State Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar’s newly announced run for city comptroller is raising eyebrows in Big Apple political circles.
The first-term Queens representative — dubbed the “Lady in Red” for the signature crimson frocks she wears when joining Mayor Eric Adams at events across the city — is angling for the fiscal watchdog role that current Comptroller Brad Lander has used as a persistent thorn in Hizzoner’s side.
“Comptrollers often use their platform to run for mayor and they spend most of their tenure criticizing the mayor to make headlines,” Rajkumar said in an exclusive sit-down interview with The Post last week.
“I think that’s more [Lander’s style]. My goal is to make our programs work more efficiently.”
The Post spoke with more than a dozen political insiders, with some praising Rajkumar, and others seeing red flags about her “close friendship” with Adams as she angles for citywide office.
“She just jumps from one position to another trying to find her footing and wants to climb that political ladder,” one Democratic operative said, “plus she gives the mayor full throated support and that’s what he rewards.”
Rajkumar is well-known in the Big Apple for tagging along with Adams to dozens of public events, often far outside her southern Queens district. She even appears nearly 300 times on the mayor’s official website.
Recently, she stood by the mayor after he and the City Council hammered out the FY2025 budget, which drew the ire of lawmakers who had been working for weeks on the deal.
“I guess the Assemblymember was a part of negotiations. Who knew…” Council Member Diana Ayala sarcastically tweeted about the state pol’s appearance at an event celebrating the restoration of city library funding.
One Council source said that: “Her desperate attempt to ride the mayor’s coattails for higher office is awkward and sends a clear message to her constituents that she cares about everything except her job.”
The 41-year-old though brushed off the criticism.
”Being everywhere actually helps me serve my constituency,” Rajkumar said.
“Also, Queens is a historically neglected and overlooked area of the city,” she said. “I’m proud of all of the attention I’ve been able to bring to this district and the resources.”
Rajkumar said this as well as her “close friendship” with Adams — whom she admitted to speaking with multiple times a day, including twice right before her chat with The Post — would give her an added advantage in the role of comptroller.
“New Yorkers don’t like to see their leaders squabbling and fighting,” she said, adding, ”New Yorkers want to see leaders working together to solve problems — and I will be able to do that very effectively with the Adams administration.”
The comptroller position is touted as the city’s fiscal watchdog and historically has served as a foil for the mayor — a role that the lefty Lander has used as a platform to publicly criticize Adams, notably on the costly migrant crisis.
Lander rejected a controversial $432 million no-bid contract with DocGo for migrant housing housing, moved to strip the mayor’s power to strike such emergency deals and once called the administration “cruel” for evicting migrants after 60 days in shelters.
Rajkumar, when pressed by The Post about whether she’d hold Adams to account, said there have been plenty of issues the two haven’t seen eye-to-eye on but declined to detail her “private” disagreements with the mayor.
“I believe I can hold them to account because what it’s about is us working together to make the city work better for everybody,” she said. “He is someone I can always go to and present ideas to and discuss them with him.”
Rajkumar, who was born in Tarrytown to two doctors from India who moved to the US in the 1970s, launched her political career in 2011 as a Lower Manhattan district leader where she said she became a fixture in the neighborhood.
After two failed runs for Council and Assembly, she became in 2020 the first Indian-American woman elected to the state Legislature — after she moved to southern Queens, which prompted City & State to criticize her and other candidates as “carpetbaggers.”
Her wardrobe of 50-plus crimson outfits — including running gear — came later in her career and garnered attention as the so-called lady in red.
Rajkumar contended that Lander was more interested in politics than policy — although she remained vague on her own platform, saying her focus would be on safeguarding pension funds, reviewing city agencies, specifically NYCHA, and to “fix government inefficiency.”
“I look for partners in government, because I believe that we can better serve the people. And I think my very strong relationships with the mayor, the governor, and so many state legislators, and city legislators is going to help me in the role of real change happens through collaboration,” she said.
But one Assembly source said some state and city pols are frustrated at Rajkumar’s appearing to take credit for some initiatives, such as her appearance alongside the mayor at the city budget announcement and her trying to own the state “Smokeout Act” cracking down on illicit pot shops.
“I just think that she’s lacking the sensitivity and ability to read the room,” the Assemblymember said, adding that in order to mount a successful bid for comptroller, Rajkumar “has some restoring to do.”
Still, the source added: “I’ve got to give her credit where it’s due. She works hard. She’s everywhere and aggressive.”
While Rajkumar believes she’s armored herself for a potentially bruising race against Lander, should he make a run for mayor as expected, she could be facing a losing battle with fellow Democrats Mark Levine and Antonio Reynoso — both rumored to be eyeing the role if its up for grabs.
“She is a very nice person, but impossible to see this not end up in a large defeat at the hands of either Brad Lander or Mark Levine,” another Council source told The Post.
“It takes years to build up the type of support that you need to run for citywide office. She is a new Assembly Member in a handpicked district whose major ally is a deeply unpopular mayor. Not a winning formula.”
Her harshest critic called the Adams-Rajkumar pairing a “carpetbagger attracting another carpetbagger” and said she’s using her “full-throated support” to ascend the political ladder.
“She’s not even trying to find relevance at these press conferences, it’s just that all attention is good attention — then the mayor can stick it to Brad,” a Council source said.
The mayor earlier this month defended Rajkumar’s presence at so many of his press conferences, saying it was a mark of her dedication and noting he, too, was criticized for his “omnipresence” during his time as a state Senator.
“She has clearly seen the vision of this administration and has been an advocate based on our real belief of leaning into working class people,” Adams said.
Some constituents contend Rajkumar is not only neglecting her district, but doing so in her figurative backyard.
An abandoned truck trailer languished for weeks outside Rajkumar’s district office along Woodhaven Boulevard, agitated locals complained on Facebook.
“She has been busy taking photos with Adams instead of taking care of the neighborhood!” one local wrote, noting they contacted Rajkumar’s office for weeks.
Rajkumar told The Post the trailer has now finally been removed.
Other sources were more supportive of Rajkumar.
“I think she’s her own person,” one lawmaker said.
Council Member Joann Ariola (R-Queens) said she would welcome a change from an “activist” comptroller such as Lander, who declined to comment for this story.
“It would be beneficial for the entire city to have an actual civil servant holding New York’s purse strings,” Ariola said.
— Additional reporting by Vaughn Goldenand Craig McCarthy.