For six years, Erik Bottcher has served as Chief of Staff to Council Speaker Corey Johnson (D-District 3).  Though-out that time, we have seen Corey espouse neoliberal attitudes toward social, economic, and legal issues dividing and neglecting large segments of our City.  So intertwined with Corey, Erik even floated test balloons of campaign slogans for Corey, before Corey’s mayoral aspirations imploded following his racist defense of the NYPD.  Even though Erik has been in a position to help shape better Government policy, we have never seen those better ideas from Erik show up in Corey’s policies. When you have a seat at the table but remain silent, are you then complicit?

Prior to that, Erik worked as a community liaison for Governor Cuomo’s office as a time when Gov. Cuomo was shredding the social safety net with a large round of Medicaid cuts that led to hospital closings.  If Erik ever had a problem with how Gov. Cuomo has enacted neoliberal Government policy, we never heard it.

Before his State job, Erik had his start as a community liaison in former Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s office.  His formative, political job was in the office of a neoliberal ally to billionaire mayor, Michael Bloomberg.  During that time, Council Speaker Quinn fully-backed controversial Bloomberg administration policies, like the NYPD’s unconstitutional and racist use of stop-and-frisk, but we never heard Erik denounce any of the objectionable policies emanating from the Bloomberg-Quinn administration.

As the City recovers from a public health disaster, we cannot return to the neoliberalism that exacerbated racial disparities in our City.  We cannot go back to the failed leadership that brought us to this breaking point.

In June 2021, we need a leader like Marni Halasa, who is not from the political class.  Her campaign represents the attempt by an average person, outside of the political establishment, to run for office.