This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

Daniel Koerner is a young Republican but he’s not just in the Young Republicans. The 23-year-old is the new chair of the Otsego County Republican Party and the state’s youngest GOP county chair. Koerner is not the only twenty-something New Yorker who’s the life of the party. Zak Constantine was 22 when he was elected to lead the Orange County Democratic Party last year and Benji Federman was 28 when he became Broome County GOP chair earlier this year. This year North Carolina Democrats elected 25-year-old Anderson Clayton as state party chair.

Over the past few months, the relationship between Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul has turned frosty, with each accusing the other (and President Joe Biden) of failing to solve the migrant crisis. But this week, the mayor and governor came together to urge a court to weaken the right to shelter mandate, making it so shelters would no longer be required to house homeless people. It’s all part of the mayor’s ultimate goal of making it safe for people to ride their “little bikes” through the city and hang out in restaurants.

Not since Oscar the Grouch has one person been so obsessed with trash cans as Jessica Tisch. The Adams administration’s war on rats continued this week with the announcement that the vast majority of residential buildings will have to start putting their trash out in sealed containers, just as many businesses were required to do earlier this year. It’s yet another announcement from Tisch that the city’s rats are absolutely going to hate. Building owners who will have to fork up at least $45 for each required bin might not be so thrilled either.

Rep. George Santos said in a post this Wednesday on X, formerly known as Twitter, “Political warfare does not scare me”. Mere pixels above he wrote, “I’m done with the hypocrisy and projection coming from the same individuals for the last 10 months.” While both raring for a tussle and begging for a reprieve from his fellow lawmakers, Santos is under federal indictment for (insert financial crime here). His Republican colleagues in New York are attempting to expel him from Congress after the news of the indictment broke. Meanwhile, the junior lawmaker attempted to hold up the vote for a new speaker because Steve Scalise didn’t call him promptly. Maybe If lawmakers succeed at booting him he can use his free time to figure out how credit cards are meant to be used.

He shoots, he scores - oh no wait, it hit the goalpost! it's no good! That’s sort of what’s playing out in the political arena for New York City Council Member Francisco Moya as Queens Borough President Donovan Richards says he’s withholding his approval of plans to build a professional soccer stadium in Willets Point unless the Adams administration reinstates a shuttered street vendor market in Corona Plaza. Now Moya, a longtime champion of the stadium project and its housing components, isn’t responsible for the shutdown of the popular street vendor market, but as a star player on team soccer stadium, it's a frustrating snag.

Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phil Banks made the bizarre decision this week to audibly call a reporter’s inquiry about the mayor’s reelection a “stupid ass fucking question” in front of a room of reporters and other administration officials. Days later, that reporter broke news on a string of tense emails between Banks and the City Council that won’t do anything to mend the administration’s fraying relationship with the council. Ironically, Banks objected to the “tone” of an email from a council lawyer – which was notably free of expletives – repeatedly asking for a list of illegal pot shops.