N.Y. State Assembly Member Jenifer Rajkumar Launches Bid for New York City Comptroller
- The 41-year-old Indian American who has represented a south Queens district in Albany’s lower chamber since 2021, has promised to bring a different approach to the city’s fiscal watchdog role.
New York State Assembly Member Jenifer Rajkumar has officially launched her campaign for city comptroller. The first South Asian woman elected to state office in New York, she is running for the seat that is likely to be vacated by Brad Lander, who is set to run in next year’s Democratic primary against Mayor Eric Adams. Rajkumar, who has represented a south Queens district in Albany’s lower chamber since 2021i, first opened a comptroller campaign account last month to start raising money for her run.
In an Aug. 12 video announcing her campaign, Rajkumar promised to bring a different approach to the city’s fiscal watchdog role. “I’m in it for the New Yorkers who toil 25 hours a day, eight days a week, and can’t afford life-saving health care or quality education,” she says in the campaign video. “Government inefficiency costs lives.” The Daily News pointed out that the announcement “comes on the heels of Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine filing paperwork last week to start raising money for his own 2025 comptroller run.”
Rajkumar, who is known as the “lady in red,” for frequently wearing that color dress, has often been spotted with Adams at various events and press conferences he hosts, “no matter how far from or unrelated the affair is to her district,” amNewYork Metro noted.
Some government veterans told the Daily News that Rajkumar’s proximity to Adams might be a problem as “the comptroller position comes with the responsibility of serving as a check on the mayor and his administration on fiscal matters.”
However, in a statement sent to the Daily News, Rajkumar said her “collaboration” with the mayor is “a key part of the comptroller’s job.” She said “It is a joy working with my colleagues at all levels of government from the mayor to the governor to the state legislature to the city council. The greatest moments in government — the historic moments that we live for — happen by working together.”
Last year, Rajkumar led a successful effort to make Diwali a state school holiday and to establish New York’s Asian American and Pacific Islander Commission. She also sponsored a measure incorporating domestic workers — overwhelmingly immigrants of color – into the state’s human rights law.