PAC Spending in Council Races More Than Doubled, Fueled by Money from DoorDash, Airbnb and Uber

Independent expenditures in City Council races surged to $14.3 million, a record sum.

Originally published by THE CITY on July 2, 2025 at 3:51pm EDT

In a record-breaking season for outside spending in a New York City election, the City Council saw the sharpest surge, driven by special interest groups and corporations pushing back on efforts to expand business regulations. 

While total independent spending across all primary contests rose by 12.5% from 2021, spending in Council races more than doubled, jumping from $6.6 million to $14.3 million this year. Voters likely witnessed this deluge in the profusion of ads targeting contested Council races that jammed mailboxes and airwaves alike. 

Under New York State law, independent expenditure groups can spend money on advertisements supporting or opposing candidates’ campaigns, but cannot coordinate with the campaigns themselves.

Just under half of the total spending on these local races was put forth in support of incumbent candidates. In the 31 contested races, 20 incumbents prevailed. 

Airbnb was the single biggest spender on Council primaries, shelling out $2 million in support of 12 candidates through its group Affordable New York, which also spent just over $1.3 million opposing mayoral candidates Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, city Comptroller Brad Lander and former city Comptroller Scott Stringer. In 2022, the Council passed a law that heavily restricts short-term rentals, but a bill is pending that would permit some homeowners to list their property on Airbnb.

Uber came in second in total spending, shelling out $2.4 million across another 12 Council races. The Council is currently considering a bill that would make it harder to kick drivers off the platform.

Common Cause Executive Director Susan Lerner said the swell of outside spenders in this year’s Council election was unprecedented.

“We saw this kind of spending in the last two elections, but we are seeing it in an outsized way in 2025. When moneyed interests feel that they are not able to control the system, they are going to pour more money into other elections to sway,” says Lerner. 

Here’s a breakdown of where some of that money went, and how candidates backed by this wave of outside money fared.

Brooklyn

Bed-Stuy’s District 41 incumbent, Councilmember Darlene Mealy, was the beneficiary of $1,013,855 in independent advertising expenditures, the second-highest amount spent on behalf of any City Council candidate. Mealy — who faced eight opponents in the primary, none of whom received any outside spending — secured her seat with 65% of the final round votes.

Mealy’s top donors were ride-share company Uber, who contributed $334,684 via their Uber NY PAC, and New Yorkers for a Better Future 2025, which gave $257,215. The latter group’s top donor was billionaire hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman.

District 39 runner-up Maya Kornberg, senior research fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, received a $395,545 boost from outside money in her bid to unseat incumbent Shahana Hanif. The lion’s share of this funding came from Uber NY PAC, which spent over $250,000 on 14 separate ads supporting Kornberg. 

As THE CITY previously reported, Hanif is the lead sponsor on a bill to extend paid sick leave to delivery workers and co-sponsored a bill prohibiting driver account deactivations. 

Despite receiving just over $81,000 spent on her behalf, mostly from pro-development group Abundant New York, Hanif clinched the race with 70% of the district’s vote.

Queens

Outside spending flowed heavily to Queens’ District 28, where five challengers faced off to replace Council Speaker Adrienne Adams’ soon-to-be vacant seat. Tyrell Hankerson, Adams’ Chief of Staff, drew nearly $1 million in ad spending from nine independent expenditure groups, more than any other City Council candidate. Hankerson won with 59% of the vote.

Hankerson received backing from 9 independent groups, including Airbnb’s Affordable New York  and DoorDash-supported Local Economies Forward NY. As THE CITY reported last month, DoorDash was also the initial donor to a group supporting Adrienne Adams’ mayoral campaign.

In her bid to fill the empty District 21 seat, longtime community developer Shanel Thomas-Henry was helped by $395,055 from three independent groups, including two backed by pro-charter school interests and the Real Estate Board of New York. 

One of her challengers, Queens Democratic Party District Leader Yanna Henriquez, benefited from $881,248 from six groups. Uber accounted for nearly half of the total spending on Henriquez. Despite the flood of funding to support her candidacy, Henriquez was eliminated after the third round of ranked choice voting, and Thomas-Henry won the seat with 53% of the vote.

The Bronx/Manhattan

Independent expenditure groups poured more than $1.6 million into the Upper Manhattan/ South Bronx District 8 race to replace term-limited Councilmember Diana Ayala. About half of that money supported Ayala’s Chief of Staff, Elsie Encarnacion, who garnered a combined $820,680 in support from eight outside spending groups. 

Chief among them was Airbnb-backed group Affordable New York, helping Encarnacion win 58% of final round votes to replace her boss. 

Up until late May, Ending Homelessness & Building A Better NYC was the only independent expenditure group involved in the District 8 race, supporting candidate Wil López with $365,164 in early spending. Operated by Tomás Ramos, who managed social services nonprofit group Oyate, the local super PAC involved in seven City Council races was entirely funded by Wall Street financier Michael Jenkins.

Finishing second with 42% of the vote, López also received a $126,675 boost from New Yorkers For A Better Future, funded by lobbying firm Capitol Consulting. 

Affordable New York, DoorDash-funded Local Economies Forward and United Federation of Teachers-supported United for NYC’s Future entered the fray later in the race, supporting Encarnacion.

Third-place candidate Clarisa Alayeto, a former administrator at Dream Charter School, received $327,809 in aid from pro-charter school groups New Yorkers for A Balanced Albany and Moving New York Families Forward. 

In Lower Manhattan, outside spending committees representing the real estate industry and the landlord lobby spent $385,149 to oust Councilmember Chris Marte and support his challenger, lawyer Jess Coleman. Two groups supporting Marte, Ending Homelessness & Building A Better NYC and Downtown Independent Democrats, spent just over $25,000.

Marte won the race with 62% of the vote, with Elizabeth Lewinsohn, a former NYPD counterterrorism policy chief, coming in second and Coleman in a distant third. The election took place just a day after City Hall brokered a deal with Marte to save Elizabeth Street Garden by cancelling an affordable housing project for seniors that would be built on the site — and instead rezoning three lots to build future housing.

In District 12, nine groups including Affordable New York and New Yorkers for a Balanced Albany spent just under a million dollars to re-elect incumbent Councilmember Kevin Riley.

He faced little competition in the Northeastern Bronx district, which includes the key voting bloc of Co-op City. His challenger, ex-Councilmember Andy King, was removed from the same seat in 2023 after a series of ethics violations. Riley secured his seat with over 75% of the vote.