Category: Politics

Katie Miller, a conservative operative who worked for Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and is married to White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, is launching a podcast aimed at conservative women, she announced on X on Thursday.

“For years I’ve seen that there isn’t a place for conservative women to gather online,” she said in the announcement. “I wanted to create that space, where we have real, honest conversations with people across the political spectrum and across the world.”

Miller was a top aide for DOGE and had also served in President Donald Trump’s first administration.

She left the government to work directly for the billionaire and said in her announcement she was “concluding” her time working full-time for Musk.

Her podcast will air Mondays, she said.

“As a mom of three young kids, who eats healthy, goes to the gym, works full time, I know there isn’t a podcast for women like myself,” she said. “Hope you’ll join me.”

​Politics

With help from Amira McKee

WHAT COULD BE ON TAP FOR 2028: There’s never been a full-fledged partisan gerrymander on the books for New York’s congressional districts.

Democrats and Republicans have split power in Albany during most modern redistricting cycles. When they didn’t in 2024, the lines drawn by Democrats after a series of court battles were nowhere near as aggressive as some partisans hoped.

Gov. Kathy Hochul now wants to change that in response to similar Republican efforts in Texas.

Redrawing the lines would be complicated in the Empire State. It couldn’t happen until 2028 at the earliest, and even then, it could only move forward if voters approve a constitutional amendment to permit a mid-decade gerrymander.

But that begs a big question: What would an all-out New York gerrymander look like? The political realities of 2028 are tough to predict. Some incumbents will be gone by then, and political shifts could come to various pockets of the state. And if President Donald Trump has his way, a new Census could throw the current mapmaking calculus out the window. But as things stand now, at least two Republicans have reason to fret, and maybe as many as four.

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis has topped 60 percent in the past two elections. Her district currently encompasses Staten Island and merges it with portions of Brooklyn mostly to the east of the Verrazzano Bridge, most of them Republican-friendly.

In 2022, Democrats wanted to extend the district further north into Brooklyn to include portions of the left-leaning enclave of Park Slope. Enacting such a plan would turn the district into a battleground. A more aggressive approach — harkening back to a map used in the 1970s — would merge Staten Island with parts of Manhattan.

In Westchester, Democratic Rep. George Latimer has a lot of breathing room — he received 72 percent of the vote in 2024. Republican Rep. Mike Lawler doesn’t — he received 52 percent. There are towns, such as the ones immediately south of the Tappan Zee, that could be swapped from Latimer’s district to Lawler’s, growing the number of Democrats in the Republican’s seat.

The four Congressional seats on Long Island are currently split between Democratic Reps. Laura Gillen and Tom Suozzi and Republican Reps. Nick LaLota and Andrew Garbarino.

“You could pull Suozzi’s district more into the city. You could pull Gillen’s district more into Gregory Meeks’ territory,” Hofstra University’s Larry Levy said, referring to the Queens Congress member.

That would allow for some portions of the Suozzi and Gillen districts to be merged with the Democratic strongholds currently situated in Republican districts: “You probably could make either Garbarino or LaLota more vulnerable, but not both,” Levy said.

In the western half of upstate, Democratic Rep. Tim Kennedy and Republican Reps. Claudia Tenney and Nick Langworthy each received around 65 percent of the vote in 2024. Democratic Rep. Joe Morelle got 60 percent.

There might be a path to joining slices of the Kennedy and Morelle seats with Democratic-friendly towns like Geneva and Oswego, allowing the Tenney district to become a bit more competitive.

But there’s not much to work with.

“Kennedy and Morelle are kind of islands of Democrats in a sea of Republicans,” one Buffalo Democrat said. With that in mind, the end result might just be jeopardizing two Democrats without actually making the Tenney seat winnable. — Bill Mahoney

MAMDANI TURNS UP PRESSURE: Zohran Mamdani sought to press his advantage today among Democrats who have yet to support him by leveraging a New York Times report that rival Andrew Cuomo and President Donald Trump have discussed the mayoral race.

“My administration will be Donald Trump’s worst nightmare,” Mamdani declared, predicting his policies to boost working-class New Yorkers would show how Trump has failed those communities.

The Democratic nominee for mayor accused Cuomo of “conspiring” with Trump. He spoke to reporters in Lower Manhattan outside 26 Federal Plaza, where federal immigration agents have been detaining migrants outside of court. Mamdani, who defeated Cuomo by 12 points in the June primary, stood with the leaders of labor unions that have endorsed him after previously backing Cuomo.

