This week's biggest Winners & Losers

Steve Fulop may be Jersey City’s mayor, but we think deep down he’s always loved New York. He swam from Jersey City to Manhattan (and back) twice, he worked on Wall Street, he went to college in New York and he can see New York from his house. Now, Fulop’s hanging up his vagabond wetsuit to lead the Partnership for New York City. Steve, welcome back to the home of the best bagels, good pizza and the Statue of Liberty.

While there was never really much doubt about Public Advocate Jumaane Williams’ odds of being reelected, who actually would want to be stuck on a stage debating for hours at a time? Lucky for him, he’s dominated the race to the point that none of his general election challengers even qualified for this week’s debate. Said challengers aren’t exactly pleased about that, but Williams, far above the fray, won’t have to hear about that or any other grievances on stage.

No one likes dealing with the often incredibly frustrating Department of Labor to claim your unemployment benefits, but a big boost to those benefits sure will make the process a little more worth it. After the state paid off $7 billion in unemployment insurance debt, officials were able to increase weekly payouts from $504 to $869. That nice chunk of additional change should have fewer people cursing Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon when her agency’s painfully outdated tech or unhelpful helpline inevitably cause headaches.

Fear not, people of Queens: The Sperminator is back on his bullshit. (No, he didn’t threaten to beat up Jim Gennaro again.) Perennial candidate Jonathan Rinaldi has been accused by multiple area publications of posting doctored photos of their websites showing fake endorsements and fake stories bashing his opponent, New York City Council Member Lynn Schulman. Rinaldi denies he posted any of them, claiming he was hacked – which seems fitting for a hack like him.1

Can’t we all just get along? Just kidding, this is politics. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Rep. Mike Lawler served us an absolute rhetorical ballet this week at the Capitol as the two argued about the government shutdown in front of the cameras. Jeffries made fun of Lawler for a tough reelection battle, but Jeffries might also have a primary challenge on his hands, as Axios reported this week that TikTok-savvy City Council Member Chi Ossé has had conversations about running against him.

More like LeFined. The LeFrak Organization has to pay $3.1 million in penalties to rent-stabilized tenants at its massive Queens housing complex after almost 2,000 tenants were illegally charged water fees in addition to rent. The new settlement comes after Gothamist uncovered the shady activity by one of the city’s largest landlords and most prolific evictors.