After a major win, Albany Forward looks to the future

Dorcey Applyrs clinched the Democratic mayoral primary last month with almost 55% of the vote. The former Albany City auditor’s victory came with a commanding 24-point lead over the second-place candidate, businessman Dan Cerutti, who also had switched over from the Republican Party.

Key to Applyrs’ win was the help of an independent expenditure called Albany Forward, led by Evan Rantzaklis, former executive director of the state Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, now senior advisor at Brown & Weinraub. Rantzaklis worked in close coordination with Brian Matthews, also a senior advisor at the government relations and consulting firm, who served as committee chair, raising spending more than $100,000 to launch the effort with direct mailers and social media support.

Albany Forward’s work isn’t finished. The independent expenditure is actively fundraising for next year to tackle other key races across the state. City & State caught up with Rantzaklis to discuss his work behind the independent expenditure, his work supporting Applyrs’ historic win and what’s next for Albany Forward. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Do people ever ask what exactly you mean by calling your independent expenditure Albany Forward?

What is Albany Forward? It makes sense to ask, because we just did the city race. We're seeing it as much more… It’s about Albany, the capital, and moving the state forward.

Aside from helping elect Dorcey Applyrs as Albany’s first Black mayor, did Albany Forward achieve what it set out to accomplish?

We love Dorsey. We've known Dorsey for a long time. We wanted to support her. It was a great opportunity to get this (independent expenditure) up and running, a little bit kind of like a test case, to see what we were capable of and what we could raise. Supporting Dorsey, I think, came at a perfect time, right before the 2026 statewide races, to really put this into action. 

How effective was your role in getting Applrys elected?

With my background as former executive director of the state Democratic Senate Campaign Committee for the 2020 election I had a familiarity with running campaigns, had a good relationship with the Parkside group and pretty much was able to put it together. But from what we were seeing on the ground, we were pretty confident people were getting to know Dorsey. She was doing a lot of being in the community. So we felt like people were getting to know Dorsey. 

Your ads contrasted Applryrs against Dan Cerutti’s Republican ties and CEO record. How did you come to that decision?

I think we wanted to make sure that we made people aware of some things about Dan that they may have not been aware of. Because Dan wasn't involved in any big community organizations or charities. So I'm not sure folks really knew who Dan was outside of when they met Dan at this event or that event, right? From our perspective, we were saying, “Do people know about his business record? Do people know about his changing over to a Democrat from being a Republican? Getting that messaging out there in mailers, in social media, identifying those things, we thought that that would be more critical to do. And in Dan's concession speech, one of the things he said was that a lot of the messaging that we drove really had an impact on him, not being able to break through that 30%-ish ceiling that I think he needed.

Who collaborated with you on Albany Forward?

Brown & Weinraub founder David Weinraub, who worked on this from the beginning, and the rest of the firm partners were involved throughout the process. Lastly my colleague Brian Matthews, who assisted in the day-to-day with me.

What’s next then for Albany Forward?

So Albany forward, I think, is more about supporting candidates that we believe understand what's coming down the pike at the state level. Artificial intelligence, energy, what's happening with the federal government on the healthcare front. You know, people who are forward-thinking and are ready to meet the challenges. The next five years are going to be transformational. Look at the governor, deciding to do a nuclear power facility and super computer. So from our perspective, we want to work with state legislators, state officials, the governor and elected officials statewide, and we want to make sure we're supporting people that we think are up to the task of building a better future for New York.