| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 24, 2026 Contact: Team Saritha Email: Press@SarithaForNewYork.com |
| KOMATIREDDY: RACE FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL BEGINS TODAY This race is a clear choice for New Yorkers. The choice is between a career politician in Attorney General James who, in eight years, has overseen a 26% increase in crime, 38% increase in homelessness, and a 63% increase in drug deaths and a career federal prosecutor who will stay out of politics and return the office of Attorney General to its core function — enforcing the law and fighting crime. —– Award-Winning Former Federal Prosecutor Pledges to Make Revamped Office of Attorney General ‘Best in America’ |
| NEW YORK – “With the primaries now behind us, the race for attorney general begins in earnest,” Nominee for Attorney General Saritha Komatireddy said. “The evidence is in: Under eight years of Ms. James, New Yorkers are less safe and more vulnerable than they were before she came into office. Homelessness is up 38%, and incidents of attacks by mentally-ill homeless New Yorkers have skyrocketed. All crimes are up 26%, and drug deaths are up 63%. And to top it off, already beleaguered taxpayers have been forced to shell out billions of extra dollars on what has become a historically ineffective office under Ms. James’s tenure.” “I will return the office to its core function of enforcing the law. We will take the homeless off the street humanely and get them help, we will enforce the law to its fullest extent to reduce the revolving door of criminals, and we will resume the aggressive prosecution of fraud,” Komatireddy said. She continued: “I’m a career prosecutor, not a politician. Our Attorney General has been running for office since 2001 — the same year 9/11 inspired me to go to law school to prosecute terrorists. New Yorkers don’t simply need to accept the broken status quo of rising crime and unsafe streets. I’m ready to do this job on day 1, and I’ll spend the next four months making sure the voters of New York know that.” The AG’s budget has ballooned under Ms. James, from $263.8M in FY2019 to $413.1 million in FY2027 — an increase of $149.3 million, or approximately 57% — the Komatireddy campaign noted, as crime, fraud, and homelessness have skyrocketed. At the same time, billions of taxpayer dollars have been lost to Medicaid fraud that previous attorneys general have aggressively, and successfully, recovered. Ms. James has virtually ignored violent crime, homelessness, and Medicaid fraud, Ms. Komatireddy charged, choosing instead to advance counter-productive policies like cashless bail and pernicious investigations into New York’s law enforcement officers. Komatireddy is an award-winning prosecutor, who also served as chief of staff of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), has jailed some of the world’s most dangerous criminals, including members of ISIS, al Qaeda, and the Mexican drug cartels. Ms. Komatireddy, a mother of four, is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School and a partner at a major law firm. |
| To learn more about Saritha Komatireddy’s campaign for New York Attorney General, visit SarithaForNewYork.com. |