Bores zeros in on Lasher

Around a dozen candidates have opened committees to run in Manhattan’s 12th Congressional District, and nine of them appeared at the first candidate forum in the race Wednesday night. But there was little doubt about who Assembly Member Alex Bores was shading when he repeatedly referred to an unnamed competitor. 

Assembly Member Micah Lasher, the only other current elected official in the race, bore the brunt of Bores’ critiques, even though Bores never named him and the forum was styled as a one-at-a-time Q&A (moderated by City & State’s Jeff Coltin and hosted by a group of Democratic clubs). Each considered front-runners in the race to replace Rep. Jerry Nadler, Bores and Lasher have respective strongholds on the east and west sides of Manhattan. 

Both said they would support abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. But Bores criticized Lasher for his slightly more gradual response to the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis, noting that “another candidate in this race, another elected official” first called for investigations into ICE, then said ICE funding should be blocked, and then after two days said that ICE should be abolished altogether. “We need to be clear as Democrats from the start, we don't need to be adjusting to the polls and reacting here,” Bores said. But from what we could verify Wednesday night, Bores publicly called for abolishing ICE just two days before Lasher. Bores’ campaign said he did so at rallies as far back as April, but couldn’t immediately provide documentation. 

Lasher, who came up first in the forum’s batting order, didn’t talk about fellow candidates as much in his own remarks, but seemed to anticipate this line of attack. “You may hear (later) who said what two minutes faster than someone else. I think there are a bunch of us on record with that position.” What sets him apart, he argued, is the fact that he’s sponsoring measures already included in Gov. Kathy Hochul’s executive budget proposal to limit where ICE operates and give New Yorkers a right to sue agents. 

“Alex Bores’s fixation on dueling twitter feeds is a distraction from two facts: First, that Alex spent years selling Palantir products to the first Trump administration, long after ICE's abuses were widely reported on. Second, that Micah Lasher is the only candidate with an actual legislative record fighting back against ICE,” Lasher campaign spokesperson Caroline Crowell said in a statement.

In a few other instances, Bores claimed he had passed more bills than “something like six times the rest of the field combined”, and criticized Lasher for co-sponsoring a tax break for businesses that relocate jobs outside of Manhattan south of 96th Street – in other words, outside of a huge chunk of NY-12.

Other participants in the forum included Jack Schlossberg, Jami Floyd, Chris Diep, Mathew Shurka, Laura Dunn, Nina Schwalbe and Alan Pardee.

Candidates don’t have to wait long to go at it again. Another candidate forum – this time on the west side – is being held Thursday night.