The New York Post’s editorial board has endorsed Saritha Komatireddy in her bid to unseat New York Attorney General Letitia James, casting the race as a choice between a career prosecutor and an incumbent the paper describes as a career politician.
Komatireddy, 41, is a career prosecutor who has worked under administrations of both parties, handling cases involving terrorists, cartel members and cybercriminals. The Post’s editorial frames her candidacy around a pledge to use the full powers of the attorney general’s office to combat crime, fraud and corruption.
Komatireddy, a mother of two sets of twins under age 10, told The Post that crime has touched her own family. “We’ve had a member of my family assaulted in the subway, taking my kids to school. We have a family friend who had a stray bullet come through her bedroom while she was sleeping,” she said.
She argued that public safety has deteriorated since James took office. “New Yorkers don’t feel safe, they feel less safe now than when Tish James began as attorney general and the reason is simple: They are less safe now,” Komatireddy said.
Crime statistics cited in the endorsement
The editorial cites a 44% rise in felony assault in New York City since James took office in 2019, along with a 59% increase in subway felony assaults over the same period.
James has defended her record by pointing to the limits of her office. The attorney general’s role, she has said, is “focused on civil matters and not criminal matters.” The Post’s editorial dismisses that explanation, arguing that Komatireddy has identified powers available to the attorney general that James has chosen not to exercise except in pursuit of what the paper calls her ideological causes.
Spending and policy record
The editorial also criticizes James’s office for spending at least $20 million on outside lawyers for work it says staff attorneys could perform, and for directing at least $54 million in taxpayer funds to nonprofits the paper characterizes as criminal-friendly.
Over her 25 years in elected office, James has supported a range of criminal justice reforms, including decriminalization of minor offenses, the Raise the Age law, elimination of cash bail, discovery reform, the Right to Know and How Many Stops acts, the closure of Rikers Island, a ban on police chokeholds, and marijuana legalization.
James’s initial campaign for attorney general centered heavily on a pledge to pursue legal action against President Donald Trump. According to the editorial, her office sued the Trump administration 66 times in a single two-year span, with mixed results in court, including what the Post describes as a defeat in her civil suit against Trump.
The editorial also references criticism from within James’s own office. Assistant Attorney General Daniel Wiesenfeld, described as a whistleblower, has accused James of burning “significant public taxpayer dollars to target convenient public enemies.”
The Post additionally faults James for what it calls inaction on Medicaid fraud enforcement, alleging the loss of billions of dollars to fraud, including from some of her own political supporters.
The editorial concludes by describing Komatireddy as a nonpartisan candidate capable of restoring the attorney general’s office to what it calls its core mission of public order and honest government.
