By JACK DELANEY | jdelaney@queensledger.com
The race to become the second most powerful official in New York City had scarcely started before it was over.
Last Wednesday, November 26, City Council Member Julie Menin announced that she has secured endorsements from 36 of the legislative body’s 51 members, giving her a commanding supermajority that all but guarantees she will be the next speaker.
In the wake of Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral win, five council members had emerged as candidates for the speakership: Crystal Hudson of Brooklyn, Selvena Brooks-Powers of Queens, Amanda Farías of the Bronx, and Menin and Christopher Marte of Manhattan.
Menin, 58, and Hudson, 42, were seen as the strongest contenders in a secretive campaign that’s often compared to a popularity contest. But within weeks, Menin rallied both moderate Democrats and Republicans, who view her as a check on the mayor-elect, alongside a smattering of progressives to effectively clinch the race— the swiftest result since the speaker’s position was introduced.
Hudson conceded shortly after Menin’s announcement. “I have always said this should be a member driven process; and today, my colleagues have made their choice clear,” the Downtown Brooklyn rep said in a statement. “I am optimistic and excited for the future of [NYC] and look forward to continuing to deliver for the city that we all love.”
So who is Menin, and what will her tenure as speaker mean for New Yorkers?
A Varied Resume
Menin’s long career has included stints in business, government, law, and foundation work, a varied resume that many of her boosters highlighted in their endorsements.
“She’s been a business owner, a nonprofit leader, a Commissioner, and a Councilmember,” said Minority Leader Joanne Ariola. “At every step she’s shown that she can cut through the red tape of city bureaucracy and produce real results.”
Menin was born in 1967 to a painter and a radiologist, and grew up in Washington, D.C., where she would also begin her professional journey as a regulatory attorney in 1992 — two years before her soon-to-be post as city council speaker was officially established.
Corporate law eventually brought Menin to NYC, and in 1999 she pivoted to the food sector, opening a restaurant in lower Manhattan called Vine. When the eatery was damaged during the 9/11 attacks, she launched a new organization: Wall Street Rising, a nonprofit dedicated to rebuilding businesses in the financial district that grew to 30,000 members. (One of its early actions was partnering with Robert DeNiro to pull together the first Tribeca Film Festival in 2002; Bill de Blasio would later name Menin as the city’s “film czar.”)
Menin’s next act was in local government. In 2005, she was elected as the chair of Manhattan’s Community Board 1, a role she kept for seven years. The most significant test of her leadership came when a mosque was proposed near the World Trade Center in 2010, sparking Islamophobic backlash; with Menin at the helm, the board voted 29-1 in favor of the mosque, but pushed for the inclusion of an interfaith community center.
City officials took notice. Following a failed bid to become Manhattan Borough President in 2013, Menin was tapped to run the Department of Consumer Affairs, where she carried out the recently-created paid sick leave law, spearheaded a tax credit for low-income residents, and worked to reduce fines against small businesses.
But Menin wasn’t one to be restricted to a single niche. Drawing on her time at Wall Street Rising, Menin pivoted again in 2016 to head the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, brokering a deal to bring the Grammys back to NYC after a 15 year hiatus. Then, as De Blasio’s term came to close, she oversaw the implementation of the 2020 census and won a Supreme Court case to block the Trump administration from including a question about citizenship status.
Menin was elected to the City Council in 2022, representing the Upper East Side and parts of Harlem and Midtown. As with her career, the legislation she’s introduced and sponsored has been varied, with an emphasis on small businesses: bills passed this session ranged from requiring licensing for self-storage warehouses to providing legal services for low-income domestic violence survivors.
Much of the buzz around Menin’s bid for speaker has cast her as a potential foe to Mamdani, highlighting her Jewish identity and her marriage to a real estate developer. Meanwhile, stalwarts of the City Council’s Progressive Caucus like Brooklyn Council Member Shahana Hanif expressed disappointment that Hudson was snubbed, worrying that Menin would hinder the mayor-elect’s agenda.
But early indicators suggest otherwise. Menin and Mamdani met recently, as reported by Politico, and in an interview last week she stressed their common goals — including “fast and free” buses and creating a Department of Community Safety to shift mental health calls away from the NYPD.
Menin also reiterated her commitment to building affordable housing on empty lots and above some public libraries, and to expanding NYC Kids Rise, a college savings program she launched while serving under De Blasio.
“With this broad five-borough coalition, we stand ready to partner with mayor-elect Mamdani’s administration and deliver on a shared agenda that makes New York more affordable through universal childcare, lowers rent and healthcare costs, and ensures that families across the city can do more than just get by,” Menin said in Wednesday’s announcement.
What powers will she have as speaker to accomplish those aims?
The Speaker’s Curse
The speaker represents the council as its figurehead, both publicly and in negotiations with the mayor.
But much of their day-to-day is spent wrangling the chamber, determining its legislative priorities and steering the timeline for hearings and votes. As speaker, Menin will be tasked with hand-picking the heads of committees, and will set the budgets for each council member’s office.
In the past, speakers have also acted as checks on the mayor. Menin will lead talks with Mamdani over the city’s $200 billion annual budget, and has hinted that she could revive the council’s ability to issue subpoenas, a rarely-used tool that was most recently activated in 2021 when the NYPD refused to disclose information about its “Digidog” contract for surveillance robots.
As the second rung of NYC politics, the speaker’s seat has been seen as a stepping stone — with a major caveat. Menin has reportedly said that she has no desire to run for mayor, per the New York Times. If she has a change of heart later into her speakership, however, she’ll face a curse that has dogged her predecessors: of the six previous speakers, five have run for mayor, most recently Adrienne Adams. Few have made a splash, and all have ultimately failed in their bids.
With Wednesday’s announcement, Menin joins a storied line of Upper East Side politicians who have played starring roles in the speaker race. That list includes Gifford Miller, who presided over a wave of rezonings in the early aughts, but it reaches back even further, to the position’s origins.
In 1985, the retirement of Majority Leader Thomas Cuite triggered a chaotic scramble for succession. Despite some bad blood, council members from Manhattan and Brooklyn formed an alliance to elect Samuel Horowitz, who represented South Brooklyn, as the council’s joint majority leader and speaker.
Horwitz seemed destined for a coronation. But party leaders in the Bronx and Queens went on their own offensive, ultimately pulling off the unthinkable — in an infamous twist known as the “Dreyfoos Betrayal,” the Upper East Side rep Robert Dryfoos defected from the Manhattan bloc to support the campaign of Peter Vallone, Sr., a council member from Queens.
Vallone would go on to hold court for 11 years, holding court in the new era after the Board of Estimate was eliminated in 1989 and the speakership was formalized in 1993. Decades later, a Brooklyn council member has yet to become the speaker — and with Menin’s victory over Hudson last month, the drought continues.
