Brian Lairn on WNYC, and now that we've run in 2025, it's time to take a look at the next major elections taking place this year. Today, mayor of New York, tomorrow,

governor of New Jersey. You know, the year after presidential elections is usually the most

interesting in local politics because that's when we elect the mayor of New York and the

governor of New Jersey. So we're going to preview the mayoral race right now. We're

going to preview the New Jersey governor's race around this time tomorrow. Will New Yorkers

unseat Mayor Adams after a year ridden with scandal and corruption indictment surrounding him

and his appointees? Will they judge him as a success even on his own terms?

There are seven candidates already hoping to unseat the mayor.

In June, citizens across the five boroughs will vote in the Democratic primary,

often when the big knife fight takes place, because generally, generally, not always,

whoever gets the Democratic nomination wins the mayoralty.

Of course, we did elect Rudy Giuliani twice in the 90s.

Then Michael Bloomberg, who ran remember first as a Republican, and then he was an

independent three times. and then Eric Adams who

yes is a Democrat but ran against the progressive wing in the party so it's not a lock that New York

City which is very blue in national politics context is necessarily going to elect a liberal Democratic mayor or

that Adams is going to lose a Democratic primary. So joining me to help kick off our coverage

of the New York City mayoral race and the issues front and center facing New Yorkers right

now is Ben Max. He's the host of the Max Politics podcast and executive

editor and program director at New York Law School's Center for New York City Law. Ben, welcome back to

WNYC. Happy New Year. Thanks for having me, Brian. Happy New Year. And before we get into what

the segment is actually about, as I just set up,

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