay Adams’ role in his brother’s administration as senior advisor for mayoral security, so long as he agreed to take a salary that was, well, $209,999 less than what he was initially expected to get. That’s right, Adams stands to make just $1 a year for his new role, for which the mayor was called out for indulging in nepotism. However, Adams will still be receiving his $51,665 police pension, which remains active, according to recent reports. What can we say, you win some, you lose some (thousands upon thousands of dollars).
Andrea Stewart-Cousins & Carl Heastie -
Twitter may have dubbed it the “Hochulmander,” but it’s the two legislative leaders who are really going to run the redistricting show. State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie find themselves in control of the line-drawing process. And boy are Democrats licking their chops at the prospect of gerrymandering Republicans out of Congress. The pair have promised fair maps, but they have the power to affect the national political playing field. Money’s on them wielding it.
Scott McIntyre -
New York’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program may have run out of funds, but the consulting firm managing the program is doing more than fine. Scott McIntyre, the chief executive of Guidehouse – a firm that hired a former Cuomo aide and received a no-bid contract to run the rental aid program – was recorded boasting of the company making 38% margins on the contract. Surely, those profits will be used to replenish the rental fund?
Eric Adams -
The new mayor is down at least a grand after converting his first paycheck into cryptocurrency before price drops this week. That means less money for future trips on private jets with campaign contributors – especially considering how his brother will need like 1,000 years (given his new rate of municipal pay) to help cover the loss. Maybe bitcoin and etherium will bounce back, but so much for mayoral time spent on convincing New Yorkers cryptocurrencies make for a fiscally healthy lifestyle.
Sarah Palin -
Does this reach the standard of “actual malice?” In town to sue The New York Times, the one-time VP candidate was caught eating indoors at UES haunt Elio’s even though she isn’t vaccinated against COVID-19. Then she tested positive, postponing the trial, but kept eating out, night after night, despite – again – literally testing positive for the viral disease. Outdoor dining in January is nothing for an Alaskan, but unnecessarily putting employees and fellow diners in harm’s way? That’s cold.
Larry Schwartz -
Cuomo loyalist Larry Schwartz has officially stepped down from the MTA Board, months after revelations he played a crucial role in working to clean up his former boss’ scandals. Schwartz, once a top aide to Cuomo, was mentioned more than two dozen times in the state Attorney General’s report on Cuomo’s sexual harrassment allegations. Particularly damning were the phone calls he allegedly made as Cuomo’s vaccine czar to gauge county executives’ loyalty to the then-governor – calls that came as the state was divvying out what were at the time highly coveted vaccine doses to localities. Schwartz, an MTA Board member since Cuomo appointed him in 2015, announced his resignation in October and officially resigned on Dec. 31, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office said this week.
NEXT STORY: New York’s time-honored tradition of nepotism