Prominent lawyer Jim Walden declares run for mayor

Strong support from municipal retirees, FDNY

November 25, 2024 Mary Frost

Noted attorney Jim Walden on Monday officially launched his campaign for mayor of New York City. Photo: Mary Frost, Brooklyn Eagle

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DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — Noted attorney Jim Walden on Monday officially launched his campaign for mayor of New York City, receiving strong support from many of the groups and individuals he has represented in court, often pro bono, including city retirees and firefighters.

The launch event was held in Cadman Plaza Park, across the street from the courthouse in Downtown Brooklyn, the scene of many battles from his early days as a prosecutor with the Eastern District of New York. After stints with white collar law firms, Walden started his own boutique firm Walden Macht Haran & Williams.

“I chose this site to launch my campaign because of that building,” he said, pointing across the park to the federal courthouse. “Because for ten years I worked alongside the brave men and women of the NYPD, the DEA and the FBI, going after the mob and clearing communities in this city of Mafia influence. And so this place has special meaning to me.”

Noted attorney Jim Walden on Monday officially launched his campaign for mayor of New York City. Photo: Will Hasty, Brooklyn Eagle

Walden added that Nov. 25 was also the 241st anniversary of Evacuation Day — the day that General George Washington came back into the city after seven years and chased out the British.

“And I hope in a way today is our Evacuation Day, because today is the first step in our journey to rid corruption from City Hall forever — and most importantly, make city government a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.”

Supporters praise integrity and ‘grit’

Former Gov. David Paterson, Walden’s chief campaign strategist, gave the keynote speech, praising Walden’s 30-year record of fighting for New Yorkers as a federal prosecutor, and working for communities across the city.

Integrity, accountability, dependability and “grit” were some of the words used by Walden’s supporters at the event, including Marianne Pizzitola, president of the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees, which represents roughly 250,000 retired municipal civil servants, including firefighters, transit workers and police officers.

Despite coming from humble beginnings — his father was a truck dispatcher who went on welfare — Walden achieved his present success through hard work and integrity, his supporters said.

“He is a person with grit. He doesn’t stand on ceremony. He is not self-absorbed. He cares. Like us, he came from the school of hard knocks—and he picked himself up, dusted himself off, and kept moving forward,” Pizzitola told the crowd gathered in front of the WWII Memorial in the park.

Walden’s firm has been fighting tenaciously in court to protect the traditional Medicare the city promised its workers before they retired. For ten years, city administrations have been attempting to shift the retirees into a less-expensive Medicare Advantage plan that provides fewer choices, Pizzitola said.

Marianne Pizzitola, president of the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees. Photo: Mary Frost, Brooklyn Eagle

She described the case of FDNY firefighter Robert Bentkowski, who suffers from lung and kidney disease and needs highly specialized transplant care. “The doctor and hospital that takes care of him does not accept Medicare Advantage,” Pizzitola said. “When he called Aetna they told him to find another doctor and hospital.”

Walden’s firm has been winning “injunction after injunction,” she said. “We hope we will win. But hope is not a strategy. We knew we needed someone in City Hall that would shut down— once and for all — the city’s plan to fix its budget problems on the backs of retired public servants.”

Out of all the mayoral candidates she spoke to, only Walden would commit to restoring retirees’ Medicare, and he put it in writing, Pizzitola said. “Guess what? No other candidate stepped up or reached out. This is precisely why we support Jim.”

Former Gov. David Paterson, Walden’s chief campaign strategist. Photo: Mary Frost, Brooklyn Eagle

Putting FDNY first

Retired FDNY Chief of Department James Leonard, a decorated 40-year FDNY veteran and first responder during 9/11, called Walden “a hard-working lawyer with an impeccable reputation,” and “an honest man who believes in truth and justice.”

“Jim is the first mayoral candidate I know in my 45 years in the Fire Department who is putting the interest of the FDNY first,” Leonard said. “He’s already committed to re-opening various companies that have been closed by past administrations.“

Walden has asked Leonard to chair a committee that will pick the next fire commissioner. “I will give him three names, with my committee, and he will pick one. But it will be based on competency, fairness and doing the right thing to serve the people of the city,” Leonard said.

Jonovia Chase, a trans community activist and filmmaker. Photo: Mary Frost, Brooklyn Eagle

Right, left and center

Walden has not been an active member of any political party for years, and describes himself as leaning right fiscally and left socially.

This was reflected by the diversity of those pledging their support on Monday. Speakers included David Heafitz, a Jewish community activist and businessman who identified himself as very conservative; Jonovia Chase, a trans community activist and filmmaker; Kiran Reddy Parvathala, Indian community activist and a tech consultant; Molly Bloom, author of the 2014 memoir “Molly’s Game;” and Sarju Patel, college basketball player named to Academic All-Ivy Team.

“I reject the false choices offered by my friends on the extremes of our political discourse — whether right or left – that we must engage in bloodsport politics, that we must vilify each other, and that we cannot have different ideas and approaches and remain true to our common American values,” he said.

Molly Bloom, author of the 2014 memoir “Molly’s Game.” Photo: Mary Frost, Brooklyn Eagle

Also speaking in support were friends and family — attorney Michael J. Miller, one of Walden’s oldest friends and best man at his wedding; and Walden’s son Lucas, a college freshman.

While Walden may not be a household name right now, he believes he will be soon, he told the Brooklyn Eagle.

The name recognition will come when “people connect my name with the work that I’ve done that benefited them,” he said. These include his lawsuit against the Department of Education for failure to protect bullying victims, securing emergency repairs for NYCHA residents, stopping illegal parkland transfers by the city, restoring food stamps to thousands of residents, and protecting healthcare in Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens during the fight by SUNY to close Long Island College Hospital, among others.

“When people meet me and talk to me they’re going to realize that I’m not a career politician and what that means. I can actually govern fairly based on policies and principles, not based on who gave me money.”