Boro Pres Race: NYS Senator Hoylman-Sigal Racks Up Big Endorsements While Council Member Powers Rakes in Big Bucks

With only two declared candidates in the race for Manhattan borough president, it appears to be shaping up as a classic East Side vs. West Side contest.

Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a NYS Senator in a district that runs parts of Greenwich Village and Chelsea and the Upper West Side said on Jan. 28 that he had endorsements from ten elected officials, including former borough presidents Gale Brewer and Ruth Messinger. Brewer currently represents a UWS Council district. Messinger also held an UWS Council seat before being elected borough president.

Powers, is term limited in his city council seat which represents a district that stretches from Stuyvesant Town through portions of mid-town and Kips Bay and the UES to E. 93rd St. and west to the Rockefeller Center/Times Square area. Three weeks ago, he unleashed his list of 20 endorsements–which included five of the six candidates looking to succeed him in the race for the council seat–and many of the East Side Democratic Club leaders.

The other leaders to endorse Hoylman-Sigal include Assembly Member Deborah Glick, Assembly Member Micah Lasher, Assembly Member Linda B. Rosenthal, Assembly Member Tony Simone, Council Member Erik Bottcher, and Former Assembly Member Richard Gottfried. Previously NYS Senator Brian Kavanagh and Assembly member Grace Lee also said they were endorsing Hoylman-Sigal. “Support from my west side colleagues means the world to me,” said Hoylman-Sigal, who announced his candidacy in early December.

Powers announced in August and for four months was the only candidate in the race. He has a commanding fundraising lead. The New York City Campaign Finance Board showed Hoylman-Sigal had only raised $126,065 in private funds and has not received matching city funds thus far.

Powers’ war chest is over a half million, according to the latest city figures which show a $585,481 total which includes $271,046 in private funds and $314,435 in matching public funds. His campaign manager, JT Ennis, said that Powers has actually raised $887,000 in total, which will show up in the next disclosure. “We are excited to be running a substantive borough-wide campaign focused on listening to the needs of all Manhattan residents and highlighting the needs of all Manhattan residents...”

Both candidates are big backers of rent stabilization and affordable housing in the city. And in the most controversial issue for residents lately, both candidates are supporters of the congesting pricing toll that began on Jan. 5 for drivers entering below 60th St.

Powers was, however part of a group of five city council colleagues representing residents inside the district who sought to get an in-zone discount for the car owners who live in the district. That would have made it similar to the London toll plan which gives car-owning locals inside the district a 90 percent discount. The MTA and Gov. Kathy Hochul, however, turned a blind eye to the plea and offered no in-resident discount from the $9 toll.

Powers was elected in 2017 and took office in 2018 succeeding council member (and now Planning Commissioner) Dan Garodnick and became the Democratic leader in the City Council from 2022 until Jan. 2024. In 2019. Powers tied with Helen Rosenthal for the designation of top lawmaker on the City Council by City and State. He has introduced several public safety bills involving lithium ion batteries and an anti-noise bill during his tenure.

Hoylman-Sigal, a former president of the Gay and Lesbian Independent Democrats, was elected to the NYS Senate for the first time in 2012. He is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and was the Senate sponsor of the $30 million Newspaper Sustainability Act which passed the state legislature and was signed into law last year. He narrowly lost in a race against Mark Levine for borough president in 2021. In his last race in his re-election bid in the State Senate in 2023 he ran unopposed.

Brewer said of Hoylman-Sigal, “Brad understands the importance of quality of life, and that’s reflected in his legislative record. We’ve worked closely on neighborhood issues like supporting our public schools, combating dangerous e-bikes and mopeds, and making our streets and subways safer.”

Powers is viewed as more centrist and was among a group of 15 City Council members, [which included Brewer] to withdraw from the city council members progressive caucus. City & State, called Hoylman-Sigal “the person behind state Senate’s progressive bills.”

The primary is in June. The borough president slot opened up because Levine, who has yet to make an endorsement, said he was going to run for the city-wide office of comptroller when the current incumbent of that post, Brad Lander, announced he was jumping into the Democratic primary race for mayor to oppose Eric Adams in a crowded field.