For NYC comptrollers, a mayoral run's part of the job

Daily Point

A ‘beaten’ path to NYC’s mayoralty

There is no law that says New York City comptrollers must run for mayor. But those who keep track of these things could be forgiven if they thought otherwise.

On Tuesday, Brad Lander, still in his first term and eligible to run for a second one, became the fifth consecutive comptroller to declare for the top job at City Hall. The mayoral election is not until next year.

None of those last four comptrollers succeeded. Ex-comptroller Scott Stringer was the most recent. He finished out of the money in the mayoral primary in 2021 — yet is reportedly considering another shot at the top post next year.

Both Stringer and Lander would be entering a potentially crowded primary field to take on incumbent Eric Adams, who some see as vulnerable due to investigations of his campaign funding.

Lander is expected to run to the mayor’s left, as ambiguously defined as that might be. More relevantly, Lander seeks to break the mayoral losing streak of comptrollers Alan Hevesi, Bill Thompson, John Liu and Stringer.

Abe Beame was the last comptroller to win the mayoralty — back in 1973. Also from that bygone era, Democratic comptrollers Mario Procaccino and Harrison Goldin tried for mayor but failed.

One strength that could encourage any comptroller to step up in the first place is built into the job. In it, they serve not just as auditors of the books but also as custodians of the assets of New York City public pension funds. City comptrollers also serve as trustees on each of these funds as well as investment adviser for all five pension boards.

For electoral purposes, a comptroller is a known entity to municipal union leaders, having dealt face-to-face and worked shoulder-to-shoulder with them on matters deeply embedded in the municipal machinery.

For any candidate, it’s helpful to pin down support from special constituencies — labor unions, or ethnic community leaders, or small businesses, or neighborhood activists. Multiple candidacies mean the winner needs a strong plurality, not a majority. Ranked preference voting, which began in the city in 2021, allows second and third-choice candidates to emerge on top. And after the city primary, the Democratic nomination is considered tantamount to election.

As a rule, comptrollers run the risk of being seen as functional but unexciting when they discuss their records. Mitchell Moss, a New York University professor of urban studies, told The Point: "We don’t elect people because they’re smart. You have to be able to connect with people."

Or at least, connect with enough people to get by. Other names that have been dropped at this early stage include State Sen. Jessica Ramos of Queens, City Councilwoman Diana Ayala of East Harlem, State Sen. Zellnor Myrie of Brooklyn, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, and even former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who was originally from Queens.

— Dan Janison dan.janison@newsday.com

Pencil Point

In a lighter mood

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Reference Point

Wartime woes and going easy on the gas

Long Islanders complain these days about the prices of things they buy. Eight decades ago, there were things they couldn’t buy no matter their finances.

It was August 1941. World War II had not yet hit home — Pearl Harbor was still four months away — but Long Island was getting its first taste of wartime rationing.

"Most of us here in Nassau don’t realize that we are undergoing a test right now," Newsday’s editorial board wrote in an Aug. 1, 1941 piece called "Gas and Oil."

"All this week and next we are supposedly showing how much oil and oil products we can save. If that doesn’t work, and so far there are few signs of it, a saving will be forced on us."

The board made the case for conservation using numbers that showed a shortage of oil in states along the East Coast, with the nation shipping oil to Britain to help with that country’s fight against Nazi Germany. The board offered some prescriptive advice: Avoid the habit of fast starts from traffic lights, what the board referred to as "jackrabbit" driving, and drive under 50 miles per hour or perhaps even 40. The board said tests show "that motorists could save 14.7 per cent of their gas in these two ways without driving a mile less. Think that one over. It saves you money."

Newsday’s board also expressed its frustration with Harold L. Ickes, the secretary of the interior and one of only two cabinet members to serve throughout the 13-year tenure of President Franklin Roosevelt. "Unfortunately Mr. Ickes lives up to his nickname of Donald Duck all too well," the board wrote. "He seems to be constantly scolding, either someone else or, as now, us. On top of this comes our main trouble — the fact that most of us haven’t yet taken in the point that we are pretty close to war."

That led to the board’s conclusion: "So it may be that voluntary saving won’t work."

It didn’t. In May 1942, gas rationing began in New York and 16 other states along the Eastern Seaboard. Foods like sugar, butter, milk and coffee, along with clothing and shoes were subjected to restrictions, too. By the end of 1942, gas rationing was nationwide.

The great irony, though, was that gas rationing was not really about gas. The United States had plenty of production and refining capacity but faced a temporary shortage of tankers after lending a whole bunch to Britain. The real shortage was rubber — specifically, rubber for high-pressure airplane tires as well as gaskets, belts and hoses for all sorts of engines.

Newsday’s board, clearly seeing approaching sacrifice, wrote, "We might as well get ready to grin and bear it."

— Michael Dobie michael.dobie@newsday.com, Amanda Fiscina-Wells amanda.fiscina-wells@newsday.com

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