Manhattan Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Jerrold Nadler are feuding over who deserves credit for delivering the first leg of the 2nd Avenue subway line that opened in 2017 and runs through the Upper East Side.
Maloney and Nadler, former allies, are pitted against each other in a Democratic primary race after their congressional districts were combined.
Maloney, 76, who has represented the East Side for decades, is most associated with advocating for the $4.4 billion subway line — a century in the making — that stretches from 63rd Street to 96th Street, with stops at 72nd, 86th and 96th streets.
A planned $6.9 billion extension would add stops at 106th Street, 116th Street and 125th Street, supported by Gov. Kathy Hochul and President Biden. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo took the first inaugural ride on the line.
Court-ordered reapportionment merged the East Side and West sides of Manhattan into one 12th Congressional District, triggering a primary between East Side gal Maloney against West Side guy Nadler.
At a recent forum with senior citizens on the Upper East Side, Nadler, 75, who noted he’s served on the House Transportation Committee for years, told his new constituents that he helped deliver funds for the subway line as a long-serving member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
“What you may not know about is my role in the 2nd Avenue subway,” Nadler said during the discussion at Inspir Carnegie Hill, according to a videotape of it provided to The Post.
“Back in 2005 when Carolyn came to me as a member of the Transportation Committee as I was and asked me to get funds for the 2nd Avenue subway, I did it. In 2005 and again in 2010 and again in 2015 and again in 2020.”
The funding for the capital projects, he said, comes in five-year intervals.
But Maloney accused Nadler of stealing credit for a project he had “nothing” to do with.
“Nadler’s claiming credit for that? He did nothing. Nothing,” Maloney told The Post during a brief interview. “Here’s a man claiming credit for a woman’s work.”
Maloney’s campaign spokesman Bob Liff later also issued a detailed statement disputing Nadler’s subway funding claim.
“Jerry Nadler had no significant role in the planning or funding of the Second Avenue subway, which Carolyn shepherded to completion after 100 years of talking and no action. He was not at the ground breaking, he was not at the ribbon cutting, and when he was asked to sign onto a letter supporting the project, he declined because he wanted funding for his rail freight tunnel, which has yet to be built,” Liff said.
“He is not the first man to try and take credit for the work of women in leadership, but there is a reason Maloney has been ranked in the top three most effective members of Congress, while he is ranked significantly lower. Once again, he knows better than that. The word chutzpah comes to mind,” the Maloney spokesman said.
During a separate discussion with the same group, Maloney said, “I fought for the 2nd Avenue subway … I’m proud of having built the 2nd Avenue subway.”
Nadler’s camp insisted on Thursday that he played an integral part in the process.
”Any suggestion that Jerry Nadler didn’t play a leading role in delivering the 2nd Avenue Subway is as silly as it is demonstrably false. It doesn’t take more than a cursory Google search to reveal that as a senior Member on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Jerry secured millions in funding for the 2nd Avenue Subway,” said Nadler co-campaign manager Julian Gerson.
“Jerry spent decades fighting for the 2nd Avenue Subway and standing up for 9/11 first responders and survivors–telling New Yorkers otherwise is both baffling and fundamentally untrue.”
One transit advocate said there’s enough credit to go around for building the first phase of the $4.4 billion subway line.
While Maloney is most closely associated with the subway line because it’s been in her district, other members of the New York congressional delegation including Nadler had advocated for it as well, said John Kaehny, executive director of Reinvent Albany, who previously worked for Transportation Alternatives.
“They probably all helped with it. It’s a huge project. It takes a village,” Kaehny said.
“Maloney and Nadler probably worked together on it before they became enemies. They were friends,” he said.
Felicia Park-Rogers, director of regional infrastructure projects at the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, vouched for Nadler’s role in helping secure federal assistance for the Second Avenue subway.
“In Congress, he was the senior Northeastern Democrat on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. His advocacy and leadership for increased funding for mass transit and more intelligent transportation planning are why New York was successful in getting funding for the 2nd Avenue Subway and the Gateway Tunnel Project, two of the most important projects in the nation,” Park-Rogers said in a statement provided via the Nadler campaign.
Lawyer Suraj Patel is the third candidate in the race.
