Primary Day is June 23 and there’s a ton on the ballot, including our US Rep seat, state senate and assembly seat and state comptroller. Follow along to see mini profiles of each of the candidates. First up: David Siffert for Assembly District 66. Deborah Glick held the seat for the past 36 years.

David Siffert has been building up to a career as a legislator pretty much since forever and their campaign website (David is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns) is about a robust as you will find, with detailed explanations on each of 18 platform issues. But when asked to highlight just one, David picked the water-cooler topic du jour: AI, jobs and what the future looks like for today’s 20-somethings.

“Everyone we know is having these conversations, but policymakers are not taking this seriously,” David (age 42) said about the threat that artificial intelligence is making across all sorts of career tracks. Their example: why are server farms paying less for energy that the rest of us? “There’s a lot coming down the pike but most people view it as an inevitability. There are solutions and it’s much easier to find them when you break it down. You really have to understand what you are trying to protect.”

A lifelong Manhattanite, David went to Horace Mann starting in kindergarten, University of Chicago for undergrad then back to Manhattan for law school at NYU. (David’s favorite connection to Tribeca is their days in high school frequenting Tribecan Michael Dorf’s The Knitting Factory when it was on Leonard — especially for three floors of ska.)

David said they did not get their dream job until 12 years later, when they became legal director for STOP — the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, which advocates for privacy and aims to end government surveillance — which they quit to run for office (they do have two other part-time gigs, including teaching a state legislative externship where the students are paired with legislators and help write bills). All that bill writing over the years led to this.

“It’s part of a scheme I have — I believe the state is the most powerful entity in the country,” David said, “but it is under-resourced. There are so many things we can do to protect New Yorkers. I am running because we are leaving too much on the table. The state legislature has a bad case of inertia and I want to change that.”

How long have you lived in the district?
This August will be 20 years! I was born-and-raised in Manhattan – born at Mount Sinai Hospital and raised in Morningside Heights. I have lived in Manhattan my whole life (other than four years at college), and I moved into the district immediately after college to attend law school.

Married? Partnered?
My wife Marissa is a therapist.

Kids? Pets?
I have a very cute 2-year-old!

What do you do for a living?
I am a civil rights lawyer and law professor. Until I decided to run for office, I was the legal director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. I am also an adjunct professor of clinical law at NYU School of Law and I am the founding executive director of NYU Law’s State Government Initiative.

What are the first three issues you will tackle if you win the election?
1. Make housing more affordable. I want to build more affordable and supportive housing, expand state housing voucher programs, have the state and non-profits collaborate to build social housing, and fund it all in part with a tax on vacant residential units.

2. Protect immigrant New Yorkers. I have been to the Texas border to free detained families, and I have gone door-to-door in the district to local businesses to prepare them for ICE raids. I was on the policy subcommittee for New York for All, the bill which would make New York a sanctuary state, and that bill would be a top priority. I would also prioritize ensuring a right to counsel for anyone facing deportation.

3. Regulate AI & big tech. AI poses countless risks if we don’t have competent policymakers in place to regulate it. The federal government won’t do it, and the state government does not have the necessary expertise. I have spent years writing legislation on tech policy, and I’m running for office to make sure we actually pass it.

Who is the first person you will hire – or rather what is the first staff position you will fill?
My first hire will be my chief of staff, who will help me hire the rest of my team. My other top priority position will be a constituent services director.

What are the three most important issues for New Yorkers right now?
At the national level, America’s rising authoritarianism threatens our fundamental way of life, and is especially threatening for immigrant New Yorkers.

At the local level, the housing crisis threatens to make New York, and especially our neighborhoods, unaffordable for most people.

And immediately on the horizon is a technology crisis, caused by unregulated AI, which threatens our privacy, civil rights, environment, education system, labor market, and could even pose existential risks to our society.

