A Punk-Rock Past Comes With Unwanted Baggage for a N.Y. Politician

New York Times

25-05-2025

He's a former punk rocker who still looks the part. Bald, burly, with his rolled-up sleeves revealing elaborate tattoos, Justin Brannan hardly seems the prototype for public office.
His hardcore-punk background has been a useful origin story in his political career, as he rose in the City Council to lead its powerful finance committee, and is now running for New York City comptroller.
But it also left a public trail of interviews, offhand comments and online messages containing crass, insensitive and homophobic language that Mr. Brannan has, in recent years, apologized for using.
Now, ahead of next month's Democratic primary for comptroller, a new trove of online messages has emerged from his past. The messages, most more than 20 years old, include a thread that cast the Columbine High School shooting in Littleton, Colo., on April 20, 1999 — which resulted in the deaths of 13 students and a teacher — as an opportunity to promote Indecision, his band at the time.
On a Dejanews Usenet online forum in 1999, an account under Mr. Brannan's name posted that one of the high school students tied to the Columbine shooting had worn an Indecision T-shirt. The post cited a call with an unnamed news reporter.
'Yes!!! We're famous!' the account wrote, declaring that the shooting could help the band sell records, according to a publicly accessible version of the message board, now archived on Google Groups. Mr. Brannan, who has since pushed for tougher New York State gun laws, was in his early 20s at the time of the thread.
Three days after the shooting, the account under Mr. Brannan's name directed others on the thread to circulate the rumor, which was later shown to be inaccurate. The account urged people to call WINS-AM radio in New York and NBC. 'Let them know you saw the Indecision T-shirt,' it said.
Someone responded, 'Are you really this desperate to sell records?'
'Industry baby,' the account replied, indicating that the band had already seen a small boost in sales. The message was signed 'Justin Brannan.'
Mr. Brannan, 46, said the messages did not reflect his 'record as a public servant.'
'I've fought hard and always led with love, empathy and respect,' said Mr. Brannan, who represents the Bay Ridge and Coney Island sections of Brooklyn.
'I said and did plenty of stupid stuff as a teenager that I regret now decades later as a man approaching 50,' Mr. Brannan said in a statement. 'I believe if we want real representation in government, we need to be willing to accept real people — not those who claim pristine pasts, but those who learn from their mistakes, grow and try to do better.'
On the same day that the Brannan account asked followers to spread the T-shirt rumor, Mr. Brannan apparently had misgivings, according to contemporaneous emails that he provided through a campaign spokeswoman.
In one email sent to a bandmate, Rachel Rosen, Mr. Brannan wrote that he felt 'horrible' that 'we were making jokes like idiots.'
In another email from the same day, Mr. Brannan said the rumor about the T-shirt was 'sick,' adding, 'I don't think any of us realized how bad this shooting was,' according to a copy provided by the campaign.
In an official statement, dated April 23, 1999, his band said that it was 'horrified to be briefly associated' with the shooting, and that it had 'always stood up against violence and hate.' The statement included contact information for Mr. Brannan, the band's spokesman at the time.
Ms. Rosen, the Indecision bandmate who received Mr. Brannan's emails, said he had crafted the band's statement after returning from a tour, during which access to news had been limited, and realizing that the false rumor was taking off.
In other unrelated threads now on Google Groups, the account under Mr. Brannan's name posted various messages that included insensitive or offensive language. In one instance, the account said 'Chinese people cannot drive.'
Mr. Brannan's campaign noted that he had since spoken out against anti-Asian hate crimes during the pandemic, and that he sponsored a Council resolution last year calling on Congress to condemn anti-Asian sentiment.
In past campaigns, voters have been willing to overlook Mr. Brannan's decades-old indiscretions. His interpersonal skills and unfussy persona have helped him on the trail and with Council colleagues.
The bounds of acceptable discourse for politicians have also appeared to shift, especially since Donald J. Trump won his first presidential election despite a history of making embarrassing and vulgar comments.
Mr. Brannan has some experience confronting his past use of insensitive language.
During his failed bid to become City Council speaker four years ago, Mr. Brannan was questioned about a homophobic slur he had used in a 2006 interview, while he was a member of the hardcore punk band Most Precious Blood.
He was also confronted with a 1999 letter to the editor he had written to a music magazine in which he defended a writer's use of a homophobic slur, arguing then that the word was a 'regular, accepted, tolerated slang word — for better or for worse,' The Daily News reported.
Mr. Brannan apologized.
'It doesn't matter as the context or the intent, whether you are gay or straight, it is an offensive, indefensible and hurtful term,' he said at the time. 'I apologize for any harm I may have caused decades ago. I have always been an ally to the L.G.B.T.Q. community and I always will be.'
The Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, an influential progressive group in New York that advocates L.G.B.T.Q. rights, endorsed Mr. Brannan in a Council race after that apology. But in the Democratic primary for comptroller, it has endorsed Mark Levine, the Manhattan borough president. State Senator Kevin Parker, a moderate Brooklyn Democrat, is also running for comptroller.
Kristen Pettit, a founding member of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, defended Mr. Brannan, whom she knows personally and praised for his work on gun safety.
'I think Justin's actions communicate loud and clear who he is in his adult life,' she said. 'He's focused on helping the people of the city, no matter who they are or when they got here. He is a man for others.'