David Orkin is an immigrant workers’ rights attorney whose work at Make the Road New York has centered on advocacy for low-wage workers and immigrant families across Queens. He supported nearly all of Citizens Union’s reform agenda, except for open primaries, but expressed genuine openness to further dialogue with CU and a desire to build an ongoing working relationship with reform-oriented organizations once in office. As the interview developed, Citizens Union found him to be a thoughtful candidate with substantive policy thinking on the issues facing his district. Citizens Union prefers David Orkin in this race.

Jenifer Rajkumar is a civil rights attorney and the first South Asian woman elected to the New York State Legislature. She has passed notable legislation since her first election in 2020, including making Diwali a school holiday and her Smoke-Out Act targeting illegal smoke shops. She recently introduced several bills related to ethics and lobbying. She supported all of Citizens Union’s reform issues. However, Citizens Union was troubled by her evasive, defensive handling of questions during her interview about her close public association with former Mayor Eric Adams. While in office, Mayor Adams was indicted on federal corruption charges and later had them dropped through a reported quid-pro-quo agreement with the Department of Justice. When pressed about Mayor Adams’ record on corruption and the indictment, Rajkumar declined to clearly address the issue. Her evasiveness gave Citizens Union pause about her commitment to the government accountability and ethics standards central to our mission.