Why are you running for office? What do you hope to change, or do better?
Through my work at the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, my class at NYU, and my local community work, I’ve written over 100 bills for the state legislature. Some have passed, but more often than not I watch them get picked apart or just ignored, and it’s very frustrating!

Because I teach about the state legislature at NYU, I know how it works quite well. I’ve seen my friends who are legislators pass important bills, and I’ve seen how they do it and what makes them successful. But the work I do is much easier to ignore, since I don’t have a seat at the table.

This year, I had a couple particularly frustrating experiences of bills not passing, or getting vetoed, for what I thought were particularly bad reasons. That coincided with our assemblymember announcing her retirement, and I decided to run to replace her!

Most-frequented restaurants:
In the Village, Delice & Sarrasin and Peacefood. Further South, Bodhi Kosher and Benares.

For special occasions, I go to:
Avant Garden

Sweet-tooth satisfaction:
Delice de Bernay, Confectionery, Gelateria Gentile, Gotan, Gelatoville, Stick With Me chocolates

What’s your drink order?
Mocha, black sesame latte, or a matcha of some sort

I usually order in from Soothr Thai Noodle Bar and I always order massaman curry or Punjabi Deli’s large plate

The last non-essential item I bought:
Probably tickets to either a punk show or an off-Broadway show.

I’m so glad The Bean [a coffeeshop on East 3rd Street] is in the district, because without it I wouldn’t have a campaign office.

How I stay fit:
Walking back-and-forth across the district for events and canvassing!

Where I get beautiful:
Astor Place Hairstylists

What’s the district’s best-kept secret?
The people! So much history comes from this district, from politics to civil rights to music to theater to visual art and more. And it’s living memory – there are people here who lived through the Stonewall riots, led the fight for abortion rights, witnessed and participated in the invention of pop art, of punk, of disco, the folk explosion, and more. A few of these people are famous, but most aren’t!

A recent enthusiasm:
I’m going back-and-forth between my belated discovery of “Rebecca” by Daphne de Maurier and my belated discovery of the Great British Baking Show.

Rainy-day activity:
Doing arts and crafts with my toddler

I take out-of-towners to:
Bookstores! In Tribeca, Words on Warren and the Mysterious Bookshop. In SoHo, Spiral Books. In the Village, of course, The Strand.

Pet peeve:
Ok, this is a very niche and strange one, but I really hate the feel of high friction fabric. For example, the idea of pulling off a fleece makes my skin crawl, and I have trouble sitting on those microfiber movie theater seats. I have absolutely no explanation for this, and I have yet to meet anyone else who feels this way! Maybe I should have given a more normal example like people who walk too slowly next to each other and block the whole sidewalk?

A doctor I’d recommend:
Kathryn Ross, Tribeca pediatrician extraordinaire!

My most memorable celebrity sighting:
I was canvassing a couple weeks ago, and someone already knew all about me and my campaign. We had a great, long conversation, and after it was over and she walked away, I realized it was Busy Philipps.

Tribeca could use more affordable housing and fewer luxury condos.

If I could change one thing about the district:
Make housing more affordable so that we could have a more diverse group of residents.

A business I’d like to have here:
Tribeca needs a vegan restaurant!

A business I miss:
The Knitting Factory

Proof that change is good:
I can take my 2-year-old around the neighborhood without being worried for their safety

A new building I admire: I hate to say this because it was way too much money to pay for a PATH station, but let’s be honest: the Oculus is a cool-looking building.

A new building I don’t: Maybe this is obvious, but I hate all of these skinny super-tall luxury skyscrapers with no affordable housing and very few actual residents. We used to have a real skyline! *shakes fist*

Best reason to go above 14th Street:
David’s Bagels on 15th Street.

What’s your favorite park in the city?
Elizabeth Street Garden

If I couldn’t live here, I’d live in…
Tokyo

I wish you had asked me about:
Chocolate, punk rock, the New York Liberty, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the procedural rules of the New York State Assembly.