Winners & Losers
This week’s biggest Winners & Losers
Who’s up and who’s down this week?
By far the biggest news of the week: The Miss Immigrant USA organization is perhaps not all that it seemed. The City looked into the program, members of which are often photographed with politicians and at parades, and discovered that the pageant is “confusing and chaotic,” and that its funding is murky at best. The founders, Shahar Kenan and Magdalena Kulisz, abruptly canceled the ceremony planned for this week in Times Square after The City started asking questions. Politicians seen with Miss Immigrant USA contestants and at their events included Mayor Eric Adams, Office of Immigrant Affairs Commissioner Manuel Castro and Assembly Member Steven Raga. By now they’ve discovered this pageant wasn’t one in a million after all.
George Santos -
Somehow managing to survive another expulsion vote from your fellow lawmakers is hardly something to brag about. But alas, if you are Rep. George Santos and even your freshman Republican colleagues in New York are coming for you, we suppose it’s a win. The bar is that low. Time will tell whether or not the embattled lawmaker manages to also escape punishment in his upcoming criminal trial and House Ethics Committee investigation.
Louis Molina -
For Louis Molina, it’s out of the frying pan and into the winner’s circle. The New York City jails boss is leaving a department plagued by low staff, management issues and threats of federal receivership and headed to a cushy City Hall gig as the newly created assistant deputy mayor for public safety. The duties of Molina’s new job are unclear or how many times the city has had an assistant deputy mayor for anything.
Letitia James -
State Attorney General Letitia James secured a $328 million settlement from Uber and Lyft after they were found to be committing wage theft against drivers. James might be pushing to go two for two. Former President Donald Trump’s children have begun testifying in a fraud suit she brought in 2022.
Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn -
There’s no love lost between Assembly Member Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn – the head of the Brooklyn Democratic Party – and Justin Brannan, the Democratic City Council member running against former Democrat-turned-Republican Ari Kagan for a Council seat in Bay Ridge. But the party leader may have gone too far this week when she released a scathing statement against Brannan – which prompted a group of 16 Democratic district leaders to release a statement of their own accusing her of “acting against the best interests of our party.”
Brianna Suggs -
For more than a year, Mayor Eric Adams has hammered the importance of getting federal support to help manage the influx of asylum-seekers to the city, making any opportunity to present that case to officials in Washington D.C. one not to miss. So whatever caused Adams to cancel a day of meetings in the nation’s capital on Thursday and immediately return to the city had to be a serious matter. That pressing matter might just have been the FBI’s raid of the Brooklyn home of Brianna Suggs, Adams’ top campaign fundraiser.
Jacob Scheiner -
All politics is local, but that doesn’t mean all local politicians know their stuff. Jacob Scheiner, a Democratic hopeful for the Nassau County Legislature on Long Island, was caught tearing down lawn signs of his Republican opponent.