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Corey’s ‘1 New York’ mayoral-run tryout
CoJo may have found his campaign mojo — in the depths of a deadly pandemic.
City Council Speaker Corey Johnson is dry-running a 2021 mayoral campaign slogan — “We Are One New York” — in scores of TV appearances, social-media posts and official messaging, council insiders and political experts say.
“It’s obviously a campaign slogan,” longtime Democratic political consultant Hank Sheinkopf told The Post. “It’s a kind of New York nationalism and something that is required right now.”
“I have heard a lot of rumblings about it . . . . It kind of became evident that they were probably testing it out as a slogan,” a council staffer said. “I’ve had five or six conversations with people who work in the City Council about it.”
Johnson’s use of the phrase has exploded recently.
In at least seven different COVID-era cable-news appearances, Johnson has reminded viewers, “We are one New York.” In many cases, he raises his index finger in a “1” gesture. On social media Johnson has incorporated the hashtag #OneNewYork in dozens of posts across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook in recent weeks. Several videos of CoJo from the NYCCouncil YouTube page include “One New York” in the caption.
“We are one New York. We have to come together. We have to help each other. We have to get through this together,” he implored to MSNBC host Chris Hayes in late March in a clip typical of his other statements.
Johnson’s staff is seeding the slogan across their social-media feeds as well, including chief of staff Erik Bottcher, community liaison Howard Pollack and special assistant Keith Edwards.
Since joining the City Council in 2014, the 38-year-old Johnson has had a meteoric rise, becoming the chamber’s top lawmaker in 2018.
He has made no effort to hide ambitions for a 2021 mayoral run, raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations for the nascent effort.
He has also jabbed at Mayor de Blasio, telling The Post that Hizzoner moved too slowly on enacting shelter-in-place orders.