Mark Levine Wins NYC Comptroller Race

Mark Levine is moving up the chain of municipal command, after winning the race for NYC Comptroller on Nov. 4.

Levine, who is wrapping up a term as Manhattan Borough President, will replace the outgoing Brad Lander. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, currently a state senator representing Manhattan’s West Side, will succeed Levine as Borough President.

Levine pulled in 75 percent of the vote against Conservative Party candidate Peter Kefalas, who pulled in roughly 23 percent. A Unity Party candidate, Ismael Malave Perez, accrued 2.1 percent.

The comptroller-elect acknowledged his win in rather concise fashion on X.com, simply writing: “Thank you New York City! Now let’s get to work.”

Levine did, however, also praise various politicians that he’d either be working alongside or cooperating on transitions with: mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani (“We both love this city”), his predecessor Lander (“Grateful for all you’ve done . . . to help move this city forward”), and his Borough President successor Hoylman-Sigal (“He will be truly excellent”).

Levine defeated Brooklyn City Council member Justin Brannan in June’s Democratic primary for the role, by 58 percent to 41 percent.

The comptroller essentially serves as New York City’s chief financial officer. Levine will now be responsible for managing the city’s $300-billion pension fund and auditing city agencies, which will now be overseen by Mamdani.

The comptroller role is also second in the line of mayoral succession after the NYC Public Advocate, which means that Levine would ascend to the mayoralty if either Mamdani or Public Advocate-elect Jumaane Williams were incapacitated or removed.

Many of Levine’s priorities as comptroller will, unsurprisingly enough, be an extension of his priorities as Manhattan Borough President—namely the construction of affordable housing. Levine was a key proponent of the City of Yes zoning-reform package, which passed last December, and is set to create 100,000 new housing units in the borough.

This March, Levine unveiled a proposal called the NYC Affordability Fund, which was a key part of his comptroller campaign. According to a summary of the plan, the fund “aims to address the housing crisis by investing up to $2.5 billion to create or preserve 75,000 affordable homes over the next decade.”

“Key proposals include establishing the fund through Economically Targeted Investments, implementing a ‘Housing Is Core’ agenda, removing investment limits on affordable housing, and eliminating the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit cap,” the summary adds. “Mark Levine, as Comptroller, is committed to ensuring strong returns for pension funds while tackling the affordability crisis in New York City.”

Outside of housing affordability, Levine campaigned on the following array of issues: opposing President Donald Trump’s federal funding cuts to NYC, improving NYC’s mental health system, improving public safety, “ensuring access to a high-quality education,” improving quality of life, paying human service organizations on time, accessing affordable healthcare, improving transit, battling corruption, supporting small businesses, and mitigating climate change.

Levine lives in Upper Manhattan with his wife and two children, and formerly served as a City Council member representing District 7, which encompasses parts of the Upper West Side and neighborhoods such as Morningside Heights. Before his time in government, he worked as a math and science teacher in the South Bronx.

Levine is also proudly multilingual, speaking Spanish and Hebrew fluently, and says that he is learning Greek and French. He holds a BA in physics from Haverford College in Pennsylvania, as well as an MA in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.