2025 Primary Election

Vanessa Aronson, a former diplomat and the current Director of Strategy at the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, is again seeking the Council seat she pursued in 2017. She also serves as president of the Lexington Democratic Club. Aronson’s platform focuses on reform, aiming to end pay-to-play politics, increase transparency in government operations, improve the city budget process, and modernize local elections. In her interview she reiterated support for several CU-backed bills and offered a compelling argument for why this moment in local democracy demands her leadership. Citizens Union prefers her in the Council District 4 primary.

Ben Wetzler has worked for the State’s affordable housing agency in policy positions for the past decade and has a background in performance data analysis for state agencies. His interview demonstrated a deep understanding of policy and government in multiple areas, including in reform issues. Even when he differed from Citizens Union on some policies – like the top two primary system – he proposed alternative approaches aimed at the same objectives. Citizens Union was impressed by the breadth of knowledge, command of the nuts and bolts of government, and commitment for reform. We rank him second in this race.

Virginia Maloney is a product manager at Meta. The daughter of former Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, she previously worked for the NYC Economic Development Corporation and Deloitte. She emphasizes her service in city government under both the Bloomberg and de Blasio administrations and prioritizes making government more efficient by leveraging technology. Maloney fully supports CU’s agenda except for open primaries. Citizens Union values her experience and alignment with our platform and looks forward to her continued engagement in the community. We rank her third in this race.

Faith Bondy is a white-collar criminal-defense attorney who also serves on the boards of several civic associations and heads the Tilden Democratic Club. She told CU she had never planned to run for office but entered the race because she sees a serious crisis of confidence in government. Her responses on reform were mixed. She offered a clear rationale for supporting open primaries, arguing they would broaden participation, but she also favored retaining the police commissioner’s final say over disciplinary decisions and the Council Speaker’s strong control of the legislative process, contending that those officials would otherwise be weakened. At the same time, Bondy supports expanding the Council’s advice-and-consent role, which she believes would encourage greater dialogue between the Council and the Mayor before appointments. Even when she differed with Citizens Union, she engaged thoughtfully with the issues and demonstrated deep civic involvement that would serve her well on the Council. We rank her fourth in this race.

Rachel Storch is the Chief Operating Officer at Fifth Avenue Synagogue and a former Missouri State Representative. She has a solid track record on government reform, working on issues like nonpartisan redistricting and use of public resources while in Missouri. She presented a good grasp of policy and supported all of CU’s questionnaire reform items. However, Storch chose not to participate in New York City’s well-established campaign finance public matching funds program and instead raised significant private funds—which lifted the fundraising and spending caps for all other candidates. She told CU that, although she remains a strong supporter of the program, she wanted East Siders to learn more about her record. She did not, however, acknowledge the effect her decision had on the other candidates. For these reasons, we rank her fifth.