“We know that Andrew Cuomo will sell working people out for his interests, for the interests of the billionaires that support him, for the interests of Donald Trump,” Mamdani said, “because all of those interests are lining up as one and the same.”

Cuomo, who’s running an independent general election bid, told reporters in Midtown Manhattan that he doesn’t remember the last time he spoke with Trump and knocked the story as “palace intrigue.” The former governor said he did “leave word” with the president after an assasination attempt.

“I’ve never spoken to him about the mayor’s race,” Cuomo said, denying the Times report. “I had spoken to him when I was governor dozens and dozens, if not hundreds of times. We went through Covid together.”

Cuomo told reporters he would defend New York City against Trump “with every ounce of my strength.”

The Times additionally reported today that Cuomo has told business leaders he’s not “personally” looking for a fight with the president.

In Brooklyn, Mayor Eric Adams, who’s also running as an independent, said he’s never discussed the campaign with Trump and that his “conversations with the president is about bringing resources to the city.”

Mamdani told reporters today that he’s willing to talk with Trump and keep an open dialogue but only to improve the lives of New Yorkers.

“If he wants to actually act upon the cheaper groceries that he told us he would deliver, that is a different conversation,” the candidate said. — Emily Ngo, Joe Anuta and Amira McKee

‘LOOK ON THE HAT’: The first borough office of Adams’ uphill reelection campaign is borrowing the headquarters of one of Brooklyn’s old-guard political clubs.

The self-titled “child from Brownsville” cut the ribbon at his new Mill Basin office Thursday, announcing that the Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club headquarters — now plastered with “re-elect Eric for Mayor” posters — will serve as the nerve center for the campaign’s Brooklyn efforts.

“Why Brooklyn?” Adams said at the Thursday event, gesturing to his cap. “Brooklyn is the place I was born. When you look on the hat, it says Brownsville. It was the place that shaped and made me. It was the place that taught me the fortitude that I have right now to lead this city.”

Adams’ team said today it expects to unveil more offices across the five boroughs — just a day after the New York City Campaign Finance board denied the incumbent millions of dollars in public matching funds, putting him at a weighty financial disadvantage against Mamdani.

This isn’t the first time Adams has encountered trouble with the CFB, whose public matching fund program requires strict adherence to reporting mandates and individual donation limits.

A 900-page CFB audit of Adams’ 2021 campaign found more than 150 fundraising events that the Adams campaign said they paid for but did not document how much was spent and by whom — a red flag for potentially prohibited in-kind contributions. The campaign declined to address those irregularities in its official response.

POLITICO reported in 2021 that Adams also intermittently used office space occupied by the Democratic Party’s law firm without disclosing the relationship in campaign finance filings.

When asked about how much his campaign was spending to rent the home of one of New York’s oldest and most influential Democratic clubs, Adams shrugged. “Every payment we do is listed on the campaign finance so you can look at that,” he said.

Despite the CFB denying his funding request for the tenth time yesterday, Adams said he was unfazed, dodging questions about whether he would shake up his campaign staff or forgo the matching program to accept larger donations.

“The life of a person born in Brownsville, you’re always meeting obstacles,” Adams said, again gesturing to his cap. “But in all those obstacles, what happened? I’m the mayor, because I’m a working class, resilient, hard working New Yorker, and we’re used to obstacles.” — Amira McKee

DEPARTMENT OF WISHFUL THINKING: City Hall is asking agencies to contribute ideas for Mayor Eric Adams’ 2026 State of the City address — a request that assumes the mayor will win reelection despite poll numbers suggesting otherwise.

On Wednesday, Deputy Mayor for Communications Fabien Levy blasted out a message encouraging agencies to submit ideas for the theoretical address by Aug. 11, according to a copy of the missive obtained by Playbook.

The request comes as Adams, who is running as an independent, remains a longshot contender for a second term.

The incumbent is running as an independent in an overwhelmingly Democratic town. The Campaign Finance Board appears determined to deny him millions of dollars in public matching funds. And the latest poll had the mayor winning just 7 percent of the vote, coming in behind Mamdani, Cuomo and GOP nominee Curtis Sliwa.

Regardless, Levy is bullish on the mayor’s odds.

