Carolyn Maloney’s daughter Virginia files to run for City Council

A Maloney could represent Manhattan’s East Side yet again. Former Rep. Carolyn Maloney’s daughter Virginia Maloney has opened a campaign account to run for City Council, in Manhattan’s 4th district, where current Council Member Keith Powers is term limited. 

Maloney did not immediately provide a comment to City & State prior to publication but said in a press release on Monday that her family’s legacy of public service has taught her the importance of fighting for the community. “As your City Councilmember, I will be committed to finding common-sense solutions to the major issues facing our city,” she said. “From expanding and protecting affordable housing, keeping our community safe and livable, protecting and uplifting seniors, and defending our values from Washington’s extremism, I’m ready to do the hard work and deliver.”

Politico New York first reported last month that she was considering running for the seat, which overlaps with the East Side districts that her mother represented between 1983 and 1993 before joining Congress.

The younger Maloney, currently a product manager at Meta – the tech conglomerate that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp among others – would be a first-time candidate but could benefit from name recognition in the race. Maloney previously worked at the city’s Economic Development Corp. and is a member of the executive committee of the Lexington Democratic Club on the Upper East Side. (Though that doesn’t make her a lock for an endorsement – Vanessa Aronson, another candidate for this council seat, is the president of that club.)

But those bonafides – and New York’s rich tradition of dynastic leadership – may not pave a glide path for Maloney. Five other candidates are already running for the open seat, with several of them accumulating respectable campaign war chests – and one, Rachel Storch, assembling one so large that she’s opting out of the city’s public matching program. The 4th district, which stretches from StuyTown to Midtown East and along Central Park via Park Avenue, has the highest median household income in the city, according to The City.