This week's biggest Winners & Losers

Chuck Schumer can take one of his first major victory laps as Senate Majority leader now that Congress successfully pushed through a hefty $1.9 relief package. And he's made sure New Yorkers know how much the state stands to benefit. His spokesman declared the state budget deficit is now "zero, nada, niete, zilch" thanks to the $12.5 billion in state aid, though the governor has quibbled that New York needs more. Add to that billions more for school districts, grants for restaurants and keeping public transit funded, and it sure looks like Schumer will have plenty to tout during his traditional annual tour around the state this year. 

Eric Adams racked up two more major labor endorsements in his mayoral bid this week, putting District Council 37 and 32BJ SEIU squarely in the Brooklyn borough president’s corner, along with the Hotel Trades Council, which endorsed Adams last week. Andrew Yang picked up his own labor endorsement alongside Maya Wiley this week, and is still beating out Adams in some polls – and in mastering the unique ability to generate profile-raising Twitter controversy – but it’s Adams who is on a hot streak with organized labor.

It was a banner week for the two Health chairs, who not only helped get a robust package of nursing home bills passed in both the Senate and Assembly but also have enough sponsors to theoretically pass the newly reintroduced NY Health Act, which would set up a single-payer health care system in the state. Last year, the act only had 31 state Senate sponsors and needed just one more to help it pass. Now, there are 33. 

Being the president of the Long Island Rail Road pretty much means you’re not going to be popular. But this was a particularly bad week for Phil Eng. The LIRR implemented cost-saving service cuts and let’s just say it didn’t go well. Trains were crowded, dangerously so during a pandemic, and commuters weren’t happy. The cuts went down so badly that by the evening rush, the LIRR had added more trains to the schedule. And a day after the cuts, the MTA announced they would return to a full schedule. 

The retired Army general raised the white flag on her campaign for the 2021 Democratic nomination for mayor this week after failing to qualify for public matching funds. Policy accomplishments like nearly eliminating veteran homelessness as commissioner of the New York City Department of Veterans’ Services just don’t win hearts and minds at a time when more telegetic candidates and political spectacles abound. That’s a warning shot for any wannabe mayor unfamiliar with how longshot campaigns never die, they only fade away.

The CEO of Penguin Random House, Markus Dohle’s dealing with headache after headache as Gov. Andrew Cuomo tries his darndest to decimate his reputation. Dohle’s company is now halting promotion of “American Crisis,” Cuomo’s book that came with aseven-figure price tag,citing the investigation into nursing home deaths. With sales of the book dwindling and new scandals daily, it doesn’t sound like the book is gonna make a comeback, either.