“New York City’s public servants are at their best when putting politics aside and staying focused on the work — and that is exactly what we are doing,” he said in a statement. “The State of the City takes months of thoughtful planning, and we intend to deliver a speech in early 2026 that is as groundbreaking as ever.”

Despite the aura of futility, some municipal workers are treating the exercise as a job preservation strategy, according to one city employee who was granted anonymity to discuss internal thinking. Should Mamdani win the general election, as polling currently indicates, senior staffers would have a readymade plan to pitch to the new administration and prove their worth.

“Zohran’s people are going to gravitate to those who have an agenda that aligns with his populism,” another city staffer, also granted anonymity, told Playbook.

Levy is convinced there will be no changing of the guard.

“We have appreciated POLITICO’s coverage of our past four State of the City addresses, and we look forward to their continued coverage of Mayor Adams’ next four,” he said in his statement. — Joe Anuta

— MEGABILL CUTS: New York’s social service providers are bracing for deep federal funding cuts as poverty rates rise among the state’s elderly. (New York Focus)

— ANOTHER LAWSUIT: A former top NYPD lawyer is suing the department, accusing top brass of firing her for investigating Adams’ former Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey. (Gothamist)

— SLOW DOWN: New York City has instituted a new e-bike speed limit, but local officials don’t have the teeth to enforce it. (The Wall Street Journal)

Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.

​Politics

INDIANAPOLIS — Former Gov. Mitch Daniels said he didn’t “see the point” of redistricting in Indiana, just as Vice President JD Vance was in the state pressing Republicans for an edge in the contest for control of the House.

“It would just be wrong,” Daniels told POLITICO. “People there have a right to pick the person they want.”

Vance traveled to the Hoosier State on Thursday to ask lawmakers to redistrict — potentially helping create 10 new seats for the GOP — ahead of the 2026 midterms. The visit comes as the White House continues to pressure Republicans in Texas to enact a new congressional map there that would generate up to five new GOP seats in the Lone Star state. Texas Democrats this week fled their state to avoid a quorum and halt the state Legislature’s business.

Daniels had sharp criticism for President Donald Trump’s redistricting push, saying the president “could’ve just kept quiet.”

“By spouting off in that way, he turns it into this partisan wrangle that we now see,” Daniels said in the interview.

Still, Daniels accused Democrats of having a history of using redistricting against Republicans over the years.

“It’s high season for hypocrisy,” he added, noting Democrats have also gerrymandered.

Gov. Mike Braun hasn’t committed to holding a special session to redistrict; Daniels pointed out that Indiana is already a Republican stronghold, holding seven of Indiana’s nine seats.

“My sense is you’d have to torture the lines to eke out another one somehow,” Daniels said. “It would be so overtly partisan that I would hope that they would abstain from it.”

If redistricting were to happen, Daniels said, “the ideal ought to be districts which make geographic sense” and “cross as few jurisdictional lines as possible.”

Should Braun call for the special session, Indiana Democrats would have limited leverage, as their Republican counterparts hold a supermajority in the Legislature. Daniels said he has not been in touch with House Speaker Todd Huston on the topic.

Daniels was one of the architects of Republican supermajorities in the Legislature, and wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post last year lamenting “one-party rule.”

“The gerrymandering that once exaggerated a dominant party’s political margin is no longer much of a factor; social clustering and these other factors have often done a more effective job than the political bosses ever did,” he wrote. “In many jurisdictions today, one would have to reverse gerrymander, mixing geographies and crossing all kinds of legal boundary lines, to produce a truly competitive electorate.”

In his interview with POLITICO, Daniels said gerrymandering means that “you don’t get the balanced, competitive districts that many of us believe would make for a healthier political system.”

​Politics

With help from Amira McKee

🚨 🚨 — “Trump Weighs Getting Involved in New York City Mayor Race,” by NYT’s Nicholas Fandos, Jeremy W. Peters, Maggie Haberman and Katherine Rosman: “President Trump may have moved out of New York City, but he has privately discussed whether to intercede in its fractious race for mayor to try to stop Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, according to eight people briefed on the discussions.” (More below)

​​CRY ME A RIVER: Even as Gov. Kathy Hochul doubles down on her Democratic gerrymandering plan, she said she’s feeling overcome with despondency for New York Republicans who could lose their seats when she tries to redraw New York’s maps to boost her party.

“I feel really sad,” Hochul said today, when asked if she had a message for any GOP reps who might see their seat erased if she pushes through a full-fledged gerrymander.

