Exclusive | NYC Council Speaker Menin launches PAC to aid state Dems and potentially boost own standing to run for higher office
City Council Speaker Julie Menin has launched her own statewide PAC to boost Democrats in November — fueling speculation she may be trying to spread her tentacles for a potential run for higher office.Menin, 58, filed her “New York Rising PAC” with the State Board of Election last week, a move that political sources told The Post is an obvious way for the increasingly powerful New York City pol to “advance to the next step.” “Menin is redefining what it means to be an activist speaker by helping Democrats in other parts of the state and planting IOUs in the future,” said a knowledgeable Democratic source who knows Menin well.Veteran political strategist Hank Sheinkopf added of Menin’s funding mechanism, “It’s a `making friends’ PAC.“Nothing makes better friends than writing a candidate a check from your PAC,” he said of her potential to donate thousands of dollars to other Democratic candidates, which could pay dividends for her should she potentially mount a run for higher office in the future — possibly for mayor, governor or senator.“It’s very smart.
It boosts her exposure.She’s using her political muscle to advance to the next step.”The creation of the political action committee comes as Menin, the daughter and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, scored a recent major public victory by successfully fighting against the tone-deaf Metropolitan Museum of Art honoring convicted antisemite fashion designer John Galliano.As council speaker, Menin has also served as a counterweight and check on democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
The council held hearings on the Mamdani administration’s botched rollout for administering the pied-a-terre tax and its rocky response to the recent Legionnaires’ disease outbreak on the Upper East Side.The panel of pols also will soon grill the mayor’s office for using a secret, encrypted messaging channel to peddle positive coverage to nearly 200 social-media influencers.Menin is already ...