In a heated first debate of the Democratic primary for New York City public advocate Thursday night, incumbent Jumaane Williams and challenger Assembly Member Jenifer Rajkumar sparred over the office’s powers, allegations of workplace misconduct, and ties to Mayor Eric Adams.
The debate, hosted by PIX11 and the city Campaign Finance Board and co-sponsored by Schneps Media, parent company of amNewYork, turned combative early as Rajkumar accused Williams of covering up a serious incident involving his NYPD security detail and chief of staff.
“A woman was drugged and assaulted in your office, and she says that you covered it up,” Rajkumar said during the debate. “I think you need to think about resigning.”
Rajkumar, a Queens Assembly Member and former civil rights lawyer, was referring to a June 4 NY1 interview in which a former staffer in the Public Advocate’s office, Ysabel Abreu, said she was harmed by members of Williams’ NYPD security detail during a December office party and described a toxic workplace involving his chief of staff.
Abreu told NY1 she was hospitalized after the incident and later resigned, citing severe health impacts. Williams placed his chief of staff on paid leave, reassigned two officers, and launched an independent investigation when the allegations were first made five months ago.
Williams denied the cover-up allegation on the debate stage, saying he took immediate action when the claims surfaced and referred the matter to multiple investigative bodies.
“You can’t cover up something that you brought to the appropriate agencies,” he said. “We took immediate steps to address [it].”
Speaking after the debate, Williams called Rajkumar’s demand for his resignation “very strange,” particularly coming from someone with a legal background.
“It was just a fabrication,” he said. “For an attorney to make those kinds of accusations doesn’t make any sense… I acted transparently, immediately, and responsibly.”
The Internal Affairs Bureau and the Civilian Complaint Review Board are currently investigating the claims, according to Williams who said his office’s own probe has not uncovered substantive evidence of wrongdoing but that the process remains ongoing.
“I didn’t want to close a report that had not done everything that we could to speak to as many people as possible,” he said. He projected that a final report might be ready in “the next few weeks.”
Cartoons and sleeping until noon
The debate, held at the PIX11 studio in Midtown Manhattan, continued to be tense as the two candidates attacked each other’s records, though the candidates did agree on rent regulation and housing affordability, with both candidates backing a rent freeze for stabilized units.
But Rajkumar accused Williams of hypocrisy, calling him “a slumlord who has pushed his own tenants out” and claiming he hadn’t paid his mortgage in 10 years. Williams responded during the debate that the claim was “not documented,” adding, “I’ve never evicted tenants. Never.”
Williams addressed reports about his Brooklyn property, which was recently lost to foreclosure over unpaid debt, saying he was in his 20s at the time and chasing his dream of owning both a home and a restaurant.
He said, like many young Black New Yorkers at that time, he ended up in a “sub-prime exploitive loan.”
“We’ve been transparent about this for 10 years,” Williams said.
The two also addressed the city’s declining NYPD headcount. Both supported filling the 1,500 vacancies and offering raises to officers. Rajkumar argued that negative rhetoric had hurt police recruitment. She recently received the backing of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, the city’s largest police union.
“There’s so much vitriol directed at them, and unfortunately, the Public Advocate has been part of that,” she said. Williams said he never supported the “defund the police” slogan and emphasized the need to relieve officers of responsibilities like handling mental health crises.
“Law enforcement cannot do it alone,” he said. “That’s why we need fully resourced departments of mental health and hygiene.”
The sitting Public Advocate also defended his record, saying, “We passed more pieces of legislation than all previous Public Advocates combined.”
He repeatedly returned to what he described as the office’s five charter-mandated responsibilities, criticizing Rajkumar for not being able to name them during the debate.
The public advocate is the city’s second-highest elected official, but the role has limited formal authority. Serving as a public watchdog, the advocate investigates complaints about city services but has minimal power beyond submitting reports to the City Council. While the public advocate can propose legislation affecting the entire city, they do not have a vote in the council.
In his closing remarks, Williams cited the City Charter-mandated responsibilities of the public advocate, saying he has used all these tools and plans to use them again if re-elected. “But there is so much more that needs to be done,” he said.
