Justin Brannan jumps into NYC comptroller race

New York City Council Member Justin Brannan may be term-limited next year, but his days of digging through city budgets aren’t done – not if he has anything to say about it, at least.

Brannan, who has represented southern Brooklyn in the City Council since 2018, opened an account to start fundraising for a run for New York City comptroller next year, joining a growing field of Democrats planning on vying for the position now that incumbent Comptroller Brad Lander has set his sights on the mayoral primary rather than running for reelection. The existence of Brannan's new campaign account was first reported by the New York Post.

Brannan was rumored to be considering running for comptroller or Brooklyn borough president if incumbent Antonio Reynoso ran for comptroller, but Reynoso has now said he will stay put. Brannan told City & State that he’s been looking at comptroller as a logical way to continue building on his work in the council, where he’s had a prominent role in the city’s budgeting process over the past three years as chair of the Committee on Finance. “I’ve seen the books up close and personal, closer than just about anybody. And I can tell you that the money is there to fully fund CUNY. The money is there to get serious about universal child care. The money is there to give our EMS workers pay parity,” he said. And as former chair of the Committee on Contracts, he added, “I learned the hell that our nonprofits go through, serving the city, when they're forced to wait endlessly to get paid back for services already rendered.”

After Brannan’s campaign for City Council speaker in 2021 fell short, Speaker Adrienne Adams made him chair of the Finance Committee, arguably the most powerful committee. Brannan, along with other City Council leadership, has repeatedly clashed with Mayor Eric Adams’ administration over the budget, and what the council alleges are misleading economic forecasts from the administration.

That experience bumping up against the administration is likely to factor into Brannan’s campaign for comptroller, where he would make a case that he can be an independent watchdog to ensure that taxpayers’ dollars are spent, and pensions invested, wisely – or, as he also put it, be the “fiscal pitbull” of the city.

If Brannan follows through with a campaign, he’d face multiple opponents in the Democratic primary, including Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine and Assembly Member Jenifer Rajkumar. Brannan has plenty of experience running close races, though never at the citywide level and more frequently in general, rather than primary, elections in his purple district. 

A former hardcore punk musician, Brannan’s path to politics has been winding, though he’s taken some of the traditional steps – like working for his predecessor, former Council Member Vincent Gentile. 

Though he faces uncertainty in his post-council life, Brannan denied seeing the comptroller’s office as just his next political stepping stone. Speaking to City & State last year, Brannan said that constituent service is what first attracted him to politics – a role that the comptroller’s office doesn’t exactly fulfill. But Brannan argued that every trash pickup and pothole filling traces back to ensuring that the city budget is delivering tangible results. “Sweating the small stuff is what New Yorkers need,” he said. 

Brannan, who is complimentary of the job that Lander has done, said that as comptroller, he would look forward to procurement reform and ensuring that nonprofits are paid on time.

For now, Brannan is exploring a run, but some contours of a campaign are starting to fill out. His pick for a campaign song? Wu-Tang Clan’s “C.R.E.A.M” – cash rules everything around me. It’s an appropriate choice, as his competitive reelection race last November depleted most of his campaign coffers, and Brannan acknowledges he’ll need to start fundraising from scratch.