NYC NOW - Midday News: Congressman Mike Lawler Rules Out NY Governor Bid, Judges Decline to Extend Interim NJ U.S. Attorney, and Plainfield Rebuilds After Deadly Flooding

Episode Date: July 23, 2025

Representative Mike Lawler says he won’t run for New York governor next year, opting instead to seek a third term in Congress. Meanwhile, a panel of judges declined to extend interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba’s term in New Jersey as she awaits a Senate vote on her possible full-time appointment. Plus, after record rainfall and flash flooding killed two people in Plainfield, New Jersey, the city is working to rebuild homes and businesses. Jazz Clayton-Hunt, chief of staff to the mayor of Plainfield, joins us to talk about the recovery efforts.

Welcome to NYC now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Wednesday, July 23rd. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. Congress member Mike Lawler will not run for New York governor next year. Devil YMIC's John Campbell reports. The Hudson Valley Republican had been weighing a challenge to Democratic Governor Kathy Hokel. But on Fox and Friends, he said he'll run for a third term in Congress instead. I've decided the right thing to do for me and my family, and my district is to run for re-election.

Governor Hockel is seeking a second full term in 2026. Lawler had traveled across the state in recent months, making his pitch to Republican leaders. Now, his decision could clear the way for a fellow House Republican to enter the race. Representative Elise Stefonic has been teasing a run of her own. She says she'll make an announcement after this year's general. election. Back and forth between the Trump administration and judges over who will serve as New Jersey's top federal prosecutor continues, a panel of judges declined to extend interim U.S.

attorney Alina Haba's term while she waits for the Senate to vote on her potential full-time appointment. Federal law limits the term of interim U.S. attorneys to 120 days. Hobbit began her tenure in March. The judges instead appointed Habba's first assistant as her successor, but Attorney General Pamela Bondi later posted to social media blasting that decision as the work of rogue judges. She says her office has, quote, removed the appointed attorney. The White House says it will continue to put for a hobas appointment. 79 with sunshine right now, mostly sunny and 83 for a high, warmer tomorrow with strong winds and then really hot on Friday. Stay close. There's more after the break.

Last week, a storm brought a record rainfall to parts of the region, flash flooding in Plainfield, New Jersey. Killed at least two people in damaged homes and businesses. Now, since then, the city has been putting the pieces back together. Joining us now is the chief of staff to the mayor of Plainfield's office, Jazz Clayton Hunt. Jazz, good morning. How much rain did Plainfield get, and what was the impact? Good morning, Michael. The rains came and went, I would say very quickly.

it was almost impossible to measure the height of the rain that actually fell, but it was so much that the flood basins that we had were filled to capacity and over, it flooded, overflooded. Water went into the basement of numerous residents across the city. We're still digging out, you know, people are still feeling the after effects of that. Many basements are still flooded. The waters have mostly receded, but people are still have, you know, still have water sitting

in their basements that they're trying to get rid of. So it was a tremendous amount of rain that fell during that storm over a matter of a few hours. Jazz, tell us how the city is recovering. How is Plainfield recovering now that the devastation, at least the rainfall part of it, is done for now. How is this city recovering? Well, you know, it is a tremendous cleanup effort.

It's really heartbreaking. You see people bringing out bags and bags of their belongings that they're putting on a sidewalk. And what we're doing from the city perspective is that our sewer and solid waste and our DPW crews, they're going out and doing bulk pickups all across the city. And, you know, in different scenarios, they're going in and helping people to clear the water. Of course, that's not something that it can do for every single resident. It's on a case-by-case basis, depending on, of course, on whether the person is unable to do so themselves. If they live alone, it could be a senior, could be someone who is disabled and we're helping in that way.

The other thing that we've done is that we had a benefit concert because we recognize that a lot of people, they don't have flood insurance. one. Secondly, the insurance that they have doesn't cover all the possible scenarios. I mean, you know, with insurance companies, they're always this caveat or that caveat. And so with the kind of damage and devastation that took place across the city, we realized that there was a need, there was a gap there that needed to be filled. And so we decided to have to start a storm recovery fund, which was kicked off by a benefit concert on Sunday. That fund is still ongoing. We, we, that fund is still ongoing. We won't close it down until the 1st of August. But we had a benefit concert where we saw tremendous turnout.

We had artists who volunteered their time and their talent, and they had a free concert. It was free for anyone to attend, but also to encourage people to donate funds. Just let me step in here because we're limited time here. Pardon me, Jazz. How much money did you raise and how can Plainfield residents get this money? I know you're still raising, but how much have you raised so far? At the end of the concert, we had raised $84,290 and we have an application process. They can go online or they can come to City Hall and pick up an application and turn it in.

It's going to be on a needs basis because it will have to be a demonstrated need showing, you know, expenses paid and things like that. As you touched on this early about the intensity of the storm. What does the city of Plainfield need to do to prevent storm damage like this? again, and I ask that in this context. New Jersey State climatologist, Dr. David Robinson, says we can expect more storms with this kind of intensity, a lot of rain, and as you said, in a short amount of time. What does that mean for playing field in terms of preventing storm damage like we saw last week? Yeah, that's a very good question, Michael.

We do have some storm retention basins across town. What we saw was that we had been getting steady rainfall over a number of weeks, months, actually, and the ground was very saturated. So the storm retention basins couldn't do what they were designed to do in the most effective way. When it's saturated, there's no way for the water to go. They're going to overflow. With that being said, we do know that at least one of them requires some cleaning, and it wasn't as effective as it could have been. The cost of doing that is going to be in the area of $5 million. So we are actively looking to see how we can tap into grant funds or any other kind funding we can get to get that job done as quickly as possible. We're also looking to install a early

warning system that may not prevent the waters from coming, but at least allow our residents to, you know, maybe get to higher ground, maybe, you know, get some of their belongings out of the way. I'm afraid we'll have to leave it there for the sake of time. That's Jazz Clayton Hunt. She's the chief of staff to the mayor's office of Plainfield, New Jersey. Please say hi to the mayor for us. Thank you, Jess. We will. You're welcome. Thanks. Thanks for listening. This is NYCC now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday three times a day for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

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