Hochul and California Gov. Gavin Newsom sprinted to the front lines of the mucky redistricting war and have vowed to redraw their own maps to add more Democratic seats ever since President Donald Trump called on Texas to abruptly redraw its Congressional maps to add 5 more GOP seats.

Luckily, Hochul noted, there’s a way out.

His name is Republican Rep. Mike Lawler, and, she said, he has the political power and sway in Washington to end partisan gerrymandering with his forthcoming federal bill that would ban the practice nationwide.

“He has so much enormous power in Washington,” Hochul said of Lawler.

Sike! She was kidding. She doesn’t feel sad. She doesn’t think Lawler has any juice in D.C. and she definitely doesn’t seem to be slowing down her push to gerrymander the hell out of New York in what she says is a response to Texas’ efforts.

On Tuesday, Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin indicated he’s encouraging other Democratic governors to consider redrawing their maps too. And the red state of Missouri, which has two GOP House seats, could be Republicans’ next gerrymandering target.

As the redistricting war looks to be going nuclear, Hochul is daring Republicans like Lawler to loudly call for an end to their party’s redistricting effort in Texas.

“Tell them to call the president of their own party and say, ‘Stand down in the war with New York and California and other Democratic states,’” Hochul said. “If you want to stop what you’re doing in Texas, I’ll stand down. You started it. You end it.”

“This is a guy who’s now saying, ‘I’m going to introduce a bill to get it changed,’” she said. “The same guy who promised a full restoration of the state and local tax deduction comes back far short from that and spins it as a win that everybody’s buying. He has no power. He won’t get it done. And I’m not sympathetic because he was silent.”

Lawler’s office noted that the increases in state and local tax deductions he fought with Trump for during the creation of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act provides relief for most of his district, with only the top 10 percent of taxpayers not getting a tax cut.

“Kathy Hochul is not just the worst Governor in America, she’s also the dumbest,” Lawler said in a statement. “After years of calling for the SALT cap to be fixed, she’s now attacking the solution because Democrats weren’t the ones to get it done, my New York GOP colleagues and I were. No one believes a word she says. Her own colleagues in the State Legislature mock her at every turn. What a pathetic excuse for a leader of New York State.” — Jason Beeferman

TRUMP EYES NYC MAYOR’S RACE: Trump is “very interested” in the New York City mayoral race, said Republican billionaire John Catsimatidis, who is friendly with both Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Eric Adams. Catsimatidis said he dined Friday with Trump.

“He’s a New York guy, he grew up in New York,” Catsimatidis told Playbook. “He loves New York. He wants to make sure there’s proper accounting in New York, that the quality of life goes on in New York and that we don’t lose any more population.”

Trump hasn’t committed to a role in the race, though, and Catsimatidis said he wants the president to hold off — for now.

“I asked him to put off decisions on anything until September,” Catsimatidis said.

The New York Times reported on the president’s interest earlier today.

The Times also reported that during a closed-door meeting with Lawler last month in the White House, Trump discussed the mayor’s race with the Hudson Valley congressman.

A person familiar with the meeting told Playbook that Trump did not express a specific preference for any of the mayoral candidates, but rather was interested in who has the best shot at winning.

Trump’s involvement would come as Cuomo’s pushing for the field to coalesce around the strongest challenger to Mamdani by mid-September — a dynamic that currently favors the former governor, according to most polls.

“The president runs the country and what is said to him at the dinner party is, ‘We saved America, we saved the free world, now it’s time to save New York,” Catsimatidis said. “I’m pretty sure he agreed with it.” — Nick Reisman and Jason Beeferman

ANDREW CUOMO, THE REPLY GUY: If you haven’t been on X in the last 24 hours (lucky you) you’ve missed Cuomo’s furious — and curious — barrage of posts and replies.

Since Monday, Cuomo has expressed gratitude to someone with the username “Andrew Cuomo is a Sex Pest.” He called on Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani to “Boycott, Divest, and Sanction” his property in Uganda — a country, he noted, “that murders LGBTQIA+ people.” And the former governor even responded earnestly to someone else who told him to “Give it up grandpa.”

“No grandkids yet- but I’ve got the experience and the ability to get things done,” Cuomo wrote.

The mayoral hopeful and failed primary candidate has posted over 35 times on X over the past two days, mostly with a new, direct tone that would’ve been unbecoming of the highly-coordinated primary campaign he was running just two months ago.

