Brad Lander, a candidate used to getting arrested, shakes up New York’s mayoral race

By Gloria Pazmino and Eva McKend, CNN

New York (CNN) — Brad Lander is used to getting arrested.

In 2015, Lander was detained during a protest in support of striking car wash workers. Two years later, Lander participated in an act of civil disobedience supporting the raise of the minimum wage in New York. Months after that, he was arrested at the US Capitol while protesting a tax reform bill he believed would favor wealthy corporations.

In 2018, Lander protested outside a state senator’s office as part of a campaign to renew a school-zone speed camera program. He was arrested there, too.

But Lander’s latest encounter with law enforcement immediately became his most famous. The New York City comptroller and mayoral candidate was arrested this week inside a federal building after he confronted federal officers to try to prevent a migrant from being taken into custody.

The arrest pushed Lander into the center of a Democratic primary campaign for New York City mayor that’s been dominated by rivals Andrew Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani. Images of his arrest were shared widely, even as critics questioned whether the incident was a publicity stunt a week before the June 24 primary.

“My goal yesterday was not to disobey,” Lander told CNN in an interview on Wednesday. “But it was to show up, to put my body there, to bear witness to what was happening, to object to the lack of due process, to try to insist on the rule of law.”

Who is Brad Lander?

The 55-year-old Lander is New York City’s chief financial watchdog. He previously was on the city council, where he founded the progressive caucus and helped pass legislation aimed at protecting workers, securing tenant protections and creating more affordable housing. Lander also helped pass a ban on employment credit checks.

He is known in the city’s political circles for his wonkiness and sharp command of municipal inner workings. He also has a nasally affectation that has been the subject of mockery by incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, a longtime rival whose office has faced multiple Lander audits.

For months Lander’s mayoral campaign has languished amid the political comeback energy of Cuomo, the former New York governor, and the upbeat and perennially online lefty campaign of Mamdani, the state assemblyman and Democratic socialist.

Lander has sided with Mamdani. The two agreed to cross-endorse each other in New York City’s ranked-choice voting system, which allows residents to select up to five candidates in order. Lander tore into Cuomo during the second mayoral debate last week, bringing up specifics around Cuomo’s resignation as the governor and the findings of an attorney general’s office’s investigation that concluded Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women and violated state law.

Cuomo has repeatedly denied the allegations.

“I think there is an important line right now – and it’s not between moderates and progressives,” Lander said. “It’s between fighters and folders, between people who will stand up against creeping authoritarianism and people like Eric Adams, who will side with Donald Trump and allow creeping Gestapo tactics to scoop people off our streets and arrest and deport them with no due process.”

During an interview with the Reset Talk Show, Adams declined to join the chorus of Democrats who condemned Lander’s arrest.

“I think it was more politics instead of protecting people,” said Adams, who is seeking reelection as an independent in the November general election, bypassing the Democratic primary he won four years ago. “It’s unfortunate that he took that action, because that is not the role of the elected official, what he did today.”

Cuomo holds 38% first-choice support in a new Marist poll of likely Democratic primary voters, about the same as in Marist’s May survey. Mamdani stands at 27%, up 9 points since last month.

No other candidate in the large field reached double-digits in first-choice votes, with Lander at 7%, New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams at 7% and all other candidates below 5% support.

The poll was completed before Lander’s arrest.

Lander, who spent nearly four hours in federal detention, said Wednesday that he would continue to bring attention to the issue of migrants facing immigration court proceedings without guaranteed access to counsel.

How his arrest shaped the campaign

Most of Lander’s opponents gathered after his arrest to support him – though not Cuomo, who rallied with labor leaders a few blocks away from where Lander was being held to tout his union support. The former governor’s camp did quickly issue a statement condemning Lander’s detention.

But Lander noted to reporters after his release that Cuomo hadn’t been with the other candidates.

“This is a critical time to have a mayor that will stand up to ICE and stand up to Donald Trump and insist on due process and the laws of this city,” Lander said.

Many in the city’s Democratic political circles suggested the arrest was a last-ditch push for attention by Lander’s campaign. One lawmaker noted privately that Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who was arrested during a protest outside of an immigration detention center in his city, lost in the primary for New Jersey governor earlier this month.

Others were quick to praise the move.

“Thank you to Brad Lander,” Jumaane Williams, the city’s public advocate and a close ally of Lander, said as supporters gathered to await his release. “Sometimes all the power we have is to be present and to witness what is happening and everyone of any moral character, any moral consciousness will be thanking Brad Lander for being that witness, doing what he could where he was to try and help someone.”

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