The race to replace Mayor Eric Adams has swallowed much of the oxygen in the lead-up to this year’s June 24 Democratic primary. But as New Yorkers begin heading to the polls for early voting in a couple of weeks, there will be several other races on their ballots, including the heated contest to replace city Comptroller Brad Lander.
The comptroller is the city’s independent fiscal watchdog, charged with auditing the finances and performance of its agencies, managing its five pension funds, and examining its $115 billion budget. The comptroller oversees 800 employees, including accountants and economists, as well as budget, financial, and investment analysts.
The role often functions as a check on the mayoral administration, conducting audits that can expose issues with the city’s finances or inefficiencies in its agencies. Lander, who decided to vie for the mayoralty instead of seeking another term as comptroller, has spent the past three-plus years in the position, locking horns with Mayor Adams over issues from City Hall’s repeated budget cuts to its emergency contracting practices during the migrant crisis.
Now, two candidates are leading in the Democratic primary for comptroller: Brooklyn City Council Member Justin Brannan and Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine. The Manhattan beep has led Brannan in the limited public polling that has come out thus far, but both candidates have attracted their fair share of notable endorsements. A recent Emerson College poll showed nearly 30% of voters are still undecided.
Brooklyn state Sen. Kevin Parker and Ismael Malave Perez, an employee of the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, are also vying for the position.
While Brannan and Levine are mostly aligned on their policy positions, they have traded blows over their respective approaches to Mayor Adams and how they would fight against President Trump.
Below ,amNewYork looks at each of the candidates running in this year’s Democratic primary for comptroller.
Justin Brannan
Brannan has served in political office since 2018, after being elected to a southern Brooklyn City Council seat the previous year. His district covers areas including Bay Ridge, the neighborhood where he was born and raised, and Coney Island, which was added to it during a 2022 redistricting.
Prior to entering politics, Brannan traveled the world as a punk rocker with his band “Indecision.”
During his time on the council, Brannan unsuccessfully bid to become its leader—a position known as speaker—in 2021. He was then appointed chair of the body’s powerful Finance Committee, from which he has waged many heated battles with Mayor Adams over Hizzoner’s repeated city agency cuts.
Brannan — known for a brash, in-your-face style — says his experience negotiating the city budget and fighting Adams has prepared him to both provide oversight of the city’s finances and fight back against looming funding cuts from President Trump. He is campaigning on plans to divest the city’s pension funds from the Elon Musk-owned electric car company Tesla, crack down on government corruption, and help make free child care universal.
The council member has raised $3.4 million in private donations and public matching funds combined. He currently has $2.6 million in his campaign account, according to Campaign Finance Board (CFB) records.
Mark Levine
Levine was elected Manhattan borough president in 2021 after spending eight years in the City Council. He represented District 7, which covers part of the Upper West Side up through West Harlem, and chaired the body’s Committees on Parks and Health.
As Manhattan beep, Levine has championed initiatives like identifying sites across Manhattan where new affordable housing can be built, partnering with the Hebrew Free Loan Society to offer low-interest loans to small businesses, and launching a campaign to plant one million more trees in Manhattan — according to his office’s website.
Prior to entering elected office, Levine was a bilingual math and science teacher in the South Bronx and founded the Neighborhood Trust Federal Credit Union, which serves families and businesses in Upper Manhattan and the Bronx. According to his campaign, he speaks Spanish and Hebrew fluently and is learning Greek and French.
Levine, who has a more reserved style, is also running on using the comptroller’s office authority to tackle some of the city’s most pressing issues. He has proposed plans to invest $2.5 billion from the city’s pension fund in building affordable housing, place an additional $2 billion in the city’s reserves as a safeguard against President Trump’s sweeping budget cuts, and audit the Department of Education’s use of outside consultants.
CFB records show that Levine has led the field in fundraising, having raised $4.8 million in private donations and public matching funds. He has $3.4 million cash on hand.
Kevin Parker
Parker was first elected to Albany’s upper chamber in 2002. He represents central and southern Brooklyn neighborhoods, including Flatbush, Midwood, Flatlands, Canarsie, and Mill Basin. He is the Democratic conference’s majority whip and chairs the state Senate’s Energy and Telecommunications Committee.
Parker claims on his campaign website to be the “most prolific” state lawmaker currently in the legislature, having passed over 70 bills during his time in Albany.
Prior to being elected to the state Senate, Parker held several jobs in state and city government. He was a special assistant to former Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger, an aide to former City Council Member Una Clarke, and a special assistant to former Assembly Member Nick Perry.
Compared to Brannan and Levine, Parker’s comptroller campaign has barely been visible.
Parker’s campaign website lists pledges including social value investing, affordable housing, a NYCHA new deal, universal after-school, an economic justice panel, and expanding public health. However, it does not provide any details on those proposals or how he would enact them.
According to the CFB, Parker has only raised $73,458 in private donations, has not received public matching funds, and has just $16,164 in his campaign account. He did not meet the matching funds threshold to qualify for either of the CFB-organized comptroller debates.
Ismael Malave
Malave is a long-time city employee who currently works as an “administrative procurement analyst” at the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, according to his LinkedIn profile. He has worked for DCAS since 2014 and previously served in the city comptroller’s office as a “senior investment analyst” and in its public affairs division.
According to his LinkedIn, prior to joining the city comptroller’s office, Malave worked as an executive assistant for the state comptroller.
According to Malave’s campaign website, he says he will use the comptroller’s office to root out “waste and inefficiency” in city government, uphold the city’s prevailing wage standards, and fix issues with its pension system.
Malave has raised $103,646 in private donations, but has not qualified for public matching funds. He has $20,488 in his campaign account and has not made the debate stage.