It’s a new social media approach from the 67-year-old and his campaign after his millennial foe Mamdani successfully utilized the medium to handily beat him in the Democratic primary and surge the under-30 turnout.

So is Andrew himself behind the account?

“We hired this really smart kid named A.J. Parkinson,” Rich Azzopardi told Playbook, an apparent tongue-in-cheek reference to a fictitious character Cuomo’s father first brought to life and quoted frequently in the early ‘80s.

Coincidentally, Parkinson emerged around the same time Cuomo took his last nap — a fact we now know because he told us so in one of his many replies on X this afternoon.

MAGA influencer Laura Loomer loves it.

“W,” she wrote in response to Cuomo’s call for a Uganda-centric BDS movement.

Mamdani’s campaign did not comment on Cuomo’s new online approach. — Jason Beeferman

NO MATCHING FUNDS FOR ADAMS: The New York City Campaign Finance Board denied Adams millions of dollars in matching funds for the tenth time this morning — and suggested in a strongly worded statement that Adams will not be getting a penny anytime soon, POLITICO reported today.

The regulatory body denied Adams the public funding he’s seeking for his general election bid on two grounds: His campaign has not submitted required paperwork, and the board has reason to believe the campaign violated the law.

The board’s decision escalates a long-simmering standoff with the incumbent and hobbles Adams’ ability to compete at a time when he is already at a severe disadvantage. The mayor dropped out of the Democratic primary after the controversial dismissal of a federal bribery case against him. He is now running in the crowded general election as an independent.

Fellow independents Cuomo and Jim Walden are hoping to take down Mamdani, a democratic socialist who has solidly staked out the left lane in the general election. So is GOP nominee Curtis Sliwa.

Cuomo’s base overlaps with Adams’, as does Sliwa’s, although to a lesser degree. Should the multimillion-dollar hole in his war chest persist, the mayor will be forced to continue the time-consuming process of fundraising long after his opponents, placing yet another obstacle in the way of his longshot comeback bid.

Adams’ campaign did not immediately comment on the board’s latest decision. — Joe Anuta

— PAC CASH: The pro-Adams PAC, Empower NYC, has raised $1 million in support of the mayor’s long-shot reelection bid, including from crypto industry donors. (City and State)

— NUCLEAR OPTION: Hochul’s administration wants to continue subsidizing New York’s aging nuclear facilities until 2050. (POLITICO Pro)

— RYDER’S LAW: The death of a New York City carriage horse has renewed calls for City Hall to phase-out horse-drawn carriages. (CBS News)

Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.

​Politics

CHICAGO — The Texas Democrats staying in a Chicago suburb to protest a controversial redistricting map in their state said Wednesday that they are facing threats against their group.

The St. Charles Police Department, which oversees the jurisdiction where they are staying, confirmed a potential bomb threat was made.

“This morning, a threat was made against the safety of the members of the Texas House Democratic Caucus. We are safe, we are secure, and we are undeterred. We are grateful for Governor [JB] Pritzker, local, and state law enforcement for their quick action to ensure our safety,” caucus leadership said in a statement.

The St. Charles Police Department said the threat came in at about 7:15 a.m. Central time.

“St. Charles Police Department responded to a report of a potential bomb threat at the Q-Center hotel and convention complex” in St. Charles, the city’s police department said in a statement, and local police and the Kane County Sheriff’s Office bomb squad “conducted a thorough search and no device was found.”

“In response to the threat, 400 people were immediately evacuated and the area was secured as bomb squad units conducted their investigation,” police said.

The guests and staff were allowed to return after police gave clearance to do so.

The Texas statehouse Democrats are in Illinois after leaving their state en masse Sunday in an attempt to prevent a quorum in the Texas state Legislature — and thus stop a vote on a controversial Republican-drawn congressional map that would give as many as five more U.S. House seats to the GOP in the 2026 midterms.

The group postponed a planned press conference with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) after reports of the threat.

​Politics

With help from Amira McKee

MUTUALLY ASSURED REDISTRICTING: The multi-front, tit-for-tat gerrymandering war is putting New York Republicans in a perilous position, and they’re acting quickly to condemn Hochul — and even buck President Donald Trump — to avoid becoming casualties as Dems seek retaliatory redistricting.

After President Donald Trump pressed Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to redraw his state’s congressional maps in a way that would add five GOP seats, Hochul responded with a pledge to “fight fire with fire.”

