Queens Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar, a key political ally of Mayor Adams known for frequently appearing alongside him at events, has made her 2025 campaign for city comptroller official by launching a website and releasing a video on why she’s making a run for the fiscal watchdog post.
Rajkumar, who first opened a comptroller campaign account last month to start raising money for her run, made the official video and website moves late Tuesday night. They came on the heels of Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine filing paperwork last week to start raising money for his own 2025 comptroller run.
“I’m in it for the New Yorkers who toil 25 hours a day, eight days a week and can’t afford life-saving health care or quality education,” Rajkumar, a centrist Democrat who represents a section of eastern Queens, says in the launch video, which features rapid-fire images of her talking to New Yorkers and sunset skyline views. “Government inefficiency costs lives.”
The campaign steps from Rajkumar and Levine come after incumbent Comptroller Brad Lander, a progressive Democrat and frequent critic of Adams, announced last month he’s running against the mayor in next June’s primary elections.
In a press release, Rajkumar touted her experience as an attorney as a reason why she’s a good fit to replace Lander as comptroller, a position tasked with auditing city agencies and overseeing the municipal government’s pension funds.
An entire section of the press release is also dedicated to describing Rajkumar’s ties to the mayor, noting he has called her a “close friend.” Besides being politically aligned with Adams, the moderate Democrat mayor regularly has Rajkumar appear alongside him at press conferences that do not directly relate to her district or issues she’s working on.
Some government veterans have said it’s a problem Rajkumar counts Adams as such a close ally, given that the comptroller position comes with the responsibility of serving as a check on the mayor and his administration on fiscal matters.
But Rajkumar said in a statement that “collaboration” with the mayor is a key part of the comptroller job.
“It is a joy working with my colleagues at all levels of government from the mayor to the governor to the state legislature to the city council,” she said. “The greatest moments in government — the historic moments that we live for — happen by working together.”
During a press conference at City Hall on Wednesday, Adams stopped short of immediately endorsing Rajkumar’s comptroller bid, but said he’s “pleased” with her record as a legislator in Albany.
Asked whether there’s a political component to Rajkumar’s regular appearances with him in public, Adams said his office sends out invitations for elected officials to appear with him at press conferences.
“Those who want to come can come,” he said.
A spokesman for Levine’s comptroller campaign declined to comment on Rajkumar’s official entry into the race.
There hasn’t been a campaign filing deadline since Rajkumar launched her comptroller fundraising committee in July, so it’s unclear how much money she has raised in the past month.
However, her first filing from early July showed she was in dire need of getting her fundraising operation going, as she was sitting on a negative balance of $19,435, with the only donation received being a $65 contribution from herself. Due to restrictions in New York law, Rajkumar is unlikely to be able to transfer over at least some of the money she has in her Assembly campaign account to the comptroller coffers.
Levine’s comptroller campaign account, by contrast, has $262,939 in it, most of it rolled over from his Manhattan borough president account, records show.
Originally Published:
