Julie Menin Declares Victory in City Council Speaker Race

Upper East Side City Council Member Julie Menin said she has secured 37 votes, more than enough to be elected to speaker of the City Council, which is viewed as the second most powerful job in city government after the mayor.

Members will not officially vote until Jan. 7, a week after they are sworn into office on Jan. 1. Menin, a moderate Manhattan Democrat (and the first Jewish Council speaker), pitched herself as a check on the left-leaning Muslim Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

There have been early claims of victory in past speaker’s races, notably 2021 when the eventual winner Adrienne Adams and Francisco Moya, the candidate backed by then Mayor-elect Eric Adams, both proclaimed victory.

This year, Menin had campaigned long and hard behind the scenes, schmoozing with potential backers and lobbying groups at the Somos conference held after Election Day in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where rivals also held meet and greets. Menin laid the groundwork during the campaign, when she contributed over $27,000 to support the campaigns of other Council members and members running for office for the first time. She could contribute a maximum of $1,000 to any single candidate.

“I’m honored to have the support of a supermajority of my colleagues to be the next Speaker of the @NYCouncil,” Menin posted on X shortly after 12:30 p.m.

She listed 36 members who had endorsed her. Included on the list was Christopher Marte, the downtown City Council member who was mounting an underdog campaign to be City Council speaker himself.

Not on the list was Hudson Crystal, the progressive City Council member from Brooklyn who many had tagged as Menin’s biggest potential rival.

Also not on the list of endorsers was Upper West Side Council member Gale Brewer, a one-time Manhattan borough president. Brewer had defeated Menin in the borough president primary in 2013. Menin finished fourth in the race. She was first elected in 2022 to represent Council District 5, which includes the Upper East Side, East Harlem, Yorkville, Midtown East, Carnegie Hill, Sutton Place, Roosevelt Island, and Lenox Hill.

Menin’s endorsers included all the Republican representatives and moderate Democrats as well as a handful of members from the progressive caucus. Selvena Brooks-Powers, a Council member and the majority whip from Queens who was also running for speaker, acknowledged she could not muster the votes and congratulated Menin on her victory shortly after Menin’s official announcement went out.

Another potential rival for speaker, Amanda Farias, endorsed Menin.

Shaun Abreu, the Upper West Side Assembly member, was an early backer of Menin’s speaker campaign and continued his support, as did Yusef Salaam, who represents Harlem in the Council.

Most of Menin’s support came from outside the progressive caucus of the Council. But that caucus was weakened considerably in February 2023, when 15 members defected largely over a requirement that it was pushing members to pledge to cuts in the number of police and corrections departments. The progressive caucus, while still influential, no longer controlled the majority.

Mamdani pointedly did not try to meddle in the council race, perhaps taking a cue from Eric Adams, who had tried to push his candidate Moya, the Queens Council member ,four years ago. But it backfired, and Adriene Adams won the speaker’s role instead. As a term-limited Council member this year, she ran unsuccessfully for mayor in the Democratic primary.

Menin did not endorse Mamdani in the mayor’s race, and Cuomo won the district that Menin represents in the general election. Menin had insisted at the time that it would be inappropriate for someone who was running for speaker to endorse a mayoral candidate.

Menin, 58, a former corporate lawyer, attended Columbia University and earned her law degree from Northwestern University. She is married to Bruce Menin, a real estate developer; they have four children.

On 9/11 she was running a catering firm in downtown Manhattan called Vine. She went on to found Wall Street Rising, the small nonprofit that worked to revive downtown after 9/11, and served as chair of Community Board 1. She also held key jobs during the de Blasio administration, including head of the Department of Consumer Affairs and head of the Mayor’s Office of Media & Entertainment. She was first elected to the Council from District 5 on the UES in 2022.

In her bid for the Council speaker’s role, Menin has enjoyed strong support from many unions, including the Hotel & Gaming Trades Council and the 32BJ, which includes doormen, window washers, and other building workers; but, notably, the healthcare workers’ SEIU 1199 did not endorse.

While Menin campaigned as a potential check on the Mamdani agenda, in her victory statement she said she was would partner with Mamdani on shared goals.

“With this broad five-borough coalition, we stand ready to partner with mayor-elect Mamdani’s administration and deliver on a shared agenda that makes New York more affordable through universal childcare, lowers rent and healthcare costs, and ensures that families across the city can do more than just get by,” Menin said.