Crain’s: Primary night winners and losers

September 13, 2017 11:59 AM

Excepted from Crain's New York Business article "Primary night winners and losers (not just the candidates)." 

"Winners

3. Hotel Trades Council. The 32,000-member union is a fraction the size of more prominent labor organizations 1199 SEIU or 32BJ SEIU, but punches well above its weight thanks to an efficient and aggressive political arm. All 26 council candidates it endorsed triumphed Tuesday night, roughly half of them in competitive contests. It also ran independent expenditure operations to promote six of those contenders (including Moya, Cumbo and Alicka Ampry-Samuel), all of whom won by larger-than-expected margins.

As such, the union stands to be an even bigger player than in the current council, especially as 1199's political operation has faded. Hotel Trades has already gotten the city to embark on an anti-Airbnb campaign, persuaded the council to ban conversions of hotels rooms to residential units and shaped the rezoning of Midtown East. Look for it to play a key role in picking the next council speaker—and winning more union-friendly policy on transient buildings for the next four years."

Read the full article on Crain's.