At their first debate, Mark Levine and Justin Brannan say they’ll stand up to the next mayor, whoever that is

A big part of the job of New York City comptroller is holding the mayor and the agencies he leads accountable. But don’t look to either of the leading candidates for the position to take a stance on who the next mayor of New York City should be.

Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine and City Council Member Justin Brannan faced off in the first comptroller debate of the campaign cycle, hosted on PIX11 Thursday night. State Sen. Kevin Parker and civil servant Ismael Malave are also running but did not meet spending qualifications set by the Campaign Finance Board to participate in the debate.

Both Levine and Brannan are seen as capable applicants for one of the city’s wonkier (and more powerful) jobs, and have assembled diverse coalitions of support and sizable cash hauls. But while both vowed to uphold one of the more visible aspects of the position if elected – serving as a check on and auditor of mayoral power – neither opted to weigh in on who that mayor should actually be. Both also declined to say much about the divisive current front-runner for the city’s top job, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

“Because I think it’s extremely important that the next comptroller be totally independent of the mayor – and perceived, as well, as totally independent of the mayor – I’m not going to be endorsing in this mayor's race,” Levine said Thursday night.

Brannan has not ruled out endorsing, but said little more than Levine. “I am also a New Yorker, and I care very much about who our next mayor is. I haven't made a decision about that,” he said. “I’m still taking a look at the field.”

When asked if they had any reservations about Cuomo – who is still leading in polls among a crowded Democratic primary field – Brannan said that he had concerns but declined to go into detail beyond referring to “stuff that happened in Albany during his governorship” and “some stuff during COVID.” Levine declined to answer if he had any concerns about Cuomo at all. 

Both said that they will support the Democratic nominee for mayor – a position that could put Brannan in conflict with one of his notable endorsers, the New York Working Families Party, if that nominee is Cuomo.

One line of debate the candidates more eagerly engaged in was how much they’ve stood up to current Mayor Eric Adams, who is politically damaged and unpopular, and now running as an independent, rather than in the Democratic primary. Adams, in other words, makes for an easier target. 

On that question, both Levine and Brannan brought a little more heat to the debate than has been displayed between the two candidates so far. (On issues of policy and how they would approach the position, Levine and Brannan are largely aligned.)

Brannan came out of the gate criticizing Levine on that front, using his own history of fighting the mayor on budget cuts as City Council finance chair as a sign of how he would fight President Donald Trump’s threats to New York City. “The past three and a half years, this mayor has tried to cut CUNY, our parks, our libraries. Mark Levine was nowhere to be found,” Brannan said. “If you’re going to fight Donald Trump. You need to do more than send a couple of strongly worded letters.”Levine disagreed with that characterization, saying he’s criticized Adams’ rhetoric on migrants and funding cuts. While Levine noted that Brannan endorsed Adams in 2021, Brannan said he’s the only candidate in this race who has since called on Adams to resign. (Levine did not take Brannan up on the suggestion that he was welcome to call for Adams’ resignation live on air Thursday.)

Perhaps unhappy to see his candidate used as the night’s punching bag, longtime Adams adviser and reelection campaign chair Frank Carone later weighed in with a statement that wouldn’t make any candidate trying to create distance with the mayor look good. “Mark Levine is a man of integrity. Keeps an open mind and thoughtful in his decisions,” Carone posted on X after the debate, alleging that Brannan has groveled for Adams’ support in the past. Brannan’s campaign nonetheless touted it as a coveted anti-endorsement.

The two Democrats are aligned on a lot of policy issues and in how they describe running the office. Brannan, a feisty former punk rocker from a purple Bay Ridge district, has had a leading role in the City Council’s budget negotiations for the last four years. Levine, a softer-spoken polyglot who represents Manhattan, has made supporting new housing development a hallmark of his borough presidency.

Both candidates said they support a rent freeze this year, would audit NYPD spending on overtime, want to invest pension funds to build new affordable housing, and support universal child care – a policy they couldn’t unilaterally enact but could have a role in. Brannan has a plan to reinvest $500 million in the city’s pension funds to help pay for a program, while Levine said his plan to extend existing free child care options to children as young as six weeks old would cost around $2 billion, and would prefer to find that funding in cost savings.

Even still, the more contentious tenor of Thursday’s debate is likely to continue in the coming weeks, with early voting set to start in just over two weeks and waning time left to make a mark. According to a recent Emerson College Polling/PIX11/The Hill poll, Levine was the first choice of roughly 37% of registered Democratic voters, to Brannan’s 17%. Nearly 30% of respondents, however, were still undecided.