Rajkumar claimed that Williams was being “misogynistic” by saying that she didn’t understand the responsibilities of the position. She also painted him as an absentee officeholder, invoking satirical cartoons from her campaign that show him asleep and disengaged.
“These cartoons really illustrate to New Yorkers the truth in this race,” she said. “He doesn’t do the job. He’s the public absentee.”
“New Yorkers have told me that they love these cartoons,” she said. “People set their alarms because they want to know when the next one is coming out.”
Williams dismissed the cartoons as racially stereotypical and disrespectful to his staff.
“When you have the New York Post defending Jumaane Williams, you’ve probably gone too far,” he said. “That insult toward absenteeism is an insult to the civil servants who’ve answered over 10,000 calls and cases to assist New Yorkers.”
Despite the criticism, Rajkumar stood firm in her post-debate comments, confirming that new cartoons are already in the works ahead of Election Day. In response to Rajkumar’s repeated claims that he “sleeps until noon and then writes a press release attacking the mayor,” Williams quipped, “I have a toddler—I wish I could sleep until noon.”
If elected, Rajkumar said she would give everything she has for New Yorkers and turn the office of Public Advocate into a “legal powerhouse.”
“If there are bureaucratic failures, I’m going to fix them,” she said. “I’m going to fix them through collaborating with the mayor or through litigation if I have to.”
With Rikers Island now in receivership, the candidates differed on the visions of the future of the embattled jail. Williams argued that the 2027 closure deadline is ‘the law’ and emphasized that Rikers should be shut down, citing safety concerns for both inmates and staff. Meanwhile, Rajkumar criticized the plan to replace Rikers with borough-based jails, claiming it exceeds the budget and that “nobody wants” them.
The two also differed in their relationships with Mayor Eric Adams. Williams, a frequent critic, said he would choose his words carefully but believes New York City would be better off without Adams—though he did commend the mayor for his rat control policy.
Rajkumar declined multiple opportunities to criticize Adams or say whether she believed he engaged in quid pro quo conduct with the Trump admiration, saying she did not have all the facts.
Williams said that being public advocate requires making tough decisions, and argued that if Rajkumar can’t call out Mayor Adams, whom he likened to a “deputy president” to Trump, then she may not be suited for the role, because New Yorkers need someone who will speak up when it counts.
“This isn’t about Eric Adams,” she said. “I’m running to bring our city into the future.” Still, after the debate she acknowledged Adams is “an ally” and touted her ability to work across government.
“That’s why I’m able to do impossible feats in Albany,” she said. Rajkumar also branded herself “Trump’s worst nightmare,” citing her opposition to his agenda in Albany. She accused Williams of sharing Trump’s values, a charge he called “the most interesting” of the night.
On endorsements, Williams named City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and Comptroller Brad Lander as his top two ranked-choice picks in the Democratic mayoral primary. Rajkumar said she has no plans to endorse anyone.
Both candidates said they voted for Adams in the 2021 mayoral race, though Williams called ranking him “my biggest regret.” Rajkumar, who appeared frequently with the mayor at press events before his indictment, was reported by Politico to have joined Adams at 151 appearances across 139 days.
On former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Rajkumar said she had no reservations about him possibly becoming mayor. On the debate stage she declined to say whether she regretted not calling for his resignation during his own scandal. “I believe in due process,” she said after the debate. “Everyone has the right to be heard.”
“My concerns are the mental health crisis, the public safety crisis, and the affordability crisis,” she said during the debate. “This is what I’m going to focus on every single day. I would work with Cuomo, or I would oppose Cuomo. I would do whatever is necessary for the people of New York.”
Williams, by contrast, said, “I need an hour to talk about my reservations about Cuomo,” accusing the former Governor of political convenience. “People say whatever they think is needed to get elected, but they’re not really trying to help those that need the most help.”
In the latest polling on the Public Advocate race by Emerson College Polling/PIX11/The Hill, Williams has a comfortable lead over Rajkumar.
