This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

It’s a good time to be the head of a state party. In the face of past criticism for his leadership, state Democratic Party Chair Jay Jacobs was once again vindicated when he was unanimously reelected to a sixth term leading the party. And this year, the organization is taking more action than ever before to help Democrats get elected. On the other end of the spectrum, longtime state Conservative Party Chair Gerard Kassar also unsurprisingly got the approval of his party members to continue at the helm.

Let’s call her Nostradamus, because her timing truly couldn’t have been better. Mere hours before news broke that New York City Mayor Eric Adams had been indicted on federal corruption charges, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Adams should resign “for the good of the city.” She wasn’t the first to say that the flurry of investigations and resignations are threatening New Yorkers’ well being, but she became the most prominent elected official to urge the mayor to step down, and a flood of others have since followed in her wake.

Facing a possible ten years in prison, Rensselaer County officials Crist, Gordon and Wallace made it out of their election fraud case unscathed, finally cleared of allegations that they manipulated voter registration forms during the 2021 election cycle. As members of Republican Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin’s administration, they may still butt heads with their Democratic counterparts, but that sounds better than jail time.

New York City has seen many things, but we’ve never seen the indictment of a sitting mayor. On Thursday, federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment charging Adams with five counts of bribery, wire fraud and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations. More than 40 lawmakers have since called for the mayor to step down. And the mayor’s attempt to hold a damage control press conference on Thursday morning turned into its own crisis. Adams tried to convene his allies under a small tent outside Gracie Mansion on Thursday morning, but the mayor and his allies could barely get a word in edgewise, as Black Lives Matter activist Hawk Newsome showed up with a megaphone.

The latest soap opera out of Long Island politics hit the small screen Tuesday after Newsday reported that Republican Rep. Anthony D’Esposito had hired not only his fiancée’s daughter, but his lover, to work in his Long Island office, prompting a complaint to the House Ethics Committee. The scandal comes as the lawmaker prepares for what was already a contentious general election – and ex-Rep. George Santos seems to be enjoying the karma.

Considering the news this week, there are definitely worse things that could have happened to Ed Flood other than getting disbarred. Still, it’s not a good development for the freshman Long Island Republican – especially considering that he’s just a few weeks out from a tough reelection battle. Flood won a surprise upset in 2022 to unseat a longtime Democratic incumbent, so his hold on the seat is hardly guaranteed. At least the news of his disbarment might be overshadowed by some other stuff happening this week.