New York’s Republican Reps. Mike Lawler, Elise Stefanik, Nicole Malliotakis and Nick LaLota don’t want to become collateral damage. To that end, some are even willing to blast Trump’s efforts in Texas.

“What Texas is doing is wrong and I’m opposed to it,” Lawler texted Playbook, noting that he’s sponsoring a bill with fellow blue state Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley of California that would ban gerrymandering nationwide.

Malliotakis is speaking out against Texas’ redistricting efforts too.

“I may differ in opinion from many of my colleagues on this, particularly the ones from Texas,” she told The Joe Piscopo Show on Monday. “I’m not somebody who’s supportive of any type of gerrymandering.”

Their efforts come as Hochul continues to burn away any pretense that New York’s redistricting process should be independent.

“Up until now, Democrats have treated our political system like it’s still governed by norms, guarded by limits and rooted in fairness,” Hochul wrote in an op-ed published today in the Houston Chronicle. “Rules were meant to be followed. It hurts to say it, but that era has come to an end.”

On Monday, as Hochul hosted Texas lawmakers fleeing their state to prevent passage of redistricting legislation, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie told New York’s Republicans to pipe up.

“Perhaps the Republican members of Congress here in New York could say to their Republican colleagues in Texas, ‘Hey, slow down on this, because this can also affect us,’” he said.

But the Republicans speaking out about what’s going on deep in the heart of Texas still won’t forget Dems’ redistricting past at home.

New York Democrats tried to redraw district lines in their favor long before Trump told Texas to make changes of its own. In 2021, voters rejected a Democrat-led ballot referendum to weaken the independence of the state’s redistricting process. The next year, the courts blocked their attempts to redraw the maps in a way that would favor Democrats.

“New York Dems have been trying to gerrymander and rig the elections for years, well before what Texas is doing,” Lawler said. “They are not doing this in response, they are using this as cover to justify what they have wanted to do.”

Lawler said he’s still working on the specifics of his federal anti-gerrymandering bill.

Stefanik — who’s considering a gubernatorial run against Hochul — said she would work to prevent mid-decade redistricting in New York if elected governor. But she went silent when Playbook asked her if she’s against mid-decade redistricting in Texas.

“As Governor, Congresswoman Stefanik would support the NY State Constitution that is explicit with once a decade redistricting and the will of the voters of NY that voted for the independent bipartisan commission,” her spokesperson Alex DeGrasse said in a statement. “Congresswoman Stefanik successfully led the effort to protect the integrity of NY elections and fair district lines while Kathy Hochul tried twice to illegally gerrymander and suppress the will of New York voters.”

Hochul spokesperson Jen Goodman responded to New York’s GOP members.

“If New York House Republicans are serious about protecting democracy, they should direct their outrage at Donald Trump and their colleagues in Texas trying to dismantle it,” she said. “Until Texas stands down, Governor Hochul will continue exploring every available option to fight fire with fire and ensure New York voters are not silenced.”— Jason Beeferman

A FEDERAL SUIT AGAINST EVEN-YEAR ELECTIONS: Republicans are planning to file a federal lawsuit challenging New York’s new law moving most local elections to even-numbered years.

The suit is in the works as the state Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear arguments in September in a series of state-level cases brought over the 2023 law, which rescheduled town and county races. A mid-level appellate court concluded in May that the law doesn’t run afoul of the state constitution, despite challenges from eight GOP county executives.

Arguments in the forthcoming federal lawsuit were previewed in an amicus brief filed today in the state’s top court on behalf of the town of Riverhead and Nassau County Legislator Mazi Pilip. They’re saying the state law runs afoul of the U.S. Constitution.

“The primary purpose of the First Amendment is not to increase raw participation numbers, but rather to protect the public dialogue and debate that sits at the very heart of our democracy. When local elections are consolidated with federal and statewide contests, local candidates are pushed to the margins of the ‘public square,’” according to the brief, a copy of which was obtained by Playbook.

“The First Amendment doesn’t stop at the steps of the state capital,” said William A. Brewer III, the counsel representing Riverhead and Pilip. “Our clients contend that in their communities, democracy will be drowned out — not by censorship, but by unnecessary burdens to local speech.”

State Sen. James Skoufis, who sponsored the now-on-the-books bill to reschedule elections, said the suit is evidence local officials like Pilip are “afraid of more voters participating in their elections.”

“This is desperate and pathetic,” Skoufis said. “It is obviously constitutional — there are other states that have done it, there are other jurisdictions that have done it. It unequivocally and dramatically increases voter turnout. So it’s laughable on its face that anyone thinks this isn’t going to be completely thrown out of a courtroom.” — Bill Mahoney

BOOK OF JOB APPROVAL: Mayor Eric Adams held a rally on the steps of City Hall today with a pan-city collection of faith leaders backing his run. The incumbent, who is limping along in the polls and facing high disapproval ratings from voters, used the opportunity to highlight his accomplishments and re-air his longstanding grievances with the press.

Adams, who repeatedly criticized Andrew Cuomo for avoiding the media during the Democratic primary, began the event with a warning: He would not be taking questions.

“After I speak, I’m bouncing,” Adams said. “You’re not going to tarnish the good news of today.”

He closed his remarks by asking God for a “special prayer.”

“Lay hands on our media,” he said. “Heal them. Put honesty in their hearts.”

Adams has taken umbrage at coverage of his since-dismissed federal bribery case, allegations of a quid pro quo with President Donald Trump and corruption probes that hollowed out his inner circle.

As he left, reporters peppered him with queries anyway, prompting the mayor to clap and chant “ask me the good news questions” as he and his retinue disappeared into City Hall. — Joe Anuta

RESOLUTION TO BACK THE BLUE: Stefanik introduced a resolution today to condemn the mass shooting last week in midtown Manhattan, where five were killed including an off-duty NYPD officer.

The measure also condemns “divisive rhetoric and violence against federal, state, and local law enforcement officers and urges lawmakers to redouble their commitment to backing the blue.”

The North Country Republican said in a statement that “anti-police policies should have no place in our great state.”

Meanwhile, on Long Island, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman and Rep. Andrew Garbarino, both Republicans, sought to emphasize the importance of training and collaboration among local, state and federal law enforcement officials. They toured the Nassau County Police Department’s intelligence center and police training village.

Garbarino, the new chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, said his focus will be counterterrorism, including in neighboring New York City.

“New York is the greatest city, it’s also the one that’s most top targeted and we have to protect it,” the House member said.

Stefanik and Blakeman, potential candidates for governor next year who are close allies of President Donald Trump, have slammed Democrats for policies and rhetoric they say is dangerous for law enforcement officials. But they did not reference their political affiliation in their remarks today. — Emily Ngo

— MAMDANI DRAWS JEWISH VOTERS: Zohran Mamdani appealed to Jewish New Yorkers who were drawn to his affordability-focused platform and unbothered by or supportive of his views on Israel and Gaza. (The New York Times)

— CUOMO RECALIBRATES: Andrew Cuomo’s revamped campaign is shifting away from his historically vehement defense of Israel. (Bloomberg)

— ICE CRACKDOWN: Most immigrants arrested in New York City since the Trump administration ramped up its stringent border policies do not have criminal charges or convictions. (The New York Times)

Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.

​Politics

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Gov. Mike Braun is noncommittal on calling a special session to mid-decade redistricting despite pressure from the White House, but said the issue could come up when Vice President JD Vance visits the Hoosier state.

Asked whether he would call a special session to redistrict, Braun said “whatever we discuss there, if that topic comes up, is exploratory. So there’s been no commitments made other than that.”

Braun, who is a constitutionally weak governor working with a more powerful legislature, said redistricting “will be a broad conversation with the speaker and president pro tem.”

“Folks raising the most Cain about it are the ones that have gerrymandered their own states, where it looks like maybe the tentacles of an octopus,” he told reporters at the Indiana Statehouse, adding: “We’ll see what happens.”

Vance’s visit on Thursday comes as President Donald Trump leans heavily on states where Republicans control the legislature and the governor’s seat to redraw congressional maps mid-cycle. That effort has triggered a fierce battle in Texas, where Republicans are hoping to create five new favorable districts — if they can overcome Democrats’ efforts to prevent the legislature from having a quorum.

Republicans currently control seven of the nine seats in Indiana’s congressional delegation, but some Trump allies are hoping the state will draw new maps to squeeze Democratic Rep. Frank Mrvan out of his northwest Indiana district.

Trump has said he hopes to gain as many as five additional seats through redistricting beyond the new Texas map. That means more states besides Texas and Ohio — which is legally required to redraw its maps and could net Republicans up to three more favorable seats — may join the redistricting wars